Improving the advisor-client connection is the best way to drive growth during challenging economic times. This was the message of a webinar called “Is Your Advisory Business Recession-Proof?” from Practifi, a Chicago-based practice-management outfit, in partnership with Quik!, a forms-automation software service provider, and Bento Engine, a fintech solutions company.
“Anxiety levels are pretty high right now, and that can have a big impact on how the advisor is working with their client,” said Paige Johnson, Practifi’s director of strategic partnerships and alliances, referring to the impending recession. “There is a dynamic that is certainly impacted by that tension.”
It’s hard to talk to clients, she said, when “things don’t look so great.”
But the right tools can make those potentially uncomfortable conversation easier. Advisor-client communication is key, she stressed, calling it “the hub of your wealth management business … your control center.”
Advisors who have a Practifi account already have a significant customer relationship management (CRM) tool, she said, but adding Bento Engine and Quik! can take the client information that’s already in the Practifi account and channel it into more meaningful engagement. These additional solutions help “enable the flow of financial information,” she said.
Johnson then introduced some statistics.
Going back nearly a century, she said, the average bear market lasted just 289 days while the average bull market lasted 991 days. The average decline during those bear markets was 36%, and the average gain during the bull markets was 114%. In all, there have been 22 bear markets and 24 bull markets over the past 92 years, she said. To put it another way, she said, less than 21% of those years were down markets; 70% of the time the market was actually up (it was flat 9% of the time).
“So markets are generally positive most of the time,” she noted.
Johnson said that’s clients need to hear that message. Bear markets are rough and may seem like they go on forever, but history does not bear that out.
Another disconnect in the advisor-client relationship, she said, was revealed in a recent Cerulli survey: 25% of clients surveyed had more than one advisor, but 73% of advisors surveyed believed they were their clients’ main advisor. They were wrong. Only 34% of the clients with multiple advisors considered one advisor to be their primary advisor.