Investing is not merely about numbers and financial returns – it's a journey that should be meaningful, engaging, and empowering for the investor.
The role of a financial advisor extends beyond managing portfolios and providing financial advice, advisors have the opportunity to guide investors through a transformative and enriching experience. By understanding the importance of connecting with investors on a deeper level, advisors can not only enhance their client's financial outcomes but also cultivate long-lasting relationships built on trust, education, and shared goals.
I caught up with Zach Conway, founder of Seeds Investor, and we discussed how financial advisors can elevate the investor experience and pave the way for a truly fulfilling investment journey. Click on the video below to watch the full interview.
Transcript:
I think advisors have the opportunity to have markets, help them grow their businesses over the last several years. Given the fact that obviously, we are in a tough year this year with where markets, our advisors are kind of circling the wagons trying to figure out – what is our differentiation, what's our value prop, so that we can actually create sustainable organic growth. And so once you accomplish that, and sort of figure out what your differentiation is, then you need to figure out how you use technology to actually bring that to life and go communicate it to the marketplace.
Advisors sometimes get hung up on talking about products and services, and how their products and services are better than the advisors across the street. We want to encourage advisors to talk about – what we think clients are really asking them to talk about – which is their ability to understand what's most important to them, that human element. Sort of go talk to their clients about what matters most to them, and not focus on their products and services as being that really primary differentiation for them.
At Seeds, we think about how advisors can take an investor through hopefully a more meaningful and engaging investing experience. When you talk about knowing an investor better an advisor today kind of takes people through what can be a cookie-cutter process of what's your risk tolerance and time horizon, here's your model portfolio and then on a quarterly basis, here's what the portfolio is doing from a performance standpoint.
With technology, if I can capture really a multi-dimensional picture of my investor, and what matters most to them, and I can put them in the right portfolio, and then I can talk to them in the way that's going to resonate most and bring portfolio insights to life that are really going to connect with them.
I think it's about how you go back to what that differentiation is. I think we're focused a lot on how do you create the right marketing funnel and get on social media and do the right things from a marketing standpoint, but we miss that core element of how we are actually different and how we are creating a client experience for our clients. It's really starting there. What is the experience that we deliver beyond just the products and services that we deliver?