Advisors Tack on New Services to Attract Richest Clients

Advisors are doing their best Swiss Army knife impressions to lure in the world’s wealthiest clients.

With the global millionaire pool growing, advisors are racing to attract the richest clients, and those in the lead are offering the most services and the best client experience. Price and relationships are still on high-net-worth individuals’ minds when choosing a financial planner, but services and client experience are the most important determining factors, according to a Cerulli Associates survey released earlier this year. Some 35% of HNWIs with more than $5 million in investable assets said services and experience were why they chose their advisors last year, up from 28% in 2020.

It’s survival of the fittest out there, and may be time to add a new blade.

The Everything Advisor

No surprise here: The rich are getting richer, and wealth is becoming more concentrated. Clients worth more than $5 million control roughly half of all investable assets in the US today, up from 27% in 2010. But there’s also more folks joining their ranks, too. The US has more than 5.5 million millionaires with at least $1 million in liquid, investable assets — a growth of 62% over the past decade, outpacing the worldwide growth rate of 38%, according to Henley & Partners USA Wealth Report. 

And all those newfound (or old) HNWIs want a highly personalized one-stop-shop for all their financial needs:

• On average, HNW practices now offer 12 services, up from 10 in 2017, including everything from family governance and charitable planning to private banking and bill pay. 
• The two fastest-growing services are estate planning and tax planning, with 70% and 45% of practices offering them, respectively. Both areas directly tie into the great $84 trillion wealth transfer that’s nearly upon us. 
• More than 80% of HNW practice indicated that they plan to expand their services over the next five years. With more to offer, that also means advisors can up their services fees.

Special Ops: Advisors can’t rest easy thinking their clients’ children will continue to park their money in the same places. More than 70% of adult children will leave their parents’ advisor when they receive their inheritance. BlackRock recommends advisors outfit their firms with specialized staff who can meet with each member of a client’s family to understand which services they most value. And if that doesn’t work, the old bank marketing ploy of throwing in a free toaster might do the trick.