With the retreat of traditional pension plans, retirees are likely going to be at a loss in knowing what to do when it comes time to accumulate and then withdraw assets.

That confusion is likely going to be an opportunity for financial advisors, says LPL’s Aneri Jambusaria, and that’s one reason she’s bullish on the continued growth of financial advice. 

Jambusaria, LPL’s executive vice president of corporate strategy, spoke during the company’s virtual Focus Conference last week. In a session called “The Future of Advice,” she said financial planning will increasingly take into account multiple generations, sources of income and new family structures, all of which are creating a high level of complexity for the average American struggling to make sense of them.

And she noted that investors are ready to pay for that advice to simplify their lives—in fact, those willing to pay are at an all-time high at 51%. In addition, she said that baby boomers, who are already heavy advice consumers, will continue on that path because of their projected life spans, which will last 10 to 15 years longer than the previous generation’s. They will hold half the U.S. investable assets by 2030, and the growth of their wealth will drive much of the expected growth in the advice industry, Jambusaria said.

She noted that U.S. wealth and investable assets overall are expected to grow from $30 trillion to $50 trillion. And much of that growth will be handled in the financial advisory space, which is expected to grow from $24 trillion to $34 trillion.

Such tailwinds, she said, will boost confidence in the industry and create opportunities for advisors.

Advisors should be doing three things to capitalize on these tailwinds, Jambusaria said. First, they should be finding ways to use digital to enhance the client experience. This she refers to as “digital delight.”

“We are already seeing how consumers’ interactions with companies like Amazon and Zoom are impacting their expectations for retail financial services,” she said. “In the advice industry, we have seen the emergence of what we call institutional advice models, which are digital-led experiences, some of which offer human advisors at touch points, typically at a lower cost.”

This institutional model—when the consumer’s relationship is with a company such as Charles Schwab or SoFi rather than a human advisor—could expand to roughly a quarter of the financial advice industry in 10 years, she said, a trend that could be hastened by an outside technology company like Google entering the space.

She said consumers want a digital experience that creates additional value—something that will allow convenience, personalization and a sense of client empowerment and business transparency.

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