The Scenario There’s an old story about the future of air travel; the pilot’s job is fully computer-controlled from before takeoff to after landing yet, as the story goes, every flight has a human pilot and a dog in the cockpit. The dog’s job? Bite the pilot if they touch any of the controls. Here’s…

The Scenario Bear markets and sell-offs evoke strong emotional responses that can lead clients to investment decision errors. Yet, tragically, clients may be unaware that their response is emotionally driven, not logic-driven. As a result, in extreme cases, a client’s portfolio can take years to recover from investment decision errors. Challenge for Financial Advisors How…

Schedule a Call In our last few blogs we’ve been highly focused on the topic of EQ.  The reason for that is because we are clearly recognizing that in today’s world of wealth management, EQ skills are proving to be the key differentiator that separates the best advisors from the rest. In our February blog,…

Does EQ really matter? And what IS EQ? Is it simply about having good “people skills”? Or is it more than that? And is it worth working on and perfecting these skills? Our firm recently concluded our first Forum, collaborating with 16 advisors from various firms across the industry to help them further develop and…

The Intangibles A few weeks ago the leader of a successful RIA we work with called me about our last blog, What Makes a GREAT Advisor.  He said he completely agreed with the claim we made that if the skills, disciplines and practices addressed in that blog are mastered, you’re sure to have a highly…

In July we posted a blog titled “Re-Imagining the Wealth Management Experience: Advisor2.0.”  In this blog we described the fact that the experience required to be competitive in today’s wealth management landscape has evolved, requiring more breadth, depth and skill of advisors.  Interestingly, this was one of the most popular blogs we have ever posted,…

How will you differentiate and drive growth in the modern era of wealth management? I will start out here by stating the obvious – the wealth management industry is changing, and changing at break-neck speed. But what is not so obvious is that the majority of advisors we see out there continue to prospect, serve…

The Challenge Social Security benefits are key to most Americans’ quality of life during retirement. Yet, an alarming number of clients approaching retirement do not have a basic understanding of Social Security benefits. Twelve fundamental questions were posed to 1,5001 pre-retirees to gauge their Social Security knowledge. Take the same true/false survey quiz below to…

Prospect and Client Engagement Effectiveness “Planning is not a thing; it is the way we approach advising our clients.” “Planning is any meaningful conversation that helps a client connect their priorities to their likely outcomes.” “The first step to engage prospects and clients is to introduce it as a way for them to become more involved in the process.”…

Overcoming the Adoption Challenge Advisor adoption remains the single most significant challenge facing firms who are focused on the integration of planning into their offering model. Two previous blogs – The Adoption Challenge in Financial Planning and Changing the Planning Paradigm – The Key to Overcoming the Advisor (and Client) Adoption Challenge – discussed some key strategies…