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Results to Date
Financial Advisors Interests & Skills Survey
a one year survey on the Internet
Begun April 2001. Results as of 8 November 2001
Of 55 participants (37 USA, 16 Canada, 2 Asia)
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64% have more than 11 years life insurance experience,
22% less than 5 years
Trend: towards less experience |
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54% are investments licensed more than 11 years
22% less than 5 years
Trend: towards more experience |
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The number of clients ("pocketbooks") they serve is about equally distributed at 'less than 100', '100-200' and 300-500', indicating a variety of markets are served to varying degrees. However, 50% 'relate well with' less than 100 clients, indicating that a large number of clients may be worth examining for "profitability" and suitability, a common marketing problem if too many do not make the grade. |
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Asked how many clients you would like to duplicate or clone, 32% indicated 10-20 clients, 28% indicated 20-30, and 18% indicated 30-50. That means 78% of responders have less than 50 clients they want more of. This is the group of clients you should analyze and know best, use as the basis of your primary marketing activities, and be asking for personal (face to face) introductions. |
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Income - New Money (annually):
- 54% make less than $100,000
- 30% make $100,000 to $200,000
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Income - Old Money (established fees, renewals, residuals, trailers, etc.)
- 40% make under $50,000
- 30% make $50,000 - $100,000
- 12% make $100,000 - $200,000
- 16% make $200,000 - $300,000
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Fee Income
A surprise here...over 50% reported collecting fees for advice, assets under administration and services. 47% collect fees for assets under their own direct management, which is a much higher number than I expected in light of my experiences over the past 20 years. This may indicate a significant change in the advisor landscape. I will watch and report on this.
Trend: towards fee income independent of product |
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Primary Function
A clear majority, 70% see their primary function is advising.
20% still view their primary function as selling.
The rest said consulting, coaching or "both" meaning advising and selling. One response worth noting: "I view my role as a mix between advisor and sales... as some clients still need to be SOLD, even if they are good clients... It is their nature..."
Trend: to advising, less dependence on selling |
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Best Skill
Responders listed advising as their best skills generally (38%), and factfinding (20%) and selling (12%).
By far the skills most desired for personal development are marketing and prospecting, which scored 36% and 28% respectively. |
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Plans to Sell the Practice
84% have no plan. This is my experience consulting with advisors.
6% have a plan in the making, and 4% and handshake agreement.
Only 6% have a signed, funded agreement. Good for you! |
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One responder had a comment/request that I felt was worth noting: Would like to see more information on social psychology - e.g., what causes us to relate to each other as we do (as outlined in Robert Cialdini's "Influence". For instance, why is it I can call you today and it is a cold call but if you ask me to call back I'm more familiar to you when I do when in reality this is just another cold call. If we are selling a great product, such as life insurance, what are the things to do to get prospects to respond better. Are some techniques better than others. For example, there is a technique to draw a "no" on the initial phone call by saying something like "Are you interested in buying life insurance?" and then say may I send you a brochure on something you might be interested in to which you'll probably answer "yes" and I'll say "I usually find my clients are interested in one of three things: "Reducing their taxes, increasing their income, shortening their time to retirement by 7 years - which one interests you? At the next call, I call with information on guess what and you'll respond." More information like that would be extremely helpful. |
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