Nearly $1.8 trillion moves between advisors every year—some advisors are winners and some are losers in that shift.
One key to being on the winning side of the equation is to engage women in the decision making, said Mike Van Wyk, head of customer research at Capital Group, a national investment management and financial services firm.
Women make the decisions about where that money goes 60 percent of the time, and their influence is growing, Van Wyk said during a Capital Group webinar held Thursday on how advisors can capture some of those assets.
When clients go through major life events—death, divorce, marriage, the birth of a child—money is put in motion. Advisors need to put themselves in a position to receive those assets. They can do this by knowing their communities, Van Wyk said.
Not only are women gaining influence, but the diversity of the population is increasing. Advisors need to know the demographic shifts in their local communities, Van Wyk said, and a good place to start that research is with the local small business organization.
Another source of prospective clients is Gen Xers, people who are now 38 to 53 years of age. This generation feels overlooked, Van Wyk said, because they are stuck between two better-defined and larger generations of baby boomers and millennials.
Gen Xers are approaching their peak earning years, but also feel more pessimistic about retirement than the generations before and after them. They have seven times the investable assets of millennials and they need financial advice, Van Wyk added.
In one-on-one interviews with investors who have at least $2 million in investable assets, Capital Group found certain trends that can affect an advisor’s relationship with a client.
Clients keep secrets from advisors, such as hiding how they really measure their own success. If an advisor cannot find out those secrets, he or she is in danger of losing the client.
Watch body language and listen carefully to the client, Van Wyk said, and do not be afraid to ask clients why they are making certain decisions.