by Tony Vidler       

It seems pretty much everyone has financial worries.

“Investors spend 475 hours a year worrying about money” apparently. 

Well I bet the people who don’t have enough to be considered “investors” spend a heck of a lot more time than that worrying about money….but still, this is about 20 days each year spent just thinking or worrying about money – for the average affluent consumer.

Of particular interest to financial advisers should be the top 3 concerns which consistently come out of surveys for investors:

1. Having a catastrophic event (i.e. illness, injury) that uses up my retirement funds.

2. Living longer than my retirement funds last.

3. My income won’t keep up with inflation.

For the typical consumer, as opposed to the affluent, there is even more stress of course and theirs is about the mundane day-to-day issues, such as having enough emergency funding and managing debts (especially credit cards).   Again, surveys consistently indicate that if they had a plan to manage it about 75% of them (usually) would feel less stressed.

All of this suggests that in general terms we are not really grasping the opportunity to tell consumers that we can help.

I mean, this is what financial advisers actually do for their day jobs, right?  Advisers ARE the solution to the primary concerns that the majority of consumers have, which can be summarised simply as:

• Most consumers spend a lot of time worrying about money
• Most of their worry is about there not being enough of it.  Whether that is enough to pay the bills next week, or enough to last 20 years in retirement, it is still mostly about there not being enough of it.

So why aren’t more financial advisers putting forward a strategic value proposition that addresses these concerns head on?

If we keep getting told that this is what consumers worry most about, and we have the ability to help alleviate that worry, then why aren’t more advisers letting their potential prospects know that in their marketing?  It seems the easiest strategic value proposition to me for financial advisers by far.  Using the skills, process and at times product solutions that we have available surely an adviser can promise to provide:

• Control
• Certainty
• Better quality of life

I reckon that is a message which will resonate with many consumers, and a value proposition which most advisers could easily deliver upon.  So simplifying the message to prospective clients and addressing their primary worries head-on might just be a good thing.

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