1. Maintain lifestyle in retirement – 31.4%
2. College education funding – 19.6%
3. Protect current level of wealth – 14.6%
4. Aggressively grow wealth – 14%
5. Leave an estate for heirs – 9.8%
6. Charitable giving – 4.2%
7. Minimize income and capital gains taxes – 2.4%
8. Improve household cash flow – 1.9%
9. Better manage market risk – 1.9%

Now – how does your marketing strategy and product and service offerings match up with these results? We all know that surveys will come-up with different results, but the general lessons are all pretty consistent these days:

Especially in light of the economic difficulties that so many people have experienced over the past few years, more and more people are worried about their retirement, about funding their major obligations – such as college – and about preserving the wealth that they have attained. Preservation has for most surpassed growth. The new mantra for many has become Retirement, Retirement, Retirement.

Consistent with the above, high net worth individuals are more concerned with long-term concerns than shorter-term ones – such as minimizing taxes this year and managing market risk. That is not to say that these concepts are not important and that they should not be addressed – they should. But they should be somewhat down the line in the presentations that you give clients and prospects.

Make your clients concerns your concerns and your focus and you will be more successful in growing your business.

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!

As the financial services industry increasingly embraces social media, a natural question becomes the role of you or your company’s website vis-a-vis its overall social media strategy. The days of discussing whether or not your website is a dinosaur only in the context of how old it is and whether it serves more of a purpose than just being an electronic brochure, are long gone.

(By the way, if when you read the words “social media strategy” above and thought to yourself “what’s that?” your marketing problems probably run deeper than just the effectiveness of your website!)

If you haven’t updated your website in awhile it could very well be a dinosaur – especially if it is just an electronic brochure – and you probably need to update it, make it more interactive and make it more relevant.

If your website is up-to-date you have passed the first test. However, it still might be a dinosaur if it does not have a well-defined place in your overall marketing and social media strategy. In fact, given the interactive nature of social media, and the ability it gives you to form a community with clients, some are now even questioning whether you still need a website.

My answer is an emphatic YES. In fact, the issue is addressed quite well in the recent article Is It Time To Shut Down Your Website? There are definite advantage and disadvantages to social media – e.g, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter – and to websites. Each tool has different strengths and weaknesses, which means that those who can integrate the best of each together into a cohesive marketing and asset gathering strategy will be the most successful.

For example, and most importantly to me as the article points out, while you will be able to reach portions of your clients with each of the social media tools mentioned above, you will be able to reach all of them with your website. Might there be some duplication? Sure. But overlap is better than missing anyone. Websites are also your property and you own it – unlike social media sites where you don’t have ownership.

I am a big fan of social media. But I am also a fan of well designed and integrated websites. At the end of the day, the first thing most people usually do to find out more about you is “Google” you or go to the website listed on your business cared – use this as a springboard to link to your social media sites. It is still a red flag in terms of credibility if your answer to a prospect is that you don’t have a website. A website ads instant credibility (of course as long as it is a good one!)

So it is actually now more important than ever to make sure that your website is not a dinosaur!

It never ceases to amaze me that so many advisors are so willing to discount their fees – no questions asked – as a regular course of business. PriceMetrix recently conducted a study of advisors across North America, and the findings are based on data which includes the books of 15,000 advisors, 2.3 million investors, one million fee-based accounts and more than $850 billion in assets. A few of the findings of the study include:

• Discounted management fees are taking an average of $20,000 a year out of the pockets of financial advisors
• The top 25% of advisors charge an average fee of 2.01% while those in the bottom quartile charge an average fee of 0.81%.

I find this last statistic very interesting indeed. To those who say that competition has increased and therefore fees must come down, I would counter with the question, do you want to be in the top 25% of advisors or the bottom quartile? Yes – competition has increased. But that does not necessarily mean that price is the only way to compete.

Successful advisors typically have the fee discussion with clients up-front, at the beginning of the conversation, as they describe their value-added proposition and unique perspective on the business. If the conversation is successful, discussions about discounts and quelled even before they begin. On the other hand, if the client brings up fees it’s probably too late.

The study also validates that point that once you have begun to discount, it’s very hard to end the precedent. According to PriceMetrix, only 5% of advisors increased their prices on existing fee-based account by more than 10 basis points in the years studied (2007-2010).

Few surgeons or attorneys to lower their fees – why should you? If you are confident in your ability to add value to your clients, then the fee discussion should be easy. In fact, turn the question around and ask the client “Would you want to do business with someone that has so little confidence in their ability to add value that they automatically offer a discount? If I help you define and reach your goals, the fee charged would be more than justified, wouldn’t it?”

Take control of the fee issue – and don’t discount you own worth! After all, if you don’t know your own value, you certainly can’t expect someone else to know it.

Click here to read our newest White Paper – Create a Buzz to Grow Your Business.

The perception is that the only way to become better known is to spend a lot of money hiring a public relations firm. The good news is that there are ways that you can act as your own publicist without spending a lot of money. In fact, the best publicity is often free, and easier to get than you might think.

The White Paper talks about some of the ways that you can create your own buzz now:

• Focus on a niche or target market
• Be proactive and promote yourself
• Be accessible and newsworthy
• Be “Social Media” visible
• Be Patient

The article was featured in our second quarter Unlocking Real Value Newsletter. Click here to see the complete newsletter, which also includes an exciting new Crisis Management program we have introduced via one of our strategic partnerships.

I hope that you enjoy the article and the newsletter.