Over the last decade, the RIA industry has grown from a niche offering to a widely accepted industry mainstay. By 2027, RIAs are predicted to control one-third of the intermediary market.
As the market grows and evolves, RIAs face a difficult challenge: balancing long-term strategy and planning with short-term goals and growth. By focusing too much on the long term, they risk not being agile enough to respond to new trends and market changes, but focusing too much on the short-term risks means not having a big-picture strategy and lasting client relationships.
Here are three ways RIAs can balance long-term and short-term goals.
Recruit and Develop Talent
Many RIAs are solo advisors, but the industry is changing as RIAs build small teams or combine forces with other advisors to expand their service offerings. As you look to the future, one of the most important things to consider is what additional talent you’ll need to reach your growth goals.
Hiring new talent can be daunting, especially with an unknown future. You don’t need to rush into hiring more staff, but you can always be looking for the skills you’ll need. You may find yourself interacting more with clients preparing for retirement, meaning you may want someone experienced in that area. Or you may discover clients want their advising services combined into one firm, meaning hiring someone with legal experience could be beneficial. Having a solid understanding of the long-term needs of your business can help you find and hire the right person.
There’s also a benefit to developing in-house talent, such as hiring an intern to train and develop, which can be less of a steep financial investment. You could also build connections with other advisors to potentially work with in the future or start training qualified family members to eventually bring into the business full time. Intentionally recruiting and developing talent allows you to create an effective team in the long run without sacrificing your current services.
Create an Integrated Digital System
Technology can make or break a client’s experience. As a younger generation of investors enters the market, the demand to provide digital solutions to stay in contact and manage their accounts grows. These digital natives want transparency with their money and to communicate with their advisors quickly — both of which can happen through digital platforms.
RIAs position themselves well for the future as they invest in foundational technology, including a robust CRM system and client-facing dashboard. Although technology is constantly evolving, these tools won’t go out of style. Over time, they will grow and evolve, but investing in them allows RIAs to serve their clients well and have the foundational knowledge to find success in the future.
It can be tempting to chase every new digital tool. While that may provide a short-term boost, RIAs set themselves up for long-term success by finding technology that solves major pain points, improves the client relationship, relieves friction or stress from a process, and integrates with their other systems. Docupace offers leading cloud-based data storage solutions for RIAs that integrate with dozens of systems to create an agile, customizable technology suite to serve RIAs well now and for years to come.
Build a Strong Brand
One of your most valuable assets as an RIA is your brand. Competition in the financial services industry can be fierce, especially as clients’ needs change and more people turn to advisors. Successful RIAs look towards the future as they build a strong brand they can leverage for short-term marketing efforts.
Think of it like building a house: a strong brand foundation is the structure of the house and doesn’t change over time. This can be establishing a brand that is trustworthy, community-oriented, or focused on a particular demographic or type of account. But over time, the décor of the house may change to match trends and preferences. With a strong brand foundation, you can experiment with different marketing angles, such as following social media trends or creating content on whatever channel is most in demand at the moment. You aren’t rebuilding your brand with every change, but you have the flexibility to be creative and respond to clients’ changing preferences while still staying true to your foundation.
Even with all of these challenges and adjustments, RIAs aren’t alone. It’s an exciting time to be in the RIA industry, and plenty of resources exist to adapt and thrive in the changing times. Docupace’s RIA Productivity Suite provides firms with a simplified, automated, and digital toolkit to empower growth and streamline operations. Learn more here.
