Do you REALLY know what high new worth clients wants from their advisors? Are your services and strategy – whether you’re an advisor, RIA, sponsor firm or investment manager – aligned with what people REALLY want? Investment News recently printed the results of a Cerulli Associates/Phoenix Marketing International study which ranked the top nine reasons why high net worth clients use advisors.
(Full disclosure – the article did not detail how many people were surveyed, what their average investible assets were or what the definition of high net worth individuals was; but given that these guys are well known and respected in the industry, I’m going to assume that this was a fair sampling.)
In any case, the results should make you sit back and ask yourself the questions – Given my services, am I targeting the right audience? If not, what should I change and how should I change it? Do I change my target audience? Do I adjust/fine tune the services that I offer? A little of both?
Here are the top nine answers – I’m going to present them today in no particular order and provide the answers next week – take some time to think about the answers and rank them – also, think about the relative importance of each. Here’s an interesting point- the top answer was selected by 31.4% of respondents, while the second most popular answer was selected by 19.6% of respondents – quite a difference.
Here you go – the top nine answers – have fun sorting them out! Remember – today they are in no particular order.
- Protect current level of wealth
- Leave an estate for heirs
- Better manage market risk
- Minimize income and capital gains taxes
- Maintain lifestyle in retirement
- Charitable giving
- College education funding
- Aggressively grow wealth
- Improve household cash flow
Have a great weekend!