New Opportunities For Advisors Part 1

Without a vision and a business plan, some financial advisors are addicted to selling.  They’re caught in the trap of chasing sales of masses of sometimes-ineffective products instead of focusing on selected profitable products.  Their focus is on their own Unmet Needs and not on adding value to the client.

Client needs, industry regulations and investment products are becoming more and more complex.  There is volatility in the market, and new technology to master.  Clients have access to more information and so have higher expectations. 

The opportunities:

Opportunities for succession

Retiring financial advisors with successful businesses have a lot of wisdom to pass on, but only if they look at the big picture and plan for it.  It’s time to stop being just a salesperson and become a businessperson.  This means focusing on the big picture.

Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of The Tipping Point, said, “We have to recognize as a society, that 65 is an unrealistic retirement age and we have to get people to work longer.”  (The Globe and Mail Report on Business, October 1, 2007)

The reinvention movement

Many baby boomers have spent years in a career or job that they didn’t really like; they did it to make ends meet.  Now, they are 50-60 years old and looking for something more inspiring.  As one young retiree put it, “You can only go on so many cruises and have so many golf games before you get sick of it.”

They have all of this experience and creativity they would like to pour into a business or career that they love, and they will be receiving substantial funds from the sale of their last business or an early buyout.

Opportunities for success

A 2006 British Columbia report indicated there were 55,000 business owners in B.C., between 55 and 65 years of age.  Only eight percent of them have a succession plan.  There is a huge need for inspired and qualified advisors, and there is a huge opportunity for the cream to rise to the top.

The first baby boomer turned 60 on January 1st, 2006.  As David Foot remarked when he opened the October 2007 Independent Financial Brokers Fall Summit in Toronto, only two out of ten baby boomers has a financial advisor.  All you need to do is show up, and you’re going to see a tsunami of opportunity coming towards you in the next fifteen years.  Baby boomers are coming into billions of dollars through inheritance, the sale of businesses and early buyouts.

This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008