The role of financial advice is evolving. Life is becoming more ‘multi-staged’, and with it, your clients are likely to have shifting responsibilities, goals and motivations. Today, while money management and wealth building remain integral, the importance of focusing on your clients’ financial wellbeing shouldn’t be overlooked.
This means going beyond their basic need for money and focusing more on their mindset, life goals and motivations. By doing this, it could lead to more satisfying and enduring outcomes for your clients, fostering a long-term relationship built on trust.
In this article, we explore four reasons why financial wellbeing should be embedded into your advice.
1. Client motivations run deeper than a need for money
Our research shows that when it comes to building financial wellbeing, money and mindset factors are intertwined. In other words, our financial position can be strengthened by having a stronger connection to what gives us joy, purpose and meaning in life. Focusing on your client’s broader financial wellbeing – their hopes and fears, blockers and objectives – can help their financial decisions better align with their life goals. By establishing their deeper aspirations and motivations, it could help you to tailor a more effective financial plan to suit their needs.
Our financial wellbeing tool can help your clients identify areas of their financial wellbeing that could be better developed. Once they’ve been identified, you can work on strengthening them together.
2. It builds your clients’ resilience, confidence and control
Only a little over half (54%) say they’re confident they’ll be able to manage any financial challenges that come their way throughout their lifetime.1 Economic circumstances like inflation could cause anxiety, stress and indecision for your clients.
Naturally, people want to feel reassured that whatever happens – even when markets plunge or investments underperform – that their plans for the future can be financially supported. They want to know what they need mentally, emotionally and financially to feel secure and lead meaningful and enjoyable lives. As such, a holistic approach that considers various aspects of financial wellbeing can help to provide that reassurance. Doing so also means you could avoid measuring success solely to investment returns.
3. It could benefit your bottom line
Our research shows that advisers who pursue a financial wellbeing agenda with their clients are likely to be more successful than those who prioritise wealth management. 31% of these advisers – known as ‘wellbeing maximisers’ – claim over half of their clients have introduced someone else to them, compared with only 20% of ‘performance maximisers’.2
Wellbeing maximisers also tend to have a more positive outlook on the advice sector than performance maximisers. They report higher profit margins (43%) versus their performance-focused counterparts (35%).2
By keeping up to date with your clients’ individual circumstances, you can provide additional advice where needed, creating further income. Getting to know your clients on a deeper level and focusing on their financial wellbeing could increase loyalty and boost business.
4. The human touch is key to successful client relationships
Today, there are many digital guidance tools, such as robo-advisers and DIY platforms, that help clients make their own investment decisions. These tools provide clever, cheaper and automated solutions, which could especially appeal to the younger generation. In some cases, your clients might feel that these tools replace the need for a human adviser.
Tech-savvy clients can use digital guidance to invest, but you have value over and above these tools. You can demonstrate this through frequent and friendly client engagement, and an emphasis on overall financial wellbeing, which digital advisers can’t replicate.
Building lasting client connections
Focusing on your clients’ broader financial wellbeing could boost their resilience, enhance your bottom line and build stronger relationships, making it a win-win for everyone involved. Visit our financial wellbeing hub for more resources on how you can embed financial wellbeing into your advice.
- Our insight into the nation’s financial wellbeing 2023. Research from 10,040 respondents from July to August 2023. Data source, Aegon, published November 2023.
- Study conducted by Research in Finance on behalf of Aegon. Quantitative online survey with 255 advisers between 4 to 18 January 2022 and qualitative telephone interviews with 12 advisers between 26 January to 2 February 2022. Data source, Aegon, published February 2022.