There’s a New “P” Word in Town
Ask almost anyone with a financial advisor about how that advisor is doing for them and the answer is most often related to the markets, and most often includes the word, “Performance”. “We beat the market” or “We got into Tesla at the right time – and out at the right time”. Probe a little more to find out how the advisor achieved that performance and you get less information.
Likewise, ask almost any financial advisor about how they are doing for clients and the answer is also most often related to the markets. “We made some good calls…and managed to steer clear of …..”. And they can then wax poetic about how they achieved that Performance with a combination of People, Philosophy and Process. That’s a lot of Ps.
But now shake up the conversation and ask those clients to describe in ONE WORD what they most want from their retirement plan – chosen from among the P words we now have in play – with one addition:
I’m betting “Protection” will win among retiring clients – or finish a very strong second. I’m also pretty sure that if the same question is asked of many financial advisors, the answer would be “Performance”.
Not Just Semantics
There is nothing like “market volatility” to change the narrative. Ask clients now about the Performance of their advisor and you’ll get more eye rolls than smiles. Ask advisors about how they are doing and you’ll get more guttural response and a bunch of explanations.?
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A really tired saying from years ago captures the mood. “We sell investment management when the markets are going up and wealth management when the markets are going down.” Meant to be jovial, that shift in priorities is real when you are looking at the finite timeline of retirement. And that’s where most of our clients are right now.?
As an industry we talk a lot about being laser focused on the clients. I can’t think of a simpler way to confirm we are on the same page than by using this simple quiz. Alliance for Lifetime Income colleague, Jason Bush of Macquarie and I were pondering this idea at a recent event.?
Give it a try. At minimum, you will start a better conversation than the one you might have had about the future of the markets. And who knows, you might start a trend in conversation that is actually already happening in real life…
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