Today, households that include someone age 60 and older hold more than $11 trillion in investable assets. Given the demographics of the wealthy population, many firms are looking to elder services to engage their older clients. Providing these specialized services allows firms to prove their value to aging clients and their extended families.

One leading firm, Hamilton Private Bank (pseudonym), develops an elder services strategy to provide “life management” for its older HNW clients by taking the following steps:

1. Establishing a dedicated elder services group
2. Creating customized service plans for elderly clients
3. Ensuring profitable delivery for high-touch services

Hamilton’s elder services group proves to be a differentiator in the market as this value-add service helps Hamilton secure primary advisor status and earn the trust of its clients and their beneficiaries, resulting in retention of next generation assets.

Forum members, learn how to create specialized services for aging clients that demonstrate clients’ well-being, financial and otherwise, remains your firm’s top priority.

In recent conversations with members, many have shared that they are determined to have their client base better reflect their true target market. Today firms serve many clients who do not qualify for the wealth management offering, and in turn, who do not require the level of service they currently receive, putting profitability at risk. While executives recognize the cost burden of serving these clients, they also fear that migrating relationships will result in losing relationships. In addition, executives struggle to convince advisors that migrating low-value clients to either a different advisor or to a lower tier offering will ultimately benefit their bottom line.

While migration can obviously put client relationships at risk, The Forum finds that firms who allocate the appropriate resources to managing the migration process can realize financial benefits. In addition to clear processes, firms must also implement incentives that encourage advisors to not only migrate non-target market clients to a new offering, but also to only acquire new clients that meet the necessary threshold.

To learn more, access a few tips on how leading firms manage their migration strategies:

1. Centrally identify clients who do not fit the target market and require advisor to prove why the relationship should not be migrated if they oppose.
2. Create a migration checklist to ensure a seamless migration process.
3. Conduct a rigorous review of client relationships between the executive team and advisors to determine optimal timing and communication strategy to manage the migration of each client.
4. Only compensate advisors for new client relationships that fit the firm’s target market.

While client migration is certainly a daunting challenge with clear processes, appropriate time spend, and compelling incentives, firms can return their focus to building deep relationships with their target market.

Due to today’s complex client profile, we find advisors often mistakenly spend their time on the wrong clients—those who demand a lot of time, but don’t generate, or have the potential to generate, much revenue for the firm. As advisors face unprecedented demand for personalized advice and service, firms are looking to bring more discipline to segmentation strategies that can improve the economics of client experience delivery.

One leading firm, Kissinger Bank (pseudonym), deconstructs its client experience offering into three distinct components and successfully maps its proposition to client segments based on client value and tenure with the firm. The tiered service system allows the firm to do the following:

• Create consistent and high-quality interactions across all channels
• Introduce products and services that meet clients’ needs
• Foster engagement that weds high-value clients to the firm

Forum members, learn how to identify meaningful client segments and create economically viable service offerings through The Forum’s recent research.

Today, wealth managers are constantly looking to build differentiated and value-add offerings. However, firms often struggle to find the balance between providing unique services, while aligning cost to serve with clients’ value to the firm.

Recognizing clients’ heightened demand for specialized advisory services and education, one leading firm, Renshaw Bank, designs a program that leads to higher client satisfaction, advocacy rates and share of wallet.

The three components of Renshaw Bank’s advisory and education program include:

1. Consultancy Engagements – Providing high-value clients with fee-based comprehensive advisory solutions and execution.
2. Educational Programs – Developing a full calendar of education events with targeted invite lists to ensure relevance.
3. Knowledge-Sharing Website – Creating low cost ‘advisory’ interactions through a robust website.

Forum members, learn more about this firm’s strategy to ensure cost of service aligns with clients’ value to the firm.

The News: Recent results from a Market Dynamics Research and Consulting survey show that only 41% of high-net-worth women are satisfied with the services provided by their wealth management firm.

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Today wealth managers strive to identify a segmentation strategy that will give them a competitive advantage in the market.  VIP Forum members often tell us that despite efforts they’ve made to target specific segments they struggle to drive adoption of the strategies on the front line.  Forum research finds that the most effective segmentation strategies are those that originate from the insights and expertise of front line advisors. Read More »

In recent conversations with VIP Forum members we have received a number of questions regarding service differentiation for different client segments.  We often hear that advisors spend their time on the wrong clients—those that don’t generate, or have the potential to generate, much revenue for the firm.  Members report this issue is more pronounced in the post-crisis, with all clients demanding more communication and advice.  To improve the economics of individual client relationships, firms must mitigate service misalignment issues and ensure advisors target their time to the optimal clients. Read More »