Wealth Managers Do Better

What makes a successful independent broker-dealer? 

Well you have to do a lot more than manage investments which appears to be turning into a commodity business.  You have to do more, offer more, give better value to your clients.    Those that do offer additional wealth management services do significantly better according to a recent article in Financial Advisor magazine. 

A survey of 1028 broker-dealers in January by AssetMark found that wealth managers by offering more services do much better than pure investment managers.

What kind of services - estate planning (20% offered), life insurance (19% offered), income tax planning (16% offered), charitable planned giving (16% offered),  and asset protection planning (8% offered). 

Interesting too is the source of referrals.  Among  investment generalists almost 70% relied on accountants while wealth managers depended more heavily on attorney referrals (58%).