client relations
Client relationships are the foundation of financial advising. So how can advisers connect digitally?
The relationship between investment consultants and active investment managers is frequently a strained one. What are the biggest mistakes an active manager can make to complicate the collaboration? We asked CFA Institute Financial NewsBrief readers what they thought, and Jason Voss, CFA, analyzes the results.
Trust is the main ingredient that binds clients to particular investment professionals or firms. But that trust can be easily broken, leading investors to seek alternate service providers. Trust is a broad concept, however, and according to a new poll, what causes clients to lose trust and leave a firm is not necessarily what advisers think it is.
Investors always want access and transparency, but never more so than during difficult market periods. Experience and logic suggest that clients of all types and sizes, when facing crashing markets and wild swings, want to know about fund and account performance and want more frequent communications. They also want reassurance.
As investment professionals, we spend a lot of time honing our analytical skills and keeping up to date on the latest market developments. But the other role many of us play is that of a communicator, one who effectively explains to prospective clients why we will serve them well. This is a competitive business, so clients want to know what makes us different from the thousands of other investment firms out there.
Communication is key in relationships — not only in marriages and partnerships, but also between financial advisers and their clients. As such, it is important that advisers be aware of the differences between men's and women's communication styles so that they can be more effective when working with couples as well as current and future clients.
Chief among investors' qualitative concerns are the honesty and character of management. When character meets communications you have candor. Rittenhouse Rankings is a company that ranks business candor and its results are predictive of future stock performance.
Financial firms serve a number of stakeholders. But do they serve them equally? Can they? Should they? Robert Jenkins, adjunct professor of finance at London Business School and a governor of the CFA Institute, explores how boards are ranking various stakeholders in light of the recent financial crisis.
Lim How, the author of two books about motivation, discussed the challenges investment professionals face when building trust with clients and co-workers.
The US Federal Reserve’s easy money policies may be helping to prop up the global economy, but they are making life difficult for people who own income-producing financial assets — and the advisers and wealth managers they turn to for advice.