Client strategies

Here's how to host an event that builds client business and referrals—without all the awkwardness

If clients look at their access to you as one of the most valuable aspects of working with your firm, how much value is left in the firm when you leave and how will you ever have enough time? This is the “access to principals” paradox, says referral expert Steve Wershing.

Once you've identified the risks and opportunities among your female client base, it's time to take action to better serve female clients. Here are four key strategies to consider.

For any number of reasons, clients sometimes want to prevent their inheritors from draining their IRA accounts right after they die. LPL Financial is joining a handful of other firms in offering a turnkey product -- a so-called inherited “trusteed IRA” -- for advisors to use in these situations.

Your clients need help understanding and gaining insight into what makes it so hard to set financial limits with their children before they can curtail or slow down this behavior. Questions aimed at the underlying motivations are much more effective than showing them scary charts and graphs.

For many years top advisors have been telling you what clients want and need, how best to communicate, what types of events to host, all the way down to what to wear. But the only way one can really know, is by asking clients and prospects directly write advisor coach Matthew Halloran.

Growth is a goal -- and a hurdle -- for many firms. So what are advisors doing to attract new business?

While most see HSBC’s decision to change advisor compensation to salary and bonus as risky, some see merit in the move.

Eighty percent of investors under the age of 40 don’t feel like they are getting adequate financial advice from their advisors, according to new findings from Cerulli Associates, leaving the doors wide open for asset managers and retirement plan recordkeepers to fill the advice gap.

HSBC made the switch to align the compensation structure for advisors in the U.S. with those in the rest of the global bank.

Customize your approach to other types of professionals to increase your chances of getting referrals.

In the wake of this week's landmark gay rights decision from the Supreme Court, financial advisors have as many questions as answers for their same-sex clients about how the ruling with impact their wealth management, tax and estate planning.

Working with clients can be difficult. You need to balance rational tasks of navigating capital markets with non-rational challenges of managing client emotions. In many ways, navigating client behavior is more complicated than navigating capital markets, since human emotions can swing wildly and less predictably. Check out some helpful ways to stay ahead of the curve.

More than 80% of people who do not work with a financial advisor only plan their finances for the short term, according to a new global survey by deVere Group, the world’s largest independent international financial consultancy group.

In order for advisors to stand their ground to direct providers like Fidelity, Schwab and ETrade, they must not lose sight of younger and low to middle market investors, says Bing Waldert, director at Cerulli Associates.

Following a bearish May, investor confidence shot up in June, according to the State Street Global Investor Confidence Index released Tuesday.

Government policy is becoming a more prominent topic of conversation between financial advisors and their clients, according to a recent study as well as anecdotal reports -- and remarks by the Federal Reserve chairman last week on the future of the Fed’s stimulus policy have spurred even more discussions about government policy.

Women in the United States account for about 47% of the workforce, compared to roughly 29.6% in 1950, according to data from the U.S. Labor Force. No doubt about it, female influence in the workforce is growing. Yet, the gender divide among advisors at the some of the largest firms is pretty striking.

Financial institutions should develop distinct service offerings for young investors that speak to them at their life stage.

More than 60% of high-net-worth clients expressed a high degree of trust in both their wealth managers and their firms, according the World Wealth Report 2013, but a majority prefer to work with a single firm to “manage all of their financial needs."