For a growing number of RIAs, this process can include holistic, strategic planning that can guide multiple business initiatives across the enterprise. The complexities of the marketplace will require more advisors to think strategically and craft long-term plans to capture emerging growth markets, achieve key productivity gains by investing in business operations and continue to provide the type of exceptional client service that has been the foundation of their huge success to date. Advisors who create plans that reflect where they stand today and where they wish to go can give themselves a clear and visible guide that can keep them on point to their goals.
Advisors' future success will depend on how well they navigate the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly complex world. Of course, advisors for decades have consistently proved their ability to do just that extraordinarily well-and generate meaningful success for their clients, their teams and themselves along the way.
The road ahead looks just as promising.
Jon Beatty is senior vice president of Schwab Advisor Services, a leading provider of custodial, operational and trading support for nearly 7,000 investment advisory firms.
1 New Realities in Wealth Management: Firms at a Standstill, Investors in Flux, Aite, May 012.
2 Best-Managed Firms are the top 20% of firms in the study as defined by profitability, productivity and organizational leverage.