How Financial Advisors Are Navigating COVID-19

By Mark Colaço, Regional Director and Vice President

How Financial Advisors Are Navigating COVID-19
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Dec 07, 2020

1 Minute Read

Topic

Market Volatility

As part of its commitment to supporting wealth management professionals, Dimensional recently surveyed financial advisors to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business. Dimensional’s practice management services include annual benchmarking and client feedback surveys.

The COVID-19 survey offers insights into current challenges, client concerns, and other issues related to the business environment during the pandemic. The results also point to differences between how higher-growth and comparatively lower-growth firms are approaching strategic decisions and best serving their clients.

Here are a few key findings. The percentages are averages among responding advisors.1,2


Exhibit 1

Client Communications

Exhibit 2

Organizational Changes

Exhibit 3

Strategy and Growth


Key Characteristics of Successful Firms3

By comparing firms with above-average and below-average growth, several key characteristics emerge. Higher-growth firms are:

  • More likely to make changes to their websites
  • Providing more COVID-19 education
  • Offering clients more information regarding their operations
  • Focusing on building their prospect pipeline over the next 12 months
  • More likely to focus on employee development



Learn More

Empathy and Expertise: How Financial Advisors Are Helping Clients During COVID-19

Managing Your Practice

Dividends in the Time of COVID-19



Footnotes

  1. 1Advisory firms completed the survey questionnaire. In the previous 12 months, the survey group averaged $3.2 million (USD) in revenue, $304.1 million (USD) in assets under management, and 403 client relationships per firm.

  2. 2The sum of percentages per topic may exceed 100% as participants could choose one or more answer options that applied.

  3. 3Defined as firms with realized growth above the 6.3% reported survey average.

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