Views From The Experts
Michael Finke, PH.D., CFP®
Dean and Chief Academic Officer
The American College of Financial Services
The Road To Success
A decade ago, a family planning a summer road trip headed to the local auto club to get a customized map to help them get to their destination. Today, paper maps are obsolete. Technology not only creates more up-to-date directions, it can help drivers navigate traffic and make course corrections along the way.
Interestingly, the demand for travel agents has held steady in recent years despite advances in technology. Why? Because a vacation is more than just a map. The agent gets to know the traveler, they suggest ranges of options and help the customer weigh pros and cons of vacation destinations, and provide tips on money-saving strategies that help clients get the most out of their scarce vacation resources.
Of course, travel agents who just booked tickets are long gone. The ones who invested in knowledge, mastered the technology, and who made a point of understanding their clients and providing informed recommendations are just as valuable today as they were a decade ago.
Creating an efficient personal investment portfolio is becoming a commodity. Technology allows us to put together a low-cost mix of assets, properly rebalanced and tax-loss harvested. Advisors whose sole source of value was building portfolios will be replaced by robos. Advisors will be forced to focus on the real value they provide to clients — helping them get the most out of life by understanding their financial goals and developing a plan to meet them.
Like the travel agent, an informed advisor makes an investment in knowledge that allows them to develop a goal-based investing plan. They take the time to understand their client’s unique financial situation, their values, their family. They explain complex investment concepts within the context of a client’s goals. And they help build a plan that leverages technology to meet these goals over time.
The American College of Financial Services was founded in 1927 and is the nation’s largest nonprofit educational institution devoted to financial services. Holding the highest level of academic accreditation, The College has educated one in five financial advisors across the United States. In 2017, The College will launch the new Wealth Management Certified Professional (WMCP™) designation. WMCP™ is an advanced specialization in personal wealth and investment management unlike anything else available on the market. Delivered through state-of-the-art digital coursework designed to efficiently move students through course material, the program is a deep-dive into the most practical strategies for managing client wealth today. For more information, visit www.TheAmericanCollege.edu/WMCP.