Eventually everybody gets asked, “What is it exactly that you do?”  When that happens to you, are you prepared with an answer that gives a clear picture of the comprehensive services you perform?  Perhaps up until now you’ve described yourself as a wealth manager.

 Have you ever stopped to consider that the term “wealth management” has no meaning?  There is no standard to the use of the term.   People who specialize in only one area of expertise such as insurance agents, stockbrokers, and financial planners who don’t manage money call themselves “wealth managers”. 

 So if you’re a financial advisor who offers fully comprehensive financial services, and you call yourself a wealth manager, how is someone going to distinguish you from the crowd? 

There was a fascinating research study a few years ago in the financial services industry that surveyed a large sample of financial advisors.  The first question they asked was, “How do you describe yourself, what title do you use with your clients?”  In response 68% of financial advisors in the United States called themselves “wealth managers.”

Then they then did a follow up question to define the term, “wealth management”. They put a couple of condition that you can only call yourself a wealth manager if you: 1) meet with your clients at least once a year and 2) you offer two major deliverables. 

So if you did a full financial plan and then you offered money management, you could call yourself a wealth manager. Can you guess how many of those advisors actually met that embarrassingly low standard of definition of a wealth manager?  The number dropped from 68% down to 6%.  I talked to the person that did the research.  He said that he did a follow up study and the numbers got worse.

 So, the point is, wealth management means nothing.  If you call yourself a wealth manager, they throw you in a bucket with everyone else. And really, that term implies that you are more interested in the client’s wealth than in the person.

 “Financial advisor” is a better way of describing yourself when you offer comprehensive financial services.  An advisor isn’t a manager of money, but is a leader of a team of experts who help clients implement the best advice possible for achieving their goals. 

 An even better description to use is “trusted financial advisor”.  When you’ve built a relationship of trust with your clients, you bring great value to your clients.  They know that you’ll look out for their financial welfare, so they can concentrate on the other things that are important to them.

 Are you floundering with a clear answer to the question, “What do you do?”  Check out how The Trusted Advisor Toolkit helped Kate Wilson go from calling herself a wealth manager to being a trusted financial advisor, and see how it dramatically altered her business and life in her case study.