Successful advisors know how to match their services with what clients want. And if clients want one thing, it’s holistic advising or setting goals and getting advice about more than just their finances. Holistic advising goes beyond traditional financial services to look at the complete client and includes advice on tax preparation, estate planning, insurance, and more.
A survey found that 71% of millennials and 57% of all respondents prefer to do most of their financial business at one institution that can bring together the specialists and services they need.
To meet this need, advisors and firms are moving toward holistic advising that considers their clients’ full lives and goals and offers services beyond just financial advising. The shift can be lucrative and create incredible growth opportunities, but the move can seem daunting.
Here’s what advisors and firms need to do to get started with holistic advising.
Market Research
Holistic advising can take many forms. Before diving in too deeply, talk to current and potential clients about the services (if any) they’d be interested in. Dig into market research about other advising services in your area and demographics and lifestyle preferences.
Talking to clients and tracking their interests can help narrow down the scope of holistic services and ensure you provide what clients want. It also prevents advisors from investing time and money into additional services that don’t align with what clients actually want.
Establish Partnerships
Depending on what services you want to include, you’ll likely have to tap into the expertise of other providers, such as lawyers, estate planners, or accountants. These types of advising require advanced degrees or certifications that may not be feasible for financial advisors to take on on their own.
Establishing partnerships can either look like bringing specialized advisors on to work at the firm or sending business back and forth. More than just referring your clients to another type of advisor, you can work together through joint meetings or information sharing to create a comprehensive plan. Each advisor still has their firm and client list, but you can come together to provide additional services as needed.
Embrace New Training and Experiences
Even if you partner with other certified advisors in different fields, it’s helpful to fully understand holistic advising, including knowing the basics of areas like insurance, estate planning, real estate, and more. Look for educational opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills in these areas so you can speak knowledgeably and know how to best work with your partners. Training can include certifications, joining industry groups, and networking with advisors in other specialties.
Apply Advice to All Areas
A key feature of holistic advising is that it considers all areas of a client’s life, including their family, career, and future goals. Holistic advising looks at more than just the numbers to get to the heart of a client’s goals across all areas of their future, including their finances.
This approach requires getting to know clients on a deeper level than their demographics or basic finances. Does a client love to travel? Are they hoping to support their grandchildren’s college education? Are they opening a new business? These factors change their financial outlook and should be considered when making financial recommendations. Advisors take a holistic approach and look at all areas of their client’s lives and financial plans to make accurate recommendations beyond the basics.
Make Sure Your Technology Can Keep Up
Offering holistic advising requires tracking more data than typical financial metrics. Advisors often must be aware of the content of lengthy documents like tax returns, powers of attorney, and wills to provide quality holistic advice. Incorporating data from additional sources can strain some technology or cause it to be used differently. Look for tools that can expand to include new data or that integrate with other platforms. PreciseFP integrates with FP Alpha to pull financial information from other platforms and tax documents to create snapshots. These visual pages make it easy for advisors and clients to see their tax and estate planning needs and make adjustments without reading long documents.
Need help supporting your advisors as they begin to offer more services? Turn to Docupace for new account openings, surveillance, compensation, and more. Click here to schedule a discovery call.
