“If there’s one thing we want you to take away, it’s that as advisors, you must be nimble and notable,” Chris Perry, Global Head of Client Solutions with Broadridge, emphasized during an opening panel discussion at the firm’s GetConnected2019 conference in Keystone, Colorado on Sunday.
This year’s theme, ‘navigating to next,’ was mentioned throughout, and included a discussion of both the challenges and opportunities retirement plan advisors face moving forward.
“Consumers need quality advice now more than ever,” Cindy Dash, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Broadridge’s Matrix Solutions, said before describing “headwinds,” including a lack of savings, fee compression, tariffs and interest rate cuts.
The opportunity, she added, involves (what else?) millennials.
“A study we conducted for last year’s conference found that millennials will be 75% of the workforce by 2030,” Dash said. “Most want financial advice, but not their parents’ financial advisor. How do we move forward in an extremely challenging environment? One of the biggest challenges is being at the center of the flow for our clients. We connect to the asset managers, the record keepers, broker-dealers, advisors and clients. But we don’t compete with advisors; we help you to focus on your clients and your business.”
Technology upgrades
Noting that the advisors with whom Broadridge Matrix work have requested a more “a la carte” technology and service offering, she mentioned the firm’s API-focus, but it was her mention of single sign-on capabilities that drew applause.
Travel agents were then mentioned as an example of the tastes and preferences millennials—and their older counterparts—possess. Noting the hit the travel agency industry took as a result of the Internet (“Why would we need them anymore?”), panel moderator Sarah Simoneaux, president of Simoneaux Consulting Services, said that today, travel agents are short-staffed and overwhelmed with the volume of business due to advice-seeking millennials and boomers with money to spend.
“Millennials, in particular, want seasoned veterans,” she concluded.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.