The message to advisers and the future of their practices is to ‘communicate or perish’, according to Julianne Bell, MD of Financial Writers Australia.
…if advisers don’t … communicate with their clients, they won’t have any
In relaunching the company’s Financial Articles Library, Ms Bell is sending a blunt message to all advisers, arguing that the Global Financial Crisis has proven that if advisers don’t educate or simply communicate with their clients, they won’t have any.
Supporting her contention, Ms Bell refers to CoreData research released earlier this year, which found:
- An estimated 215,000 clients deserted their financial planners over a 12-month period at the height of the world economic crisis
- Over 62% of these clients said they left due to poor or infrequent communication
According to Ms Bell, these figures reflect the fact that many advisers fail to recognise the vital role communication plays - not only in the success of an advice-based business, but in its very survival.
“So many advisers think that the client newsletter is just an ‘add-on’ to their marketing,” said Ms Bell, who added, “What the past year proves is that without regular communication, clients don’t understand the value of good financial advice and think they can do it better themselves.”
Ms Bell argues that while regular communications to clients helps to build their trust, many advisers are ill-equipped to communicate regularly with their clients via newsletters:
“It’s ironic because what the CoreData research shows is that without regular communication, clients will walk,” said Ms Bell.
Financial Writers Australia says its re-launched Financial Articles Library (previously named Words Unlimited) is continually updated and provides its subscribers with 24/7 access to over 450 finance and lifestyle articles for use in the preparation of client newsletters.
The Financial Articles Library covers a broad array of financial services topics; advisers and their team members can click here for more details.
