Are You Really Delivering “Comprehensive Wealth Management”?
The Reality Behind "Comprehensive" Wealth Management
According to a Herbes & Company 2023 Study, while 77% of firms claim to offer "comprehensive" wealth management services, only 31% truly provide a full suite of services—including investment management, tax planning, estate planning, and more.
At Greene Consulting, we consistently observe this gap as many firms overstate their service scope while primarily focusing on investment management, leaving other critical components of wealth planning inconsistent or underdeveloped.
What IS “Comprehensive” Wealth Management?
Also often positioned as “we lead with goals-based planning,” or “Holistic Wealth Management,” the delivery of true comprehensive wealth management encompasses a full spectrum of services, including:
Financial Planning
Investment Management
Wealth Transfer Planning
Tax Planning
Insurance Planning
Business Succession Planning
Philanthropic Planning
Behavioral Coaching & Financial Education
Why Do Firms Struggle to Deliver on this Promise?
Despite best intentions, many firms fall short due to five key challenges:
For many, gathering assets is the primary driver of revenue. As a result, they emphasize investment management, assuming that pitching their investment philosophy and process is the best client attraction strategy (an assumption we challenge). Other services, which don’t appear to generate immediate revenue, then typically become an afterthought.
(NOTE: We’ve helped firms generate even more revenue by focusing on these additional services, which when positioned effectively, will differentiate you from competitors who merely pitch investment capabilities.)
Many firms today have made an organizational commitment to full, comprehensive financial planning. But the time-consuming nature of full-scale planning costs advisors a considerable amount of productivity time, thereby discouraging them from fully adopting it.
(NOTE: There is a way to scale the planning process to avoid this bottleneck. Click here to learn more.)
It’s a rare advisor who’s equipped to confidently discuss all aspects of wealth management at the level of expertise needed to create client interest and engagement. When a client asks about tax strategies or estate planning for example, advisors are often compelled to prematurely defer to an internal expert, thereby extending the sales process and potentially diminishing client interest and engagement, which leads to …
Delivering such a broad scope of services is time/resource-intensive and costly. As a result, many firms are forced to limit comprehensive wealth management to only their highest-net-worth prospects and clients.
If a firm’s compensation structure rewards advisors for selling proprietary products or commission-based investments, there’s little incentive to expand into broader wealth management services.
What Can You Do?
If your firm struggles with these challenges, you have two strategic options:
Rather than overpromising, consider refining your focus. Ask yourself:
- Does offering every aspect of comprehensive wealth management make sense for your firm?
- Would a more strategic balance between services and advisor productivity be more effective?
- Should we prioritize and excel in a few high-impact services?
If so, focus on marketing and delivering the most valuable services within your capacity.
Delivering Comprehensive Wealth Management CAN be accomplished and scaled throughout your practice or firm. We’ve helped clients accomplish this via three key steps:
A tightly structured and intentional Sales Process can significantly enhance your ability to consistently deliver on your wealth management promise. Structured well, this leads to:
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Assurance that you more deeply understand your prospects, thereby isolating the most important issues they need to address
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Enhanced efficiency in your sales process (e.g. shorter “time-to-close”)
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When and why to engage in comprehensive financial planning process
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The right time to engage topical experts into the process
Your advisors must be able to confidently discuss all areas of wealth management. The key is providing them with a simple, repeatable conversation framework—without extensive training—that equips you to:
- Engage prospects and clients in more consequential, thought-provoking conversations
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Demonstrate immediate credibility and expertise
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More effectively and efficiently utilize topical experts
Most firms lack the ability to clearly convey to clients what “comprehensive wealth management” entails AND track how they’ve done – or what yet needs to be done – in the delivery of it to their clients. What’s often missing is a clear framework and process that equips advisors, teams, and firms to:
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Guide clients through the full scope of your wealth management services
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Track and measure your progress in the delivery of those services
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Drive agendas for ongoing client meetings
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Identify opportunities for client expansion into other services and strengthening client loyalty
Call to Action
If you claim to offer "comprehensive" wealth management but still primarily rely on your investment management capabilities, it’s time to rethink your approach. The key is alignment between what you promise and what you deliver.
At Greene Consulting, we empower wealth management teams and firms with a scalable framework to truly deliver on the promise of Comprehensive Wealth Management. Through our experience, we’ve found that Step 3 (the Wealth Management Protocol) plays a pivotal role in ensuring greater consistency, efficiency and intentionality in this process.
To support this effort, we developed EngageWell™, an innovative online tool designed to help Wealth Advisors collaborate with clients in a deep, meaningful analysis of their current wealth strategy, and provide complete clarity as to the issues they need to address. With EngageWell™, Advisors can deliver a full wealth management experience in just one meeting, while giving your firm the ability to easily capture and track client progress toward their goals. The result? A more personalized, proactive and efficient approach to delivering a “Comprehensive Wealth Management Experience” that identifies revenue opportunities and builds client loyalty.
If you would like a brief 30-minute demonstration of EngageWellTM, schedule a demo below.
Rick Swygman
