If you're like a lot of advisors, you spend a significant amount of your workday on managing your clients' investment portfolios. This makes sense, of course. Most clients are largely concerned about generating strong results from their securities portfolio, and they look to you to deliver the type of returns that are in line with their objectives.

The problem, however, is that too many advisors focus almost exclusively on their clients' investments and ignore a number of other important areas. There are several disadvantages to this approach. First, it means that you may not be giving clients the comprehensive service that helps generate greater loyalty, additional assets to manage and qualified referrals that can help you build a base of ideal clients. Second, it means that you have left your business vulnerable to client dissatisfaction during market downturns. Third, you are not providing a whole range of services that can significantly boost your revenue and income. And last, focusing on investments alone means that you are not doing all you can to bring much-needed value to your clients' entire financial lives—the true hallmark of today's top advisors.

In short, using an investment-centric business model greatly limits your ability to achieve success and do right by your clients. The good news: You can shift your focus and more effectively address the advanced concerns of affluent clients.

The Rest of the Picture

When CEG Worldwide surveyed roughly 2,100 advisors from across all channels-RIAs, independent broker-dealer representatives and wirehouse brokers-they found that these elite advisors' top clients ranked a number of non-portfolio-related issues as key concerns. Among those issues were:

* Protecting wealth. Making money is not affluent investors' only concern. They also want strategies for protecting the wealth they've earned. Nearly three-quarters of advisors say that their best clients are highly concerned about losing their wealth, while almost 40% say the same clients are worried about being sued. A significant percentage (35.8%) also say clients are concerned about having adequate medical insurance to cover what could be enormous healthcare costs down the road.

* Taking care of heirs. Top advisors report that their best clients also are looking beyond their own needs to those of future generations. Nearly half of surveyed advisors say that "ensuring their heirs are taken care of" is very important to clients. And nearly one-third say that paying for children's or grandchildren's education is a key concern of clients.

* Reducing taxes. Not surprisingly, top advisors say their clients care not just about how much they make, but also about how much they get to keep. For example, about 40% of advisors say their clients are highly concerned about mitigating capital gains taxes, income taxes and estate taxes.

* Being philanthropic. Charitable giving has become a growing issue for the affluent in recent years. Top advisors in the industry say that 37% of their clients want to make meaningful gifts to charity.

A Comprehensive Plan

All of these key concerns spell opportunities for you. If you help clients address important non-investment issues, you'll give yourself a variety of new revenue streams and differentiate yourself from the majority of advisors who never broach these topics with their clients.

Take estate planning concerns. We know from the research that clients are concerned about estate taxes. But we also know that the majority of estate plans for the affluent haven't been updated in more than five years—during which time the estate tax landscape has changed significantly.

The best way to capitalize on opportunities like these is to provide clients with an advanced plan that spells out various steps you recommend they take to address their full range of financial concerns.

This advanced plan should deal with four key areas of the client's financial life beyond his or her investments:

* Wealth enhancement produces returns consistent with the client's level of risk tolerance and minimizes the tax impact on those returns.

* Wealth transfer finds and facilitates the most tax-efficient ways to pass assets to succeeding generations in a manner that meets the client's wishes.

* Wealth protection protects the client's wealth against potential creditors, litigants, ex-spouses and children's spouses, as well as protects the client against catastrophic loss.

* Charitable gifting fulfills the client's philanthropic goals and can often support efforts in each of the other three areas.

Note how an advanced plan directly relates to the major client concerns identified by elite advisors in CEG Worldwide's research. Wealth protection, for example, directly addresses affluent investors' overriding fear of losing wealth (and of being sued). Strategies might involve liability insurance and various forms of ownership and agreements. Wealth transfer ensures that heirs are taken care of in tax-advantaged ways. Tactics could involve using credit shelters as well as various forms of trusts. And charitable gifting solutions also address clients' desire to leave a philanthropic legacy (using trusts and other methods).