Students hoping to set themselves apart from their peers on a financial services path might be wise to prioritize sitting for the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) exam pre-graduation, given the results of a recent survey Redtail Technology conducted in conjunction with Brigham Young University – Idaho. Brian McLaughlin, President, CRM at Orion Advisor Technology and Redtail Co-Founder discussed this and more from those survey results in a recent issue of the Journal of Financial Planning.

Bob Veres and Joel Bruckenstein recently shared the results from their annual survey of the software advisors are using along with their satisfaction levels with those technologies. Per their report on this year’s survey, in regard to the CRM Tools Category:

“Redtail has to be considered the dominant program in the most dominant category of the survey.”

With 4,495 respondents in their survey this year, we’re honored to have achieved the #1 market share in the CRM Tools Category with an average rating from those users of 8.17 and the #3 market share in the Document Management Category with an 8.28 average rating from users. We understand that you as advisors have many tech options from which to choose in this space and we are humbled and appreciative once again at the love you pour out each year toward Redtail’s solutions.

You can read the report in its entirety here.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

In October of 2021, Redtail Technology conducted its “Financial Planning Career Perceptions 2021” survey to learn more about the views of industry professionals and financial planning students regarding career preparation and expectations. Additionally, the survey aimed to gain a greater understanding of the certification goals by students, skillset demand for the next generation of financial planning professionals, employer outlooks, and employee retention.

Based on the data collected from the survey, Redtail set out to understand:

• If students understand what certifications/licenses they need for their careers
• How well academic programs prepare students for a financial planning career
• What the next generation of financial planners is looking for in an employer
• What employers are looking for in the next generation of financial planners
• What, if any, communication gaps exist between experienced financial professionals and incoming professionals

 

METHODOLOGY

Redtail surveyed nearly 4,300 financial professionals and students across the United States, including 224 financial planning students from Brigham Young University-Idaho. Of the 4,257 respondents, 4,033 were financial professionals and they were split into two categories — “RIA” (Registered Investment Advisor) and “Non-RIA.” Student respondents are investigated by gender, age, ethnicity, and desired career (RIA vs non-RIA).

Considering that less than one in four CFP® (Certified Financial Planner) Professionals currently in the industry are female, the survey took this opportunity to sample the diversity within the student cohort while also asking current professionals their thoughts on diversity within the profession. The results provide a spark of hope that a more diverse professional workforce will emerge given that 60.75% of student respondents are female and more than half (56.3%) of all professional respondents (48.7% male, 47.5% female, 3.8% undisclosed) believe that the industry needs to improve recruiting and development efforts for more diverse applicants.

 

KEY FINDINGS:

• Students are not quite as focused on pre-graduation certifications as professionals would like

This is possibly due to the huge number of certifications and licenses on offer, what many in the industry call the “alphabet soup”, that are presented to students. This can overwhelm students and detract from a focused effort on earning the professional certifications and licenses that will be most beneficial to their careers. While the vast majority (71.2%) of current RIA professionals surveyed recommended sitting for the CFP® exam prior to graduation, less than 17% of students surveyed indicated they’d set this pre-graduation goal for themselves.

Additionally, female students showed less of an interest in CFP® certification than male students. Caucasian respondents placed emphasis on obtaining the Series 65 license well ahead of the CFP® certification and only 11% of non-Caucasian students sought to pass the CFP® exam before graduation (Asians: 28.5%, African American: 0%, Other: 8.1%).

• Academic programs are adequately preparing students for a financial planning career

More than half of professionals surveyed (57%) believe that academic programs are adequately preparing students for a financial planning career compared to the 43% of professionals who believe they are not. This may seem like an underwhelming endorsement of academic programs, but these survey results point to significant progress in the last few years. In 2018, an InvestmentNews poll found that nearly 80% of respondents felt “schools should be doing more to prepare students”.

By breaking down our survey results further, we also found that younger professionals (under age 35) are more satisfied with efforts by academic programs than older professionals (age 35+).

