Tug of War

 


We are experiencing numerous tug of wars as we return from the pandemic. In the wealth advisory business people have created “solutions” to replace or supplement our job functions.  If your role is being replaced you should speak up and pull the rope. This week we will cover items that shouldn’t be replaced. They all might not win the tug of war, but I wouldn’t bet against them. 



Older professionals 

The average age of a wealth advisor is 55. Father time is not on our side. FinTech solutions are addressing this reality with the sales pitch of creating more time for the advisors to spend with their clients. Advisors don’t need to be told what to do by a technology guru. Old age has benefits. We aren’t able to run as fast as we could in our youth, but we learn how to pace ourselves. We also learn what is important and what is fatal. Books or FinTech can’t teach us as well as actual experience. Hopefully new companies can appreciate our experience. Age is a state of mind. We need to focus on the positive aspects of age and our experience. A technology solution needs to drop the rope and update their sales pitch. 


DIY

DIY has become very important to our personal and business lives. We have always had advertisements to guide our decisions. Eventually we realized the advertisements were not effective and we supplemented them with education and more recently the social media. Unfortunately, all need to be further examined before we make our final decision. There isn’t a perfect decision but we need to ask others who had a similar experience what they decided and why. The internet can help but at the end of the day it is a do it yourself. DIY also costs more than anticipated. 

 

Choices 

The change caused by the pandemic has forced many businesses to expand their delivery methods. While many customers are now buying online another group is replacing the shopping mall with big box stores who sell numerous items. Several consumer brands have opened a small store in a big box store. This new strategy is unproven, but it does allow the consumer business to reduce their mall rent expenses. It feels like a good  idea. Opening an office in your home feels like a good idea too.


It’s time to Tug. The FinTech firms are stronger, but most independent wealth advisory firms have the optimism and experience to win. This isn’t their first rodeo. 

Pull!!!




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