In the first installment of this new podcast series, Michael Kitces, financial planner and author of the Nerd’s Eye View blog, and Joe Duran, CEO of United Capital Financial Advisers, have a candid conversation about innovation and what it means for today’s advisors to make changes in their business.
Ten years ago, most advisors just had to build investment portfolios for a reasonable fee to stay competitive. Now, most advisors are doing financial planning to give them an edge. But Duran and Kitces say advisory firms should really be making changes every two to three years just to keep up with the industry. You can’t be a growth firm without an innovation mindset, and if you’re not innovating, you’ll get left behind.
And it’s typically not the people on the team that are hesitant to make changes; more often than not it’s the founder who is conservative about making changes. They like how they’ve been doing things for years. In fact, 85 to 90 percent of advisors view change as a liability, a cost they have to go through, Duran says.
The two also discuss financial technology. As advisors look at the dearth of software choices, they can often become overwhelmed and not know where to start.
“You start with the consumer,” Duran says. “Everything has to be built around a very simple idea, ‘Does this make being my client better?’”
Listen to the podcast