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Despite client loyalty, a disconnect exists between investors and their advisors, says a survey.
An Environics survey for fintech company Systelos says only 6% of surveyed Canadians said they weren’t loyal to their advisor, and only 12% had fired an advisor.
But despite this loyalty, only 47% of respondents said they had recommended their advisor to a family member.
Read: Public complaints about financial planning triple in 2017: FPSC
Here are other survey findings:
- Advisors still use sample financial plans, proposals or portfolios of past performance to gain clients. Only 18% of investors said their advisor “allowed them to experience how they worked before they hired them.” This approach to onboarding clients involves “a lot of paper, figures, and graphs, but investors don’t really get a sense of how an engagement will be with their advisor until after they move forward,” said Jad Chehlawi, founder of Systelos, in a release.
- The majority of financial advisors (74%) aren’t engaging their clients in all aspects of their financial lives, specifically:
- Only 19% of those polled said they get tax planning help from their advisors.
- Only 16% of respondents said they get insurance advice from their financial advisors.
- Only 10% of investors said their advisors assist them with wills and other legal documents.
- 65% of respondents want to share their decision making with their advisor, but the majority (77%) of investors can’t track their advisor’s work in real time.
Rethink how advisors create value
Based on the survey findings, Chehlawi argues advisors need to revisit how and when they create value. He says advisors should be evaluated on the following markers:
- A deeper discovery process to help navigate a client’s complex financial situations;
- Real-time access to your advisor and to curated financial strategies through digital tools; and
- A seamless connectivity to other financial experts to orchestrate all the moving parts of the client’s financial life.
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