Chip Roame, managing principal of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, made a bold prediction today at Tiburon’s 22nd annual CEO Summit in New York: The self-serve channel is booming. Roame predicts that in 10 years, the number of discount brokerage branches and the number of bank branches will reverse themselves.
He expects bank branches to virtually disappear, and they’ll be replaced by small kiosk-type discount branches. Why? “Because where you need help and advice in person more is investment advice. It’s not in banking anymore,” Roame said.
Roame gave his keynote industry address this morning at the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park. During the presentation, he said the financial services industry is stumbling all over itself at a time when consumers are losing money.
And clients are more skeptical of the financial services industry, post-2008, Roame said. For example, three-fourths of consumers think Bernie Madoff behavior is normal. “That’s frightening.”
At the same time, since the market meltdown clients have become more sophisticated and want to be more involved. This means they’re more inclined to manage their investments themselves, Roame said.
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(Read more from Staff Writer, Diana Britton on her blog, Yield of Dreams.)