A report last week by Financial Planning parent company Arizent, "
"In the industry's preparation to shift away from serving boomers and Gen Xers to younger millennials and Gen Zers there's also an expected shift in how data, social media and automation tools will be leveraged to court, acquire and onboard these new customers," according to the report, which was published on June 27.
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Angie Herbers, the managing partner and CEO at industry consulting firm Herbers and Company, said the
"It's more expensive to go after an affluent client, someone who has investable assets over $1 million, than it is to go after a mass affluent client who has investable assets over $500,000 and then invest the time in their growth to get them to the affluent level," Herbers said in an interview.
The trick is catching those clients on their way up, before someone else takes them off the market. Fortunately for firms, because of the recent turmoil in the economy — from
"When you have multiple pain points hitting the consumer, you'll see that … the amount of assets they have (when) they reach out for help starts to decrease," Herbers said.
This makes 2023 a perfect year for firms to initiate that relationship with a new mass affluent client — which could require investing in new tools to target them more broadly online.
"What we know is, if you get those consumers early and you get them past the three-year mark, meaning they're working with you for three years, they often stay for a very long time, if not forever, with that firm," Herbers said.
The Arizent study was conducted online in spring 2023 and polled 220 wealth management professionals. Some 29% — the "small firms" — had less than $100 million of assets under management; another 43%, the "medium-sized firms" — had AUM between $100 million and $999.9 million. The remaining 28% — the "big firms" in this study — had AUM of at least $1 billion.
Scroll down to view key takeaways from FP and Arizent's research.
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