There are many reasons someone may decide it’s time to work with a new financial advisor.A strong advisor relationship is about more than managing investments. It’s about ongoing communication, thoughtful guidance, and helping you make informed financial decisions that support your long-term goals.
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John, in your years of experience, when is it time to switch advisors?
Well, Austin, I can tell you this. The three main reasons that we see people coming in and wanting to potentially look at us as their next advisor is, first and foremost, is a do-it-yourselfer that just feels like their situation has become large enough or complex enough where they just simply don’t want to do it themselves anymore. Or they feel like their spouse, if something happened to them, wouldn’t be equipped to handle the finances and the family planning, family financial planning.
But when people are coming to us from other advisors, two of the big triggers that I see and I’ve seen over the years is, number one, well, I’ll put it this way. As soon as they have my money, they stop calling me. Our clients don’t suffer from that. Our clients hear from us all the time. We are always looking to get in front of our clients on a regular basis and keep the plan moving and make those incremental changes that lead to better outcomes in the long run.
And then the other one is every idea that I bring my advisor is a good idea. And I know that can’t be true. What I’m hearing there is that a client doesn’t feel like their advisor is really giving them true guidance, leadership, and helping them instill discipline, which is to say, educating them about the trade-offs in the decisions that they’re about to make.
So, if I buy this thing, what are the ramifications? Well, you’re going to have to retire two years later. Okay, that’s worth it, or it’s not. And then that allows the client, I think, to make a much more informed decision and to have the context.
So, it’s not just about managing money. It’s about helping clients make better decisions and have better outcomes in the long run.
So, if I’m hearing you correctly, in addition to focusing on the financial plan and staying in good communication with our clients, it’s also about being prepared to have uncomfortable conversations if we feel like it is truly in their best interest.
That’s exactly right.