Written by: Souki Fournier
Are your clients cheating on you? Does the phrase “He’s just not that into you” remind you of something? Maybe a popular advice book about relationship struggles and how to accurately interpret signals your love interest is giving you? Most importantly, what does all that have to do with financial planning?
Well, knowing that 93.6% of your work as a financial adviser revolves around the behavioral management of your clients, I would say quite a bit.
How many financial advisors would you say your investors are working with at a time? Do you believe that you are the only advisor your investors have hired, or could it be that they have at least 2 or 3 more firms they are working with?
The truth is, different investors are looking for different things. Some are seeking a self-service firm while others are more inclined to hire a full-service financial advisor. But what happens when one of your investors is looking for a balance between the two?
The main reason why your clients would look into diversifying their financial service providers is their wish to transition into a more tech-powered platform that provides them with online capabilities and potentially different advice perspectives. That is solely driven by certain behavioral styles, not all your clients will be inclined to do so.
What you need to consider here, if some of your investors are indeed interested in diversifying their financial service providers, is whether or not you are well equipped to address it and adapt.
You might think that this is an impossible notion. After all you are doing all the right things: delivering solid performance numbers, anticipating market changes, conducting engaging annual reviews. Why would they look for advice elsewhere?
Enter personality traits and behavioral biases. Financial Behavioral Biases are deep-rooted patterns of investor behaviors which, if not managed, can cause your client to make irrational decisions on a regular basis. Your role as their financial advisor is to coach them to manage these behaviors but to also be able to recognize and anticipate their behavioral biases.
With market dips, you may be feeling the opportunity to buy some bargains and assume that most of your clients trust you to do the right thing. But getting them a value doesn’t mean they are feeling good about the volatility. You assumed you trained them to look at the long term so all is right with the world.
However, your client might be wondering why you didn’t pick up the phone and give them a quick call of reassurance. And so, over time, this behavior leads the client to the feeling “you are just not that into them.”
That might be why your investors could be cheating on you. They are hedging their bets and seeing which relationship is worth keeping for the long term.
No advisor wants to admit they may be lacking in relationship skills. But why leave it to chance? Now is the time to adopt a system of objective behavioral intelligence so you can keep your clients in a long-term committed relationship with you.
With that being said, one of our most effective tools that bridges the gap of understanding between you and your client behavior, is our community builder. Powered by Natural Behavior, Financial DNA pinpoints virtually every human habit: the way investors and financial advisors communicate, invest, work, and live. Start a free trial today, and find out which unique style you match with.
Related: How Advisors Can Keep “Susceptible” Clients Engaged for Life