Five years removed from the onset of the pandemic, it’s interesting to reflect on the stuff that’s changed and the stuff that hasn’t.
Remember when people were predicting handshakes were going to become a thing of the past? Or how no one was going to attend college anymore?
One of the quickest changes we all made was becoming comfortable with video calls to communicate. I don’t even get conference call-in numbers anymore. It’s all Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and such.
This changed the financial advice space basically overnight. It no longer mattered if you were the financial advisory firm down the street. The advice universe expanded exponentially once people realized you could hold a meeting with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Sure, some clients still prefer to work with someone local, but competition in the wealth management industry has never been greater. You need better, more efficient ways to meet clients where they are.
This is why financial advisors need to pay more attention to the 401k space. There is nearly $1 trillion in rollovers every year. As more states mandate retirement plans for businesses, it’s expected 401k plans will grow from roughly 600,000 to one million in the coming years. Advisors who service 401k plans are more profitable because they act as a funnel for new clients who need financial advice. That’s only going to grow in the years ahead.
I talked with Fred Barstein from The Plan Sponsor University about everything advisors need to understand about this space.
We covered:
How advisory firms can become more profitable.
Consolidation in the wealth management industry.
The 3 biggest things happening in the 401k space.
What smaller RIAs can do to compete.
The growing importance of servicing HENRY clients.
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