Profile of the modern adviser
August 3, 2016 12:36 PM
How advisers work and how they communicate.
Corporate Insight and Intuition conducted a study to gain insight on financial advisers: How they work, how they communicate and what types of business partners they prefer.
As one example, under the category of what their favorite fund issuers do well, responses such as "well-designed, content-rich websites," and "help solve problems," were on the bottom half of the list. An answer that ranked much higher, at second place, was a very traditional sounding "good customer service." Topping that list was an unsurprising "relevant fund information."
Click through to see a few more results from the study.
As one example, under the category of what their favorite fund issuers do well, responses such as "well-designed, content-rich websites," and "help solve problems," were on the bottom half of the list. An answer that ranked much higher, at second place, was a very traditional sounding "good customer service." Topping that list was an unsurprising "relevant fund information."
Click through to see a few more results from the study.
Research channels
Advisers use both traditional and digital resources to stay informed, although social media was near the bottom. And social media specifically from the fund companies was next to last. Newspapers and trade publications fared a bit better, although still didn't crack the top five.
Content is king
Almost two-thirds of advisers (64%) said they would invest in products from companies that they currently don't do business with, provided the company would offer the right content.
Active vs passive
For all the talk of index funds and ETFs in recent years, it looks like there is still a place for active investing strategies for many advisers. American Funds, known for its line of actively managed funds, topped the list of the issuers that advisers most like to work with.
Smartphones lag behind
Desktop and laptop computers still prevail when it comes time to research mutual funds. Tablets and smartphones, for as prevalent as they've become, are still a comparative work in progress, at least in regard to advisers' research.
Changes with age
Here's how the older set and younger set of advisers compared on information sources. There was a definite pattern of the younger generation gravitating toward newer communication methods, although in many cases, the differences were fairly small. One of the bigger differences came with webinars, with older advisers favoring them with a 12% difference over their younger colleagues.
