Your advice is sound. You tell clients to focus on their goals, keep their eyes on the prize, it’s the long-term that matters. You remind them to forget the day-to-day gyrations of the market; it doesn’t much matter and they have no control over it anyway. It’s reaching their goals that matters, not investment returns.
Those same clients go to their inbox or mailbox each quarter and open that report you send them without fail.…
Staying in touch with friends, no matter how dear, is talked about more often than it’s tackled. Once convenience and opportunity finally merge, though, the hours enjoyed catching up simply fly by. The feeling can be bittersweet when the time comes to say goodbye. We realize while we may have caught up on the broad strokes of each others’ lives, there was little time for the details – the nuances that cement strong relationships to help them endure time, distance, and circumstance.…
I’m spoiled. Yes, I’m willing to admit it. You probably are, too.
When I need to buy things like groceries, stamps, socks, and memory cards for my camera, I don’t need to go to the grocery store, post office, department store, and electronics outlet. Today I have my choice of big-box stores where everything I need is under one roof.…
When I ask advisors about communicating with clients using new technology, I hear the same responses all the time: “My clients are older, they prefer the phone”, “My clients don’t use email”, or my favorite, “My clients like to have something on paper.”
These statements pretty much say the same thing: advisors assume clients are technologically averse and just aren’t interested in changing the way they communicate.…
The Dream
Being an independent advisor can be a rewarding experience. You arrive in the office in the morning to review your business metrics and check for any unresolved items needed for clients. After checking email and voicemail messages, you meet with your investment team to discuss recent economic trends, review client portfolios, and submit trades to rebalance several accounts that have exceeded their model allocations.…
Walk into an average advisor’s office today and you might see technology that reminds you of a set from a 1960′s science-fiction show – incomprehensible blinking lights and systems that don’t really seem to do anything.
It’s not because advisors are nostalgic about the 1960’s view of the future. It’s because, for the most part, their primary technology systems were either developed or purchased over a decade ago.…