• Salary, company culture, and quality management are common drivers of both students’ and professionals’ perceived job satisfaction

Students and professional respondent groups agreed on the top three things they were looking for in an employer. However, the groups placed these three reasons as to why they would choose one employer over another in different orders. The majority (over 40%) of student respondents said that salary/opportunity for advancement was the main driver of job satisfaction. Perhaps the thought process was, “if we are getting paid enough, we can overlook other things that may be lacking within the firm.”

On the flip side, the majority of professionals surveyed believe that an employer should be able to keep talent by offering a great firm culture. This makes sense within an older demographic, who, perhaps by design, may have spent most, if not their entire career working for the same firm. If an employee feels comfortable with the culture at a firm, it may reduce their thoughts of moving on, whereas students may find it difficult to assess the value of company culture due to lack of experience.

Of course, all of these responses represent a snapshot in time and one should likely at least consider outside factors, temporal or not, such as The Great Resignation we’ve been in the midst of (including during the time when this survey was administered), and how those factors play into job satisfaction (both perceived and real).

• Skilled professionals and students are aligned in putting emphasis on the importance of interpersonal skills

The survey results showed that professionals and students agree that mastering interpersonal communication must be a top priority, 91% and 77.6% respectively.

“When I saw this data point in particular, I saw it as an opportunity for those of us in academia to push the envelope a little further to the greater benefit of our current and future students,” said B. Taft Dorman, PhD, AFC, an adjunct professor in the finance department at BYU-Idaho who participated in analyzing the survey data along with his students.

Both groups ranked technical knowledge of financial planning content, prospecting/marketing skills, and financial planning technology skills as the three next most important skillsets, though students (50.3% of them) ranked financial planning technology skills the second most important skill, whereas professionals (59.7%) placed a much greater emphasis on the importance of technical knowledge of financial planning content. This finding reinforces the emphasis professionals place on sitting for that CFP® exam while still in school in order to bolster the preparation and training students will need for a successful career.

• Perceptions of communication gap and barriers to entry

A communication gap between generations in the industry does exist, as it was a concern highlighted by both groups. 31% of professionals, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or firm type (RIA vs Non-RIA), experience communication challenges with new financial planning professionals entering the industry, while 44.7% of students are worried about potential communication challenges with their future employers.

There is a gap as well in terms of perceived and real barriers to entry into the industry. Students believe their biggest hurdle for entering the profession will be obtaining licenses (56.8%) and certifications (41.8%). Survey results, however, support professionals counseling students to better understand the finances required to enter the profession (46.5%) ahead of licensing (38.1%) and credentials (20.6%).

 

CONCLUSION:

Many of these discrepancies between the professionals’ lived experiences vs. students’ expectations could be addressed within the university system; both parties as well as the profession could benefit from a more transparent and consistent link between financial planning students and the professionals they hope to one day work alongside. The results of this survey support the idea of professionals counseling the students to help them better understand what is expected of them once they enter the working world.

Emphasizing a mastery of interpersonal communication, aligning certification exam efforts with desired employer type, and increasing focus on technical knowledge of financial planning topics are all actions which financial planning academic programs could address more fully over the course of a student’s degree. Firms too could play a larger role during these formative college years, partnering with those institutions they rely upon to produce quality candidates in meaningful ways that will set their students up with the knowledge they need to plot a more efficient path toward career success.

Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Redtail Technology

RIA in a Box’s 2021 technology survey results were posted yesterday, and Redtail CRM had a very strong showing in what RIA in a Box deems the “most popular technology solution” category. As they also note, “Each standard Redtail database subscription package includes up to 15 users for the same all-in cost,” noting that other popular vendors price their databases on a per-user basis. You can learn more here about how Redtail’s pricing differentiates us from our competitors (along with nine other reasons Redtail may be the solution you’ve been looking for).

