Ross Marino, CFP, CeFT, recalled the clients who told him they found another advisor “who gets me,’’ and walked out the door.
Why? He thought he had done everything he was supposed to be doing as their financial advisor. But over the last 10 years, he started to realize that the largely investment-focused financial planning process he had been using wasn’t enough. It wasn’t human-focused enough.
Marino, a financial advisor and founder of Advisor 2X and the SHIFT conference, shared that story on March 24 during the opening session of SHIFT 2024.
Several hundred people, including nearly 300 financial advisors, attended the two-day conference in Orlando.
Joining Marino during the session, “Human First: The Experience Economy,” were Breanna Blaney, vice president and director of the Life, Invested program at Dimensional Fund Advisors, and H. Adam Holt, CFP, ChFC, and CEO and founder of Asset-Map Holdings, a wealth-management technology company.
Marino emphasized that crafting a financial plan for a client requires flexibility and a willingness to really listen to their story.
“You’ve probably been asked a lot of questions. We love questions. People are usually prompted to come see us because there’s something on their mind. Generally, it’s not ‘I wanted to do a comprehensive financial plan.’ It’s more, ‘Something came up’ and they want to come and ask us questions,’’ said Marino, founder of Transitus Wealth Partners, an RIA firm based in Wilmington, N.C.
“There’s usually a story that comes behind (the questions). They say, ‘Well, this is what I was thinking and this is what I want to do,’” said Marino. “And then your mind is screaming, ‘Please!’ But we can’t do that because it doesn’t work on human nature.’’
A Big Shift
Now, “before I start reading pension plans, before I dive into any investment conversation, before I even get your typical data gathered, I want to look at the person in front of me as a human,’’ said Marino.
Blaney said her work at Dimensional has taught her how deeply financial professionals can affect a client’s life.
“One of my big ‘Aha’ moments was that so much of our truth as human beings is often tied up with money and our association with work, and also how stressful it can be. I started working with some of the largest national RIAs and started to see how your experienced advisor is having such a significant impact on people’s lives and also how they were starting to elevate their conversation to actually focus on clients’ lives,’’ said Blaney, a yoga and Ayurveda advocate.
She noted Dimensional’s mission has always been about working with advisors in a very holistic manner. “And it goes far beyond just the dollars and cents. How do you actually use your money and your investments to propel who you are and what you actually want to accomplish, and I’d actually argue, make more money because you are aligned with really what is most meaningful to you,’’ Blaney said.
Words From a ‘Recovering Financial Advisor’
Holt, of Asset-Map, said finance was not his first choice for a career. “I’m really into art, that’s really my passion. I was supposed to be an artist — but someone was going to have to pay the rent,” he said. He went to a job fair for insurance agents and started in insurance before moving into financial planning and asset management.
“It was my desire to help people understand what’s really going on in life,” he said. “I thought that if we understood people’s lives, we could help them make better decisions. But unfortunately, we typically approach [the planning process] like a technical professional.’’
With 25 years in financial services, Holt says he’s learned that listening to what his clients care about makes for successful financial planning. As a financial planner, Holt was frustrated with the process that involved showing research-packed reports in client meetings. So he developed a simpler but impactful approach that helped engage clients with a visual breakdown of their household so he could quickly address financial gaps. The tool he created allowed him and his staff to reach $1 billion in AUM in a decade. He has since brought what became Asset-Map to thousands of other financial advisors.
Technical vs. Human
The panelists agreed advisors must toggle between being technically savvy and their clients’ demand for straight-forward advice and guidance.
“The question, especially to support future financial planning, is how do we deliver more advisor as opposed to more tech? That’s going to be a challenge. A lot of the perceptions of clients is about wanting performance, and they want access to all these things, but they’re really looking for simplicity,’’ Marino said.
“I think that technology can be an incredible edge, but someone still has to create a plan and customize it to me, and that’s really where I see the role of an advisor,’’ Blaney said.
A recent JD Power survey of Gen X, millennials and baby boomers about the most appealing option for receiving financial information split along age groups, Holt said. Not surprisingly, digital dominated the younger groups — but with a proviso.
“Millennials and Gen Y want to preserve corporate digital experiences for service, but almost all of them want advice experiences that have more human aspects,” he said. “We should get rid of the service components of execution to do the things you need to do to change your stuff and move money around. But on the advice side, it’s going to stay human, and I think that’s important for us to pay attention to that.”
The reason why? “We’ve all talked about this major wealth transfer,” Holt noted. “I think it’s going to happen way way sooner than we think. As we transition to the X and Y generations, we have a great opportunity to build relationships, and add tremendous value to these clients.”
He added advisors will have to create a balance. “Older clients are actually bringing in their adult children earlier and those adult children are really tech savvy, so I think there’s going to be an interesting shift that we’re going have to consider: How much technology empowerment can I deliver to my clients, and how much of myself will be in that experience?’’
Eleanor O’Sullivan is a writer for Rethinking65.
