Summertime and the advisors are busy! How wealth managers make the most of their breaks

Summertime and the advisors are busy.

At least the smart and successful ones are.

The daily, weekly, and monthly grind of wealth management, like most client-facing businesses, can take a toll on its workers. All those stresses in dealing with customers, compounded by the unpredictability of the market itself, add up. That’s why the summer months are such an important time for financial advisors to take a break and recharge their physical, mental and emotional batteries.

All that said, the summer months are also a good time for advisors to dig into personal and business development to stay ahead, or sometimes catch up to the competition.

Or, as Todd Perry, advisor and partner at EP Wealth Advisors, puts it, “Summer is a great time to work on the business instead of constantly working in the business.”

Perry says the seasonal slowdown gives his team an opportunity to evaluate what’s working from a marketing perspective, follow up with leads generated earlier in the year, plan fall client events, and strengthen referral relationships. He also uses the time when most clients are taking breaks themselves to review tax-planning opportunities and organize their RMD and QCD lists so they can proactively communicate with clients before year-end.

“By using the summer months intentionally, we’re able to enter Q4 more prepared, more organized, and more proactive — which ultimately creates a better experience for clients during one of the busiest times of the year,” Perry said.

Perry adds that summer is an ideal time for junior advisors to sharpen technical skills through professional designations, continuing education, or specialized training. It’s also a valuable opportunity to seek mentorship, especially when senior advisors may have greater availability during a slower season.

“One initiative our office strongly supports is public speaking development. We used to practice weekly during the summer months, and it’s amazing how much confidence and communication skill can be built simply by presenting in front of peers on a regular basis,” Perry said.

Similarly, Valerie Johnson, wealth planning manager at Axtella, says the calm of summer provides the perfect environment to start planning and strategizing for ways to meet client needs once everybody gets back to business in the fall. 

“When you’re not rushing from meeting to meeting, you have time to plan for yourself and begin to implement your goals. Not only that, but when you’re making improvements to the way you do business or your internal processes or offerings, you are streamlining your practice to increase efficiency,” Johnson said.

When it comes to skills and technology development, Johnson warns that summer can “go by really fast” so it is best not to overcommit.

“Choose just a few topics you want to focus on, so you have the time to be intentional, not only in choosing the best tool for your practice, but also in determining how to actually implement its use in your practice,” Johnson said.

Finally, Connor Sung, director of practice management at eMoney, points out that annual goal setting and budgeting, taxes, end-of-year reviews, school schedules, and holidays often dominate the rest of the year. As a result, he says summer is a great time for advisors to step back from the constant pace of client meetings and demands and invest time strengthening themselves and the business itself. In his opinion, they can use this time to sharpen both technical skills and operational workflows. That might include learning a new area of their planning tool, refining client segmentation strategies, developing meeting workflows, or diving into AI.

“Focus on the root causes of pain in your processes or tech stack and find opportunities to align with your core values and priorities. Starting now will allow you to think about what you want to focus on enhancing, maybe while on vacation yourself, then develop and test solutions, and implement them in time for the rush of day-to-day business come fall,” Sung said.