We are always thrilled to be recognized as a leader in this industry and humbled by the trust Redtail subscribers place in us; our efforts will continue to try to reward that trust with solutions that improve your day-to-day business operations.

Bob Veres and Joel Bruckenstein have now shared the results from their annual survey of the software advisors are using along with their satisfaction levels with those technologies. We’re excited and honored by this year’s results. Per their report on the survey:

“Redtail continues to lead the category by a wide margin and its satisfaction score [8.06] continues to be outstanding. Is it possible that Redtail owns well over half [61.86%] of the CRM market share? Or are Redtail users more enthusiastic about providing their (mostly positive) feedback on their CRM experience?”

With 5,255 respondents in their survey this year, we’re happy either way: enthusiastic subscribers to Redtail solutions are what we aim for! As the authors state in their Introduction and Methodology section of the report, “We believe that any rating of 7.0 or above represents a high degree of user satisfaction, and any figure above 8.0 should be considered remarkable. ” Creating raving fans is a huge part of our mission, so to average an 8.06 satisfaction score from so many respondents truly encourages us in our ongoing quest to provide both excellent solutions and an outstanding experience for Redtail subscribers.

You can read their intro to the report here — or, read the report in its entirety here.

ABOUT THE SURVEY:

In July of 2020, Redtail Technology conducted the “Working Remotely” survey to learn more about how financial advisors and their staffs adapted to remote work environments, how this affected their client engagement strategies, and which communication channels proved most effective when working in virtual environments.

Based on data collected from the survey, Redtail set out to understand:

• How effectively wealth management professionals were able to transition to remote-only work environments and avoid or minimize business disruption
• What this might mean for the future in terms of remote work vs. office-only practices (or some hybrid of the two)
• Which technologies helped offices maintain regular client communication/engagement and which may now be considered more seriously for future adoption

METHODOLOGY:

Redtail surveyed more than 1,750 wealth management employees across the United States, whose firms’ managed client assets ranged from under $500 million to more than $1 billion. Among the respondents, the breakdown of roles was as follows:

•  40.8% financial advisors
•  18.7% client services
•  17.9% administrative employees
•  9.2% executive management
•  8.8% operations

To compare and contrast advisor work from home patterns before and after COVID-19, respondents were asked how frequently they worked remotely in 2019:

•  Never or very rarely: 50.4%
•  1-2 times per month: 16.3%
•  Full-time (more than 4 days a week): 13.3%
•  2-3 days per week: 10.4%
•  Once per week: 9.6%

KEY FINDINGS:

While much of the world was required to work from home, financial services proved to be particularly resilient in terms of adapting and continuing to meet client expectations and business needs:

“While our industry has historically been an in-person business, we have all seen that technology has enabled us to work from home while staying connected with clients and to continue business as usual, though there were challenges associated with the transition.” – Survey respondent

• COVID-19 has shifted the work from home mindset of advisory firm employees across the country. In 2019, two-thirds (66.7%) of respondents never or rarely worked from home, and in 2020 respondents did a complete flip – 64.7% believe they will work from home at least one day a week in the future.

• The majority of respondents (62.3%) appreciated the zero-commute time, and nearly half enjoyed the flexible schedule (47.9%); still, the overwhelming majority (73.3%) anticipate keeping their office space.
• Many respondents experienced challenges while working from home. 43.5% experienced social isolation or disconnect from co-workers, and 41.7% dealt with family distractions. And, while the majority of respondents were prepared for the shift to work remotely, 35.2% cited a lack of office supplies as a challenge.

Working from home was not a big disruption to the success of their businesses.

• Despite the fact that in 2019 half of respondents surveyed never or rarely worked from home, 86% of respondents said that in 2020 they ranged from somewhat to very prepared with the proper technology for a seamless transition. However, there was one technology where firms were less prepared to transition to work from home: 61.5% currently have no internal communication platform geared toward staying connected with their colleagues.
• A vast majority of respondents (74.3%) did not experience an interruption of their revenue stream by working from home, and nearly 5% of respondents actually grew their revenue!

