“Advice firms only spend 35% of time on client meetings”

Dec 4, 2024 | Financial Services

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

So what should we be doing with our time? Ask any adviser what they enjoy most about what they do and without exception they will tell you that it’s spending time with their clients. Ask (hopefully most) clients what they value most about their adviser and they’ll say it’s personal contact and the reassurance that someone who (generally) knows what they’re doing is looking after their money. When big firms are looking to recruit we smaller fry to their ranks, the carrot is not money but the promise that they’ll look after all the boring stuff so that we can spend more time helping clients. None of this, sadly, is reality for most. That reality is reports to write, boxes to tick and for every hour spent with a client,   another two of advice administration. And ask any working for a big boy, and it’s the demands of an amorphous head office which takes up half of their days. Must it be ever thus? Will AI solve our problems? Will regulators ever reduce the boxes to be ticked? In the words of the late, great K. MacColl, ‘I don’t think so…’

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