#In the intricate world of financial advice, the essence of personal touch and human interaction holds paramount importance. The irreplaceable value of gaining insights from someone who can navigate the nuances of your financial life and offer tailored advice underscores the resilience of financial advisers in the face of advancing technology. Despite the digital era ushering in an age where information is at our fingertips, the nuanced understanding and accountability a financial adviser brings cannot be replicated by algorithms or robots.

The Paradox of Time in Financial Advising

A striking revelation from the latest research by Kitces highlights a problem: financial advisers, whose primary role is to guide their clients, find only about 50% of their time is devoted to direct client-related activities. Astonishingly, a mere fraction of this time, roughly 20%, is spent in actual client meetings. This time allocation draws attention to a significant portion of an adviser’s week being consumed by tasks unrelated to direct client interaction, such as prospecting for new clients, preparing for meetings, and handling various administrative duties.

The Untapped Potential for Efficiency

Delineating an adviser’s time unveils a compelling opportunity for enhancing efficiency through strategic delegation and integrating advanced technology. The findings suggest that a substantial portion of an adviser's workload, particularly tasks that fall into the "back office" category, could be effectively managed through delegation to support staff or streamlined with better technological solutions.

The Financial Upside of Delegation

Evidence indicates a direct correlation between delegating tasks to support staff and increased revenue and income for advisers. This boost is attributed to the expanded capacity to serve clients more comprehensively and to attract a more affluent clientele. Interestingly, adopting sophisticated financial planning software has not necessarily translated into time savings but enabled advisers to deepen their engagements with clients, offering more detailed and extensive financial plans.

Expanding Client Capacity and Revenue

The statistics are compelling. On average, a lead advisor operating solo, manages to maintain relationships with 73 ongoing clients. In contrast, when this advisor delegates tasks and works alongside a paraplanner, their capacity expands to serve 120 clients effectively without increasing their working hours.

This expanded capacity has a direct impact on financial returns: the solo advisor's net take-home pay averages at $155,000, while an advisor with support staff sees this figure soar to $279,000, even after accounting for the paraplanner's compensation.

This data suggests that the use of support staff significantly enhances productivity, allowing advisors to dedicate more time to client-facing activities and less on the back-office tasks. This shift does not reduce the total client-facing hours but optimises them, ensuring each client receives a focused and comprehensive service.

Deepening Client Engagements

Clients of advisors who leverage support staff benefit from an increased total of 22 hours per year of direct client activity services shared between the advisor and the paraplanner. This is a significant increase from the 14 hours per year offered by solo advisors. By delegating, lead advisors can reduce their hours per client by nearly 30%, from 14 hours to just 10 hours annually, while cutting down servicing time per client by almost 40%, from 2.9 hours to 1.8 hours. This reduction in hours does not signify a diminished service but rather a more focused and efficient engagement, thanks to the support staff's involvement.

Attracting More Affluent Clients

The more profound and comprehensive servicing facilitated by delegation allows advisory firms to target and retain wealthier clients. Evidence shows that advisors with paraplanners generate an average revenue of $2,850 per client per year, a stark increase from the $1,531 generated by solo advisors. This enhanced revenue generation capability underscores the effectiveness of support staff in not just maintaining but elevating the quality of client service, making the proposition of financial advice more appealing to affluent clients.

Navigating the Human Element

The core question is whether the constraints on an adviser’s capacity to engage with clients stem from limitations in technology and staff efficiency or from a more inherent human limitation on managing relationships. Despite the exponential growth in technological capabilities, the trend has not seen advisers increasing their client base but enhancing the depth and quality of services provided to existing clients. This shift suggests that future technological advancements may not necessarily scale adviser productivity in terms of client numbers. Still, it could instead make financial advice more accessible and affordable, potentially intensifying the current shortage of talent in the financial advising field.

The Role of Support Staff and Technology

The distinction in how lead advisers allocate their time, particularly regarding back-office tasks, underscores the critical role support staff, such as paraplanners, can play. By taking on planning analyses, client servicing tasks, and meeting preparations, paraplanners enable lead advisers to allocate more time to client-facing activities and business development. Moreover, the partnership with support staff has significantly enhanced the adviser’s capacity to manage a more extensive client base effectively, thereby increasing their income potential.

Towards a Deeper Client-Adviser Relationship

The evolving landscape of financial advising, shaped by technological advances and the strategic use of support staff, hints at a future where advisers may not necessarily handle more clients but will provide more in-depth and personalised services. This trend towards more profound, more meaningful client relationships, facilitated by the delegation of administrative tasks and the leverage of technology, poses challenges and opportunities for the profession.

Conclusion

The journey of a financial adviser is fraught with the balancing act of managing direct client engagements and navigating the myriad of administrative and developmental tasks that form the backbone of their practice. The insights from Kitces Research illuminate the potential for advisers to harness the power of delegation and technology to streamline operations and elevate the quality of financial advice provided to clients. As the industry continues to evolve, the ability to adapt to these changes by embracing the support of paraplanners and the strategic use of technology will be paramount in shaping the future of financial advising.

For a deeper understanding of these insights and to explore the comprehensive findings, refer to the Kitces Research study "How Financial Advisors Actually Do Financial Planning" by Michael Kitces and his team. This extensive research provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of delegation and technology on the efficiency and revenue generation capabilities of financial advisers.

Reference: Kitces, Michael. "How Financial Advisors Actually Do Financial Planning." Kitces Research. [2019].How Do Financial Advisors Actually Spend Their Time? (kitces.com)