While traditional modes of client engagement and communication retained their importance, advisors did express a willingness to further explore new communication channels moving forward:

“In-person” connection continues to be the preferred choice for client engagement, as well as for onboarding and training new employees. To offset the limitations of virtual relationship building, advisors recognize the increased need for customized communications for clients. They are exploring new ways to reach them (video, webinar, social media, podcast/radio, blog):

• Wealth management employees value in-person meetings the most to generate client engagement. Given the restrictions due to COVID-19, they have heavily relied on phone and email to connect and are focused on producing customized communications to reach different clients.
• This year’s top communication challenges have not shifted since last year, despite the pandemic:
  1. Customizing content for different audiences (50.8% in 2020; 45% in 2019)
  2. Engaging with clients outside of meetings (45.6% in 2020; 40% in 2019)
  3. Producing unique content (29.8% in 2020; 30% in 2019)
• 80% of respondents are using video/remote conference as a method of client communication in 2020. Respondents also agree that it is one of the channels with the highest client engagement (38.2%) – third only to phone calls (67.9%) and in-person meetings, when they are an option (86.7%).
  —  This is a vast increase from 2019, where only 7% of respondents were using video to connect with clients on a regular basis.

• Advisors plan to prioritize more effective communication moving forward, with 60.3% focusing on existing clients and 17.8% targeting new prospects. Additionally, significant percentages plan on adding communication channels they haven’t prioritized in the past:
  ⁃ Pre-recorded video (36.8%)
  ⁃ Webinar (26.2%)
  ⁃ Social Media (25.9%)
  ⁃ Podcast/radio (23.9%)
  ⁃ Blog (22.4%)
  ⁃ SMS/Text (22.2%)
  ⁃ Newsletter (18.7%)

FURTHER ANALYSIS:

Technology for work-from-home generally allowed for business as usual for most respondents.

2020 was a pivotal year for the financial advice industry. While the technologies that enable remote work have been around for years, 2020 has proven to be, by necessity, the year when these technologies were first truly put to the test in that regard in any widespread way.

While working from home posed its own set of challenges for many respondents in terms of client engagement, culture, and distractions, the vast majority were at the very least somewhat prepared to make the transition because of their existing technologies and infrastructure, as evidenced by the below survey question and responses:

Before COVID-19, how prepared were you with the technology/infrastructure in place to enable a seamless work from home experience?
• Very prepared – 32.3%
• Adequately prepared – 27.8%
• Somewhat prepared – 26%
• Not prepared at all – 7.6%
• N/A: I continued to work in the office as normal – 4.9%

The 86% of respondents indicating they were somewhat, adequately, or very prepared for a seamless work from home experience tracks closely with respondents’ answers on whether or not their revenue stream was affected by working from home, with 74.3% indicating their revenue stream was not impacted, and nearly 5% indicating growth in revenue during this period.

Communication preferences (and challenges) have remained largely the same, but preferences gave way to necessity.

As mentioned above, nearly 87% of respondents believe an in-person meeting generates the most engagement with their clients. No surprises there, and it’s likely in-person meetings will remain the most valued communication channel for the foreseeable future.

Still, the jump in usage of video conferences to connect with clients between our 2019 and 2020 studies (from 7% to 80%) was dramatic.

Considering the massive shift in communication channels that respondents were largely forced into this year, one of our survey’s more surprising findings was that their top communication challenges remained largely unchanged. In other words, they may still prefer face-to-face meetings over virtual meetings, but the fact that a huge number of their client meetings were held virtually this year didn’t dislodge or change what they viewed as their biggest communication hurdles, i.e., customizing content for different audiences, engaging with clients outside of meetings, and producing unique content. This likely accounts for the survey’s findings of an increased willingness on the part of firms to explore new channels of client engagement such as pre-recorded videos, webinars, social media, podcasting, etc.

