PFS webinars - What clients want

One of the latest PFS Power webinars explores what clients want and how to meet their needs, Luke Holloway finds out more

PFS Power is hosting regular webinars throughout the beginning of 2021, helping personal finance professionals embrace the use of financial planning tools and techniques to help them and their clients achieve excellent outcomes.

In January, the first of 12 monthly PFS Power webinars supported by Dimensional Fund Advisers was launched, aimed at introducing practice management and personal development subjects to guide advisers as they evolve their advice firms and position themselves for future growth.

The first episode – Financial Planning and the Value of Advice – is hosted by chair of the PFS Power practitioner panel, Damien Rylett, and features David Jones, head of Dimensional’s UK and Ireland adviser group, and Sarah Lord, chief client officer at Succession Wealth and president of the PFS.

Mr Jones’ presentation introduces a framework to develop a transformed advice business and explains how to overcome key barriers in the advice process, while examining the key components of a financial plan in 
an initial conversation with prospective clients.

He refers to Dimensional’s most recent 2020 global investor survey of more than 16,000 participants and 365 firms to highlight what clients really value. Clients want a financial adviser who has ‘experience with clients like me’, this being the attribute clients considered most important in an advisory relationship, even above investment returns. ‘Knowledge of my personal financial situation’ also scored very highly.

The cost of fees and expenses and having an adviser of a similar age scored extremely low, meaning these are rarely of importance to clients.

Mr Jones says: “If the business is focused on just the delivery of an investment outcome, then you are a hostage to fortune. It may be that you have done everything you can to get the appropriate asset allocation in place but as we have seen recently, there is a huge amount of volatility and investment solutions may not come out as you may hope. Essentially, you will be judged on that.

“When you are delivering more holistic financial planning advice to clients and really helping them get that piece of mind from the engagement with an adviser, that really does make a huge difference,” says Mr Jones.

Value of advice

On communicating the value of advice to individuals who need it but may not feel they have access to it, Mr Jones says: “People who do not seek out advice tend to have lower financial literacy, competence and 
confidence, but also much higher levels of anxiety. This is why working with professional bodies like the PFS, which are trying to get that message of the value of seeking advice out to a broader population, is so important.”

Ms Lord adds: “The great thing about financial planning is making people focus on the future but it is also one of the challenges. Clients can be anxious about their future and that is where we can really help by trying to break down those mental barriers around that anxiety so that people have confidence.

“Definitely what we are seeing at Succession Wealth now is that the next generation of planners are focused on helping people achieve financial wellbeing.”

Visit: www.pfspower.org now to sign up for future webinars and watch previous episodes for free and on demand.

Luke Holloway is editor of PFP

Image credit | iStock