For 2015 and 2016 we summed the responses for each year for each initiative to better compare year-to-year changes and we note some interesting differences in this year’s survey. While profit growth via higher AUM and improvement in marketing and business development are the most popular responses in both years, the percentage of advisors indicating them as one of their top 3 initiatives declined slightly in 2016. The former declined by seven percentage points to 69% and the latter by five points to 60%. The largest year-to-year changes occur in the next two most popular initiatives. Forty-five percent of respondents indicate improvement in client satisfaction as one of their top-three initiatives, a material increase over 37% last year. Also, at 35% this year compared to 24% last year, an even larger increase is observed in the percentage of advisors indicating improvement in strategic business planning. The year-to-year changes appear to reflect RIAs adopting a more granular approach growing and managing their practices.
Next Part 3 of 9: Services Offered by Advisors in 2016