The ClientWise Blog

Financial Advisors…brace yourselves for more competition! Come mid-Fall, hedge funds could be pitching their services to wealth management clients with alluring commercials, billboards, brochures, websites and social networking. That’s because the JOBS Act, passed by Congress and signed into law in April, opened the door to hedge fund advertising. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday published rules governing this shift and opened a 30-day comment period.

It’s a paradox! Just as opportunities for financial advisors are on the rise, more advisors than ever before are leaving the industry. A study by research firm Cerulli Associates reveals that the ranks of U.S.-based financial advisors fell by 2.3 percent or 7,000 in 2011. The firm expects this trend to continue, with the industry losing approximately 19,000 advisors during the next five years.

Marketing is one of the most critical activities in the ClientWise Professional Advisory Model™ (PAM™). An effective marketing campaign leverages your branding message to connect with potential clients, professional advocates and industry influencers as well as solidifying your message with current clients.

Many financial advisors want more exposure in the media. It’s a no-brainer really. Media attention raises your awareness with potential clients, potential professional advocates and other stakeholders; enhances your stature with current clients and tends to feed on itself, resulting in more media attention and the opportunity to be on TV, in the newspaper, as well as online news outlets.

You may have seen this provocative article in this past weekend’s NY Times, “A Fancy Financial Adviser Title Does Not Ensure High Standards”.

Following a pilot program that gave 600 financial advisors access to Twitter and LinkedIn, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney has taken the training wheels off and gave permission this week for all of it’s advisors to use social media marketing platforms. There’s a catch, though.

For financial advisors, a website is the gateway to your practice for potential clients. An interesting, informative website serves to welcome potential clients and help them get comfortable with you and your services. A poorly designed and written website that’s confusing and doesn’t provide the information a potential client is looking for could end a relationship before it begins.

Ever since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in July 2010, RIAs have been wondering what regulatory agency they would ultimately answer to. While that question still hasn’t been resolved, Sen. Max Bachus introduced legislation last week that would transfer regulation of RIAs from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to a separate agency, most likely the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Last week, we observed that blogging is finally coming of age for financial advisors. As more financial service companies find a way to work within compliance issues, there are more opportunities for financial advsors to differentiate themselves, and use the blogging medium to get in front of potential clients, colleagues, media members, and industry influencers.

Blogging is finally coming of age for financial advisors. It used to be that blogging was optional – advisors could do it or not, and if not...hassles with compliance were always a handy excuse.