What keeps you up at night? What are you worried about? How do your concerns match up to other professionals in your industry?
To answer these questions, we surveyed 611 financial advisors who met the following criteria:
- Investment management is their core and primary offering.
- They have five or more years continuous experience as a financial advisor.
We segmented the sample of financial advisors based on average annual income over the last 24 months. Almost 60 percent of the financial advisors had incomes below $250,000. About a third had incomes between $250,000 and $500,000. The remaining 10 percent had incomes greater than $500,000.
What’s clear is that among financial advisors there are some pervasive concerns (Exhibit 1). Nine out of 10 financial advisors are very or extremely concerned about sourcing new wealthy clients. This is relatively more common among those financial advisors with greater incomes.
About 85 percent of financial advisors are concerned about the likelihood of increased competition. This concern is more pervasive among those financial advisors earning less. Competition is coming from their peers as well as other types of professionals moving into their fields.
About three-quarters of the financial advisors are very or extremely concerned about obtaining the resources they need to be successful. This is more pervasive among financial advisors earning between $250,000 and $500,000 annually.
About three out of five financial advisors are worried about fee pressure. Again, this concern is more prevalent among those financial advisors earning less.
So, how do you compare to the financial advisors in the survey? Moreover, what are you doing to negate your concerns? Keep in mind that this blog is all about building profitable relationships with more and wealthier clients—the dominant concern among financial advisors and many other types of professionals.