Every new year provides an opportunity for fresh starts and to reimagine what is possible. As such, we offer a list of four New Year’s resolutions for advisors. Kick your 2024 off right by making these promises to yourself.
Invest in Your Personal Growth
Every advisor feels the weight of responsibility. The wealth of your clients is literally in your hands. Accordingly, it can be very easy to focus on how to grow their wealth and hard to make time for personal growth. Additionally, growing AUM is measurable. Tangible. It can be harder to see the value of deepening your knowledge or challenging your perspectives. But advisors who embrace personal growth will see those more concrete numbers go up.
One way to invest in personal growth is through attending a conference like Exchange. Aside from their utility as networking vehicles, conferences give you access to experts and thought leaders. They also provide opportunities to learn and develop skills.
Become a More Modern Financial Advisor
Technological disruptions are changing society. While moving through the day-to-day, it can be easy to not notice just how fast technology is changing everything. Advisors understand this from an investment perspective. They know that getting clients in on the ground floor of the companies that will be leading the charge on AI, automation, and other soon-to-be huge investment themes can be critical. But fintech is also undergoing revolutionary changes. Advisors must understand the tools available to them or they risk falling behind the competition.
Develop an Expertise
Financial advisors often benefit from having a wide range of skill and knowledge. Diversity is key in investing, so it makes sense that a jack-of-all-trades approach to knowledge and expertise has appeal. But mastering something and being an expert in a particular niche can help you stand out in a crowded field. It doesn’t even have to be finance-focused. For example, if you deeply understand the challenges dentists face in their practices, you will be more likely to become the go-to financial advisor for dentists. That general knowledge is useful, but don’t neglect expertise.
Keep Up With Regulatory and Compliance Changes
Rules and laws are constantly changing. Every financial advisor must keep up with these changes or risk penalties. Most advisors are on top of things in this department, given the legal risks, but truly keeping yourself up to date on all of the minutiae is a challenge. With so many urgent fires to put out and critical tasks to accomplish in a day, it can be hard to make brushing up on compliances a routine.
