4. Lead. Really.
Once a firm has seized on a category it wants to succeed in and the technology it wants to use, everyone needs to come to the management table agreeing on transparency and the commitment to success. Management must be fully engaged. It’s not enough to buy a piece of software for someone else to use. Managers should be visible and take the time to learn the software themselves, keeping track of any issues with new tech that pop up. Here’s a quick test: If you cannot comfortably sit in a new user group and understand the feedback, you are not engaged enough. Some of the most effective process solutions I’ve ever witnessed came by subjecting senior managers to the bumpy experience of using new technology and watching them remove the roadblocks.
5. Recognize a New Role, And Go Old School
I saved the best for last: Here’s where adoption really lives.
There is a professional version of the old chicken and the egg dilemma. Having a great kitchen knife doesn’t make you a chef, yet a great kitchen knife in the hands of a skilled chef can create works of culinary art. Ditto for golf clubs, microscopes and financial planning software.
Tools of any kind will achieve their greatest value in the hands of a trained pro. Tools on their own are just tools, orphans in search of parents.
In order to provide a meaningful and sustainable professional service, our first task is to support those professional pioneers who will lead. The tools will make sense in their hands.
We have seen this movie before. Remember the history of managed accounts. When they were first given to commission-driven stockbrokers, they were sold like other products—touted for recent performance and dumped when the numbers dipped.
But the professional development of managed account consultants later on turned the product into a service, and that paved the way for wealth management. A similar arc drove financial planning. It started with the role of a financial planner, and that led to the professional designation of the CFP.
Both managed accounts and financial planning grew in response to consumer demand for better outcomes. The professionals who saw those opportunities had the natural savvy, long-term perspective and empathy for the client condition. They took on new roles and pulled in the supportive tools as a natural evolution of their business. They did not get a set of golf clubs for Christmas and then set out for the links to try their hand at a new sport.
Today the demand is clear for advisors dedicated to supporting clients in their “next chapter.” (Don’t call it “retirement” because most people don’t think of it that way.) Clients are concerned about their health, about financing healthcare and about protecting their income and liquidity. Financial planning is now about funding their life, not saving for a far off bogey called “retirement.” They need help right now from professionals dedicated to helping them succeed.
So “adoption” is first a commitment to professional development. Anything short of that commitment is just a hope that some fintech magic wands will transform clients into winners and advisors into heroes. We know better. See you at the Old School.
Steve Gresham is on a mission to improve “retirement.” He leads an industry initiative, Next Chapter, and is CEO of consulting firm the Execution Project LLC. He is also senior educational advisor to the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Formerly head of Fidelity’s Private Client Group, he is the author of five books about wealth management, including The New Advisor for Life.