Wealthy, middle-aged clients are feeling increasingly insecure, and it's adversely impacting the way they view their advisors, according to a Toronto-based consultant.
That means financial advisor need to hone in on their needs, she said.
“They’re starkly different from every other age segment,” said Julie Littlechild, founder and CEO of Absolute Engagement, an advisor-client consulting firm.
In April, Absolute Engagement, which focuses on using client data to drive firm agility and growth, conducted its latest survey of 1,000 clients who currently work with financial advisors and who have at least $500,000 in investible assets.
The survey, which has been ongoing since 2008, took the temperature of how these clients feel about 65 aspects of their relationship with their advisors.
“Our goal is to really understand what clients need, want and expect,” Littlechild said at the Investments & Wealth Institute’s ACE Academy 2022 conference in Nashville, Tenn., last month.
On a broad level, the survey yielded results that shouldn't be shocking to advisors: Clients want to know their advisors are trustworthy, knowledgeable, ethical and can handle their account with few errors.
“What is fundamentally most important to your clients when they talk about their relationship with you hasn’t changed,” Littlechild said.
“But the context for the advice that you provide has changed,” she said. “We’re actually in this perfect storm right now where the expectations and needs of clients are being impacted to some extent still by Covid, or their experience of it, by global and domestic uncertainty, and at the same time by demographic shifts. All of these things are impacting what your clients expect from you and need from you.”
The highest level of change is being seen in the 45 to 54 demographic, Littlechild said, noting that these are prospective clients that advisors typically seek.