CONCLUSION:

If there was one stat that jumped out perhaps more than any other, it was the shift in perceptions about working from home. In 2019, two-thirds of respondents never or very rarely worked from home, compared with the two-thirds in 2020, who expect that they will work from home at least one day a week moving forward. They loved work from home benefits such as zero commute time, greater flexibility, and more time with family.

On the other hand, social isolation, family distractions, and a lack of office supplies were mentioned by many as challenges they experienced while working virtually.

In the end, technology made the transition to home environments possible, and survey respondents appeared to embrace the idea of shifting at least part of their work schedule to a virtual environment in the future, despite having challenges that they will have to navigate to do so.

“It’s hard to imagine a year with more disruption than what we’ve witnessed in 2020; this leads to a degree of caution when analyzing responses provided while the disruption is ongoing.

Still, there are some conclusions we can draw based both in relation to what our respondents told us and on our own lived experience during this pandemic. We all had to adapt without warning to working full-time in environments that we never envisioned as our primary workspace. To one degree or another, we all had to deal with technology issues that we weren’t used to dealing with. And, I believe that many of us will come out the other side of this with a deeper understanding than before that authenticity, rather than the ability to conduct a flawless Zoom meeting, will win the day in terms of forging stronger relationships with our clients and prospects. Hopefully, this will also lead to advisors moving beyond curiosity about some of the communication channels they aren’t currently using to an exploration of them to see which ones will help them meet the communication challenges that appear to remain constant from year to year.

As I mentioned above, I’m hesitant to make big predictions for the future, particularly about what we considered the most surprising finding in the survey: two-thirds of respondents expect to be working from home at least one day a week in the future. Still, if you’re the one responsible for making the decision about how often, if ever, your employees will be able to work from home after all this is over, you’ve certainly got to balance employee expectations against the pros and cons involved. Perhaps one potential positive to come out of all of this will be forward-thinking advisors and vendors becoming even more nimble in the face of future challenges; 2020 has certainly shown us all that we can adapt in big ways when the situation requires it.”

Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Redtail Technology

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For more information on the survey findings or if you have any questions about Redtail Technology, please contact Kimberly Beck | kimberly.beck@redtailtechnology.com.

What do you think of the various components of your software suite? This annual survey produced by Joel Bruckenstein and Bob Veres dives deep into the solutions advisors say they are using to run their practices, as well as their satisfaction levels with those solutions. Everything from CRM and Risk Tolerance tools to Custody and Broker Dealer platforms are typically covered in these surveys, as well as analysis of such questions as which tools advisors consider their most valuable software.

The T3 Software Survey is always valuable to us as it provides insight both into what we might be doing better as well as into which new solutions in the industry we should be integrating with (if we haven’t already). It is also valuable to advisors as they can see what other offices are using and happy with that may help them address challenges within their offices. You can see last year’s survey results here to gather a better idea of the depth and value of this survey.

We encourage you to take ten minutes at your convenience to complete this survey and express your opinions about the software solutions you use to run your business.

Yesterday, RIA in a Box posted results from their annual survey in regard to the CRM Category. Per their post, “As seen in recent years, Redtail is by far the dominant leader in the RIA CRM technology category.”

The post goes on to say:

It should be noted that most leading RIA CRM software providers, including Salesforce, Wealthbox, Microsoft Dynamics, Junxure, and others, price their solutions on a per user basis. The most notable exception to this pricing model is Redtail which prices on a per database model. Each standard Redtail database subscription package includes up to 15 users for the same all-in cost.

We are always thrilled to be recognized as a leader in this industry and humbled by the trust Redtail subscribers place in us; pricing our solutions per database rather than per user is but one of the ways we try to reward that trust.

We are driven to provide advisors with new and better solutions to meet their everyday challenges, a passion this type of recognition only fuels further!

