Advisors across the globe are feeling the pressure to retain clients and assets as the so-called Great Wealth Transfer kicks into gear, according to a new survey.
Some 41% of advisors report that they see the colossal transfer of more than $84 trillion in assets over the next 20 years as an existential threat to their business, according to the survey from Naxtisis Investment Managers, which has $1.3 trillion in assets under management.
Thirty percent are worried they will not retain assets from clients’ spouses or their children, according to the survey of 2,700 advisors in 20 countries. The survey was conducted between June and August.
Advisors reported retaining client relationships 78% of the time when the spouse inherits, but that drops to 58% when their clients’ children inherit.
Overall, 22% of advisors said they’ve lost significant assets through generational attrition. With wealth transfers accelerating, that attrition can take a sizeable chunk out of any firm’s client and asset base, Natixis said.
“I think the numbers may be higher and advisors are losing more clients than they report,” Dave Goodsell, executive director of the Natixis Center for Investor Insight, said during a webinar this week.
To combat client and asset leakage, advisors say they are working to add an average of 16 new clients per year and to grow their AUM by 11% annually, which is no easy feat, Goodsell said.
While advisors “have mastered navigating through market turbulence, record-high inflation and a historic interest rate hike cycle, they’ll have to adapt their strategies to navigate both short-term economic risks and long-term business risks,” he said.
To retain assets, 92% of advisors say relationship-building is the number one strategy they purse that seems to help. To build relationships with the next generation of clients, 85% say they regularly discuss family wealth planning with clients and 87% extend family wealth planning discussions to family members.
Advisors also say offering ancillary services such as trust services (55%), personalized networking services (39%) and unified managed accounts (21%) are also strategies they use to retain assets.
Goodsell said it has become clear that most seasoned advisors “are chasing the same prospects” and that making the time to prospect is a challenge.
While advisors said in the survey they understand the need to prospect for new clients, they currently only dedicate 8% of their time in any given week to prospecting. Forty-six percent of advisors said they are prioritizing client segmentation to improve their prospecting efforts.
Ninety-six percent of advisors place the highest priority on pre-retirees, or people between the ages of 50 and 60, followed by those between the ages of 60 and 65 who are at or just entering retirement (88%), the Naxtisis survey found.
But with competition so stiff for those sweet-spot clients, more advisors are seeking out younger clients, too. Close to half (46%) of advisors say they are increasingly looking at younger accumulators between the ages of 35 and 50. In particular, advisors want younger clients “who are in their peak earning years and likely in need of comprehensive financial services to address multiple financial goals such as saving for retirement, funding education, and managing debt,” according to the survey.
Only 14% of advisors are prospecting for clients between the ages of 18 and 35 (Generations Y and Z), who represent the largest segment of the U.S. population, the firm reported.
“The number one thing for growing a business is meeting with existing clients and asking for referrals, which can be a force multiplier,” Goodsell said.
To improve their prospecting strategies, about half of advisors plan to create a team that has a member dedicated to prospecting. Almost half (43%) of advisors are leveraging social media strategies for prospecting and 21% find promise in leveraging future AI-powered prospecting tools, the survey found.
“Finding more time to deepen relationships with clients and financial planning service offerings will be crucial to the success of advisors and their businesses in the long run,” Goodsell said.
