Conner said that opportunities to connect with clients remotely are replacing face-to-face meetings.
“You’re seeing a tip-over in the industry, it’s becoming less about in-person interactions,” Conner said. “After a webinar, our clients tell us they don’t want to come into the office anymore if this will suffice. The balance is that you don’t want to lose the relationship with the client.”
Edelman agreed, arguing that advisors should actually request fewer face-to-face meetings with clients.
“Why do quarterly meetings at all? All you’re doing is forcing the client to take half a day out of work to be told about what happened in the past 90 days when we’re supposed to be trying to remind them that investing is about the rest of their life,” Edelman said. “We don’t do quarterly meetings, we do annual meetings. Chasing them into the audience is a burden on the client, not you. We Skype wherever and whenever we can, defaulting to the telephone. One thing we don’t do is engage in e-mail conversations … you can’t build a relationship in e-mail.”
Conner said having a relationship in place — even if it’s a long-distance one supported by video chats and phone conferences — is key to seeing clients through volatile markets.
“We’re spending a ton of time pounding home backup communication and educating them on the markets,” Conner said. “We’re doing a lot of group calls. We tell clients ‘the markets are a little turbulent right now, would you like to call in?’ The group format works because we’ve found that a lot of clients aren’t the question-asking types, but they seem to get the most out of it because they like hearing other people’s questions.”
Technology is the key to perpetuating growth, according to Edelman, but not in the way most RIAs are currently using it.
“Pay more attention to exponential technologies like AI, robotics and big data, not the simple innovations coming from the latest version of whatever software we’re using for rebalance and client management,” Edelman said. “I’m talking about the massive changes that will impact every aspect of our lives and the planet altogether; these are going to have profound changes on society and therefore big implications for our practices.”