Last week at the T3 Technology Conference for Advisors, Bob Veres and Joel Bruckenstein shared the results from their annual survey of the software advisors are using along with their satisfaction levels with those technologies. We’re thrilled and honored by this year’s results. Per their report on the survey:

“In our survey results, Redtail continues to build on its market share dominance. Our 2020 numbers give the program a dominant 62% market share in the CRM space. With a sparkling user rating of 8.10 (up from 8.07 last year) it’s clear that Redtail users are more than satisfied with what they’re getting from the program.”

As the authors flesh out in their Introduction and Methodology section of the report, “any figure above 8.0 represents a user base made up of raving fans.” Since creating raving fans is a huge part of our mission, we are particularly excited about this year’s results.

Rest assured these findings won’t for a moment slow down our drive to provide advisors with new and better solutions to meet their everyday challenges – instead, this type of recognition fuels us forward!

Bob Veres talks briefly about the survey results in a short video available here.

ABOUT THE SURVEY:

In September of 2019, Redtail Technology conducted the AdvisorComms 2019 Survey to better understand how financial advisors and their staff are communicating with clients and prospects, and how these communication channel and content choices affect client engagement. Redtail surveyed more than 3,200 wealth management professionals across the United States on the communication challenges they face, perceived client engagement across various channels, and the types of content they are sharing with clients and prospects (as well as their approach to tailoring that content).

Based on data collected from the survey, Redtail set out to understand:

• How wealth management professionals are communicating with their clients and whether there are opportunities to scale their practice by incorporating underutilized communication channels.
• The level of tailored content offices are sharing with their clients and prospects.

The challenges faced by advisors with regard to client communication.

METHODOLOGY:

Redtail surveyed over 3,200 wealth management employees across the United States, whose firms’ managed client assets ranged from $100 million to more than $1 billion. Among the respondents, the breakdown of roles was as follows:

• 51.1% administrative employees of financial advisory firms
• 37.3% financial advisors or financial planners
• 7.6% leadership of financial advisory firms
• 1.5% technical support within financial advisory firms

To gain a better understanding of how firms budgeted for communications, respondents were asked what the majority of their communications budget was being spent on this year. The top five budgeted items, accounting for 90% of all respondents, were as follows:

• Upgrading tools, technologies or processes: 33.8%
• Improving the quality of existing communication assets: 26.3%
• Engaging more on social media: 13.0%
• Hiring dedicated staff: 10.6%
• Launching new communications campaigns: 9.4%

KEY FINDINGS:

Advisors are largely relying on, or limiting their practices to using, the “traditional” methods of communication with their clients, such as in-person meetings and phone calls:

Firms are confident in both the value and engagement levels of in-person meetings and phone calls.

• When it comes to generating engagement from clients, in-person meetings (76%) and phone calls (66%) were ranked highest.

• 97% of respondents viewed in-person meetings as the most valuable form of communication, followed by phone calls at 93%.

Some widely used communications technologies are underutilized or not used at all by respondents

• Well over half (59%) of respondents are not communicating with clients via video, and only 7% are utilizing video to connect with clients on a regular basis.
• Nearly 87% of respondents think their clients would like to communicate with them via text, but 29% have a “no client texting” policy within their office. Further, nearly 41% of respondents have not been approved by their BD for texting with their clients.

Advisors are overlooking opportunities to tailor their communications:

22% of respondents indicated their offices do not tailor content to their clients at all. Of those who do:

• Less than 6% consider any client characteristics outside of age, income, gender or education for the purpose of crafting tailored client content.

• Nearly half (48%) of respondents do not tailor communication to prospects.

• Only 52% of respondents indicated they communicate with clients’ families.

