Lumiant’s response to a new study published by Bonn, Wealth Management: Building a Winning Client Experience for Women.
A report published by Simon-Kucher & Partners states that women remain an underserved client segment in wealth management, suggesting US$14 billion in additional fee revenues could have been available to financial institutions in the US and Canada in 2021 alone.
The report suggests that advisors do not know how to communicate effectively with women and are not offering the types of products that interest female investors. Lumiant believes that products aren’t the real problem, particularly as financial instruments become increasingly customizable and personalized.
The real problem, according to Lumiant, is the traditional advice experience does not effectively communicate, engage or motivate women, with almost a third of women saying their financial advisors push them out of financial conversations, according to New York Life Investments.
We need to get better at having deep and meaningful conversations with our clients to truly understand their values and what matters to them - their goals. We then need to give them an experience that helps to align their values and goals with their finances, rather than creating and selling new investment options that we think meet their needs.
That doesn’t mean creating or selling new investment options. It means better understanding their values and goals, and then choosing suitable options that meet their needs—placing life ahead of financial products and services.
And this experience shouldn’t be seen as just female-focused. It should be an experience that all your clients are entitled to, allowing them to better connect with their advisor around their life, values and finances to make informed choices for both themselves and their households.
When we give more space and power to our clients to engage with us about what truly matters, we can better help them live a life aligned with their values. After all, financial advisors are there to support, serve and advise their clients on the choices they can make, not sell them a better product.
It’s time we built the experience around what we do best - our ability to coach, guide and educate our clients and their families to help them live their best lives. This will help advice firms better engage underserved clients while increasing referrals and retention.
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