For over two decades, the U.S. wealth management industry has been evolving toward financial planning, transitioning to advisory fees, and establishing deeper and ongoing relationships with clients. These deeper client relationships have helped advisors identify additional needs and goals of clients, and virtually all advisors have added some level of financial planning to their practice. However, adoption of financial planning by advisors is still fairly low across the marketplace, and the pandemic and associated financial crisis are having a dramatic impact on investors and advisors. The Pandemic, Financial Advisors, and the Financial Planning Opportunity, the latest Aite Group report, addresses key challenges and efforts required to increase financial planning adoption to meet client needs in a post-pandemic marketplace.

“The COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate the need for financial planning as current and prospective clients seek advice and advisors to help them get their financial households in order and their financial goals back on track,” explains Dennis Gallant, senior analyst at Aite Group.

This report provides wealth management firms, broker-dealers, and financial advisors with a better understanding of the pre-COVID-19 attitudes, practices, and level of planning advisors provide to clients. It is based on an Aite Group online survey of 400 U.S. financial advisors conducted from April through June 2019.