According to a Pulse Survey by brokerage firm InspereX, 82% of financial advisors said they have won business from other advisors because other advisors did not communicate with clients.
In fact, only 26% said that client relationships are their only differentiator, with almost three-quarters (72%) using customer portfolios instead of models to differentiate their firm.
Yet, according to a Vanguard study, three-quarters of consumers say the “service” they most seek from a financial advisor is to “develop a connection/relationship”.
So why are we leaving communication and the client experience by the wayside? And how can advisors ensure their client relationships and the experiences within their process differentiate their firm?

Can’t find the time to deliver the level of service
Many studies show that advisors are time-poor. They are spending more time on administrative and compliance-oriented tasks rather than serving their customers.
On the administrative side, they have to navigate across multiple platforms to get a complete picture of their client. From their CRMs to their financial modelling tools to whatever tool they use to capture client goals and aspirations. Many are still reliant on Excel sheets to understand their clients' financial futures.
What this means is that they don’t have a singular place to understand and see the client’s profile. They don’t know which tool to use to capture the important conversations. If it doesn’t fit in a pre-configured field in your CRM, then it ends up staying in the advisor's head where it’ll need to be remembered alongside the myriad of other tasks and hundreds of other client conversations.
This leaves advisors susceptible to forgetting small details, which might seem insignificant to the client's overall financial plan. But these small details can have a big impact if used to engage clients outside of their pre-scheduled meetings and build deeper connections.
Things like whether the client is keeping to their fitness schedule? Did they attend that philanthropic event and give back to their community? Did they talk with their father about how they might support their elder care cost requirements? Did their five-year-old daughter have a good birthday?
These little moments help the client feel heard and help to foster deeper connections that go beyond communications about market volatility and whether to hold, sell, or adjust their portfolios. They build trust so that when you do give them advice about their financial life, they are more likely to act upon it.
What advisors need is a single client dashboard that captures all of this information. That notifies them when important moments are coming up. And that houses all the pertinent information, allowing advisors to act quickly and efficiently, rather than having the burden of trawling different platforms to piece together their client needs.
Not only does this help with administrative communications but it will also help with compliance. It won’t solve everything but having a single place where you can show how you are acting in your client's best interests helps to meet consumer duty requirements. It will help with Know Your Customer requirements too, because everything is there, in one place.
Even better - if the client profile can connect your client's needs to your key advice areas and highlight the conversations that have led to the action you’ve taken, then fiduciary duty is covered.
Too little time shouldn’t be an excuse. We should be investing in having the right tools to better arm advisors and their support teams with the information they need when they need it.
Differentiating your client experience
Once you have the basics down and are communicating regularly with clients about their lives, finances and goals, you can look to develop new experiences that help you have deeper, more meaningful conversations.
At Lumiant, we believe there are three core experiences that will help you stand out from the crowd and differentiate your firm.
1. Understanding client motivations

We’re not just talking about financial motivations and the goals of the ‘financial spouse’. We’re talking about what they want to achieve by receiving meaningful advice.
Current experiences are typically geared toward defining financial strategies. How much risk do they want to take? What returns are they expecting? How much money do they want to leave in their estate?
But this doesn’t really get to the why and only really engages those who already have a bit of financial know-how.
That’s why we focus on helping clients uncover the values that underpin their goals. That gives a voice to both the financial and non-financial spouse and takes the conversation away from performance and towards life outcomes.
2. Defining client goals
Once you have the drivers, you can define the goals that will help clients live a life aligned with their values. Many tools enable you to capture goals but what will help you to stand out is how you capture them.
Let us explain.
You need to bring their goals to life. Get them out of an Excel spreadsheet or list format and find a way to use images to highlight their aspirations. The more real the better.
It could be a picture of the family outside their dream home or the campervan they will purchase to tour the country in retirement.
Whatever it is, ask the client to choose imagery and videos that are personal to them, the ones that evoke the right emotions and are inspiring to them. Make an event out of it. It could be in a meeting or perhaps set as some homework that allows the couple to spend time thinking about their future.
3. Connect the dots to your financial strategies
The final experience we recommend is aligning their values and goals to the key advice areas your firm provides.
What does this mean? It means setting a meeting where you will connect their goals and values to the areas of advice you provide. This means having all your services on one screen for clients to see and then activating the right areas based on the needs, goals, and values of the client.
Not only does it show the client what their best life looks like, it allows you to educate the client on how you will help them achieve it. It enables you to bring to life the financial journey they are about to embark on and show how the plan will evolve over time to meet their needs and aspirations.
Most importantly, it builds trust. It shows the client that you’ve heard them. That you’ve considered their needs and that you can support them should those needs change.

Everything you need, all in one place
Once you’ve gone through these three experiences, we come full circle back to the client profile. Housing this in one place enables you to see exactly what you’re working on and why. That allows you to track progress, send updates and celebrate successes when items are ticked off the list, allowing anyone in your firm to communicate and engage with clients when it matters.
So don’t lose clients due to lack of communication. Make it your differentiator and use it to grow your business. Not only will it make your advisor’s lives a lot easier, but you’ll have happier clients too.
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