[Maybe the most important and interesting area of financial services business innovation we cover is in the evolving nature of an advisor’s client and community engagement strategies. It is here where advisors are redefining their roles, re-assessing capabilities, building new skill sets, re-jiggering their business models and fully exploring who they truly are and what they could represent for their clients and for their communities. The realization, for some advisors, is that the whole issue of client engagement can go so much deeper than the current industry standard and mandate of “Know Your Customer” and it could become an even more meaningful, visceral, personal experience than just providing investment product access, portfolio management and mathematical returns.
Where are these questions leading modern advisors: What truly is a financial advisor? How engaging, encompassing, essential can the business model and, especially, the advisor delivering that model be? A key direction seen by those probing these questions is to strategically expand their traditional service offering to be more “holistic”. This entails delving into the deeply personal and offering a more comprehensive mix of services that goes into the lifestyle, psychological, health and overall well-being of the client. This requires asking questions we previously didn’t dare to ask, and building an ongoing dialogue charting the goals, aspirations and dreams of the client as they unfold. The deeper questions being asked, and experiments being developed, will truly force the evolution and a much needed beneficial public perception of the profession.
One person who thoroughly saw this need for deeper connection and has been fully committed (for decades) in redefining the advisor-client relationship is financial advisor Ray Loewe. At 77 years young, Ray recently sold his practice to launch his newest evolution of the advisory model—the Luckiest Guy in the World. The Institute for Innovation Development actively sought out Ray, who is also an Institute member, for this interview to better understand his unique and innovative approach to being a financial advisor and map out for us some of the practical steps he took in challenging traditional industry thinking and business models.]
Bill Hortz: What has been your vision for the financial advisor role? What is their true SuperPower?
Ray Loewe: Financial advisors’ first job is to make sure that their clients have their financial affairs in order. That means appropriate insurance coverage, good credit, liquid investments for emergencies, and savings/investments for the future, e.g., college, retirement, major purchases. Once these are addressed in a way that matches the client’s needs and wants, more time can be spent on the more abstract things like their wishes. That said, the good financial advisor understands what a client truly wants and becomes a confidant. This is where the real value comes.
Hortz: Tell us about your new venture and how that is a manifestation and vehicle for you to drive more engaged advisor-client relationships?
Loewe: As I approached my own “retirement,” a term I use cautiously, I began to realize that I had done a good job of getting my clients to a place where they had the resources to live a comfortable life. But I also realized that many of them didn’t really have any idea about what they wanted to do in their golden years. They have been so focused on work and saving for much of their working life, they hadn’t looked ahead. And many weren’t moving ahead. Why were clients with lots of money, who claimed they didn’t want to work anymore, still working?
I added many conversations about that to our client meetings in an effort to help them recognize the need for a new plan. A new plan that takes into account having fun, exploring new things, staying engaged, taking care of their health, and having a continually expanding set of activities. Many people think they have to “slow down” during their senior years…when really it can be a time for forging ahead.
As you can tell from the name of my company, I designed my new firm and offering to address those crucial missing retirement elements with the name the luckiest guy in the world being a symbolic target and rallying point. The purposeful design is to be a vehicle for teaching how to retire, make the right decisions at this stage of life, manage their money and other resources to support a more dynamic ongoing lifestyle, and most importantly, walking them through a better retirement thought process that can confidently guide them throughout the rest of their lives. The response from clients has been phenomenal and the most personally rewarding experience I have ever had in my professional life!
Hortz: What was the catalyst point for your thinking? What made you want to re-focus on ”designing” your business approach and model it in non-traditional ways?