Being a part of an effective team, a focus on planning and the use of digital tools are among the top attributes of successful advisors today, according to Vince Lumia, managing director and head of field management for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
"First and foremost, what we're seeing is" the most successful advisors today are "on a team," he said Thursday during the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Private Client Virtual Conference.
Successful practices also tend to be "planning-based and they have a very scalable and repeatable investment process," he said, adding those advisors who are doing those things are "just flat out growing faster than others."
On the importance of a team, he explained: "The demands are just so great on our advisors today and it's really, really difficult to do it on your own, and it's no question that teams are getting even larger. The days of a two-person team with an assistant or two is very much in the rearview mirror. And I think that's a really good thing for clients."
That is because "having scale, building the right team and infrastructure affords the team the time to serve the clients on the things that are important to them and helps them position themselves for growth in their business" at the same time, he said.
After all, "without capacity and scale, teams will spend their time doing administrative things, much of which is of much less value to the clients," he noted.
Also, "high-performing teams are quicker to partner with other specialized advisors when opportunities require skills that are not a part of their core strengths," he pointed out.
Race, age and gender diversity is "also something that we're seeing to be a vital ingredient and I think everybody understands the business case for diversity now more than ever," he said.
The shift to remote work has also made advisors more willing to partner with other advisors in other geographies and it has become easier than ever to do, he noted.
