The corporate way of communicating has been so bad for so long, many of us have stopped caring altogether. It's a natural reaction: If something is annoying and unavoidable, ignore it. Trouble is that, in the brokerage industry, corporate are...
When registered reps set about advising clients on where to put their money, they usually focus on risk tolerance. A conservative-minded client, for instance, might get a portfolio heavily laden with fixed-income products; a more aggressive client...
The good news for high-net-worth hunters: A large subset of affluent clients self-directed investors tend to be nonplussed by their current advisory relationship. The bad news: Inertia has a strong pull on this group. According to a recent report...
Small-business owners are typically a self-reliant lot, and this fact cuts two ways for financial advisors who would serve them. On the positive side, the advisor who gains access to a small-business owner has reached the decision maker, the...
Wealthy clients weigh a lot of factors when choosing a financial advisor cost of services is one of them, but it is far from the most important. Indeed, according to our research, low-cost provider considerations are rarely a decisive part of a...
Much has been written in this space about how to attract, service and retain affluent clients, but there has been precious little about what actions to avoid. Drawing from my firm's research, here are 10 transgressions virtually guaranteed to...
Financial advisors who fancy themselves wealth managers are having trouble walking the talk. This is the most significant finding of our recent research into the business of wealth management. In past columns, we've argued that adopting a wealth...
Creating a constructive outlook for the coming year. William Blake once wrote, If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. At the risk of trivializing his statement, Blake's wisdom means something to...
The coming year will bring forth unprecedented opportunities to attract wealthy clients. In 2005, an estimated 17.4 million U.S. households will have annual incomes exceeding $100,000. Further, the number of millionaire households, which jumped...