The top communication challenges indicated by respondents largely tracked with our above key findings:

Their top five challenges with client communication are:

• Customizing communication for different clients – 45%
• Engaging clients outside of meetings – 40%
• Producing unique content – 30%
• Producing consistent content – 28%
• Client unavailability – 28%

FURTHER ANALYSIS:

Traditional Communication Channels vs “New” Communication Technologies

While it may be comfortable to rely on tried and true methods of communication such as in-person meetings and phone calls for the majority of client interactions, leveraging technology that is widely embraced by the average consumer, such as video calls and texting, can help advisors navigate around issues like fee compression as they are able to increase their availability and scale their practices more effectively.

Two of the top five communications challenges respondents named were 1) engaging clients outside of meetings and 2) client unavailability. Two of the communications channels (texting and video/remote meetings) respondents currently aren’t utilizing to the fullest potential offer ways to address these challenges.

Our results showed right at half of respondents find text messaging valuable; we can also infer from our results that a large percentage of those rating texting as “Not Valuable” are likely not using texting as a communications channel, as nearly 41% have not been approved for texting by their Broker Dealer. As we’ve seen in numerous studies though, response rates for texts are much higher than those for emails (or phone calls that go unanswered), marking texting as a potential inroad for tackling the challenge of engagement outside of client meetings. After all, 87% of respondents believe their clients want to be able to text with them, but, to this point, that desire is largely not being filled.

Similarly, 59% of respondents are not communicating with their clients via video. If client unavailability is one of their biggest challenges, it’s certainly worth considering video / remote meetings as an offering firms might want to make available, particularly for those with a more geographically diverse client base or in areas or with clients where transportation might sometimes pose difficulties.

Overlooked Opportunities for Tailoring Communications

As we stated in our key findings, less than 6% of respondents consider any client characteristics outside of age, income, gender or education for the purpose of crafting tailored client content. Considering the technologies we know they are using to run their practices, including CRM (which allows them to track virtually unlimited key characteristics about each of their clients and prospects), an opportunity presents itself here both in terms of 1) strengthening client relationships (through more personalized communications to display an advisor’s attention to detail and level of care) and 2) addressing their number one named challenge: customizing communication for different clients.

Further, tailored content that touches upon key characteristics over and above the largely demographic information currently used should also help with the number two top challenge (discussed above), which was engaging clients outside of meetings, and that’s regardless of the communications channel used for delivering more finely tuned tailored content. Both clients and prospects want to feel like they are more than their demographics alone, and communications that reflect their advisor is interacting with them as an individual can bolster their confidence in the relationship.

CONCLUSION:

Both clear cut communication challenges and potential methods of meeting those challenges head-on arose through our examination of the survey results. Encouragingly, 60% of respondents are using their communications budgets for the year to update their tools, technology or processes and/or to improve the quality of their existing communications assets. While the survey didn’t drill down to the granular level about the nature of these updates and improvements, a clear majority of respondents do seem to be budgeting for communications with an awareness they need to either 1) incorporate new communications tools or 2) better use the ones they currently have.

“Due to the nature of the industry, particularly in terms of its regulation, financial services is often significantly slower than others to embrace new communication technologies. That said, we weren’t surprised by how much advisor offices still rely on phone calls and face-to-face meetings; what did surprise us was how little they appear to be incorporating alternate forms of communication that might be better suited for specific types of outreach while also helping them to address some of their biggest challenges. We set out to dig into this divide and came away with what we consider to be a wealth of actionable insights we can share with advisors.

“Our research indicates opportunities abound for offices in terms of scaling their practices and honoring client communication preferences; in many cases it may be as simple as retooling their usage of available communications technologies. Additionally, the results lead us to conclude advisors may not be taking advantage of opportunities to strengthen relationships through more precisely tailored content to clients and prospects. In a competitive market, taking advantage of either of these opportunities should produce dividends.”

Brian McLaughlin, CEO of Redtail Technology

WINNER:

Congratulations as well to survey participant Jason out of Smithtown, NY, who won the drawing for a $250 Amazon Gift Card.

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For more information on the survey findings or if you have any questions about Redtail Technology, please contact Kimberly Beck | kimberly.beck@redtailtechnology.com.