16 Assumptions That Cause Advisors to Lose Clients

The older generation of advisors is aging out. With them go many valuable lessons, especially regarding client retention. They may be the last generation to remember stick shifts, home answering machines and faxing, but they also worked in the business when it was transactional and you spoke with your clients on a regular basis. Advisors built positions in stocks, waited and hoped they would perform as advertised, then sold the position, replacing it with another. The "Have a hunch, buy a bunch" strategy required lots of client contact. Today, many client relationships involve managed money or asset-based pricing. Advisors are paid regardless of how often or infrequently they are in touch with clients. Because professional money managers are involved, the client's assets might even grow without advisory intervention. The bond between the client and the advisor is much weaker when communication drops off. Let us look at 16 things some advisors assume, wrongly, about their clients.