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Several days ago, my company unveiled its new brand, BenFi from our original name MyPerfectFinancialAdvisor. Our rebrand was a long time coming and we are thrilled with the positive results seen in just the first few days.
The rebranding included a completely new website which focuses almost entirely on putting the investor first. We believe as a service that matches investors to advisors that putting the investor first and everyone else second, including the advisor, is best for all interested parties, including the financial advisor.
In a day and age when everyone is hustling to land new clients, we believe that now more than ever it is best to put the investor first in marketing, even if it means slower growth in the short term. Studies continue to illustrate that investors are highly skeptical of all things financial including personal financial advice, so it pays in the long run to be more tepid in marketing, and understand the investor hesitancy at the forefront and not be manically concerned with “conversion” by over-the-top marketing, endless pursuit and pressure. Most people do not like to be treated like a hot lead, but investors really detest that feeling.
Investors with an advisor and those who have yet to hire an advisor are rather plodding in their decision process when making their decision to hire. There are many reasons for this, but the consistent reason why investors both wealthy and not, are skeptical of advisors is they simply do not understand financial advice, like they understand all other forms of advice such as law, medicine, accounting and the like. Ask a random client to define the difference between a CFP and a CFA and the vast majority cannot answer. Dentist versus ophthalmologist? They knew the difference by the time they got to the eighth grade.
When someone does not understand the basics of something, they tend to make no decision, or take a very long time to take action. We fully recognize this, and have hard-coded that reality into our matching platform. With our new rebranding, it is very clear we serve the investor ahead of all other needs. Over time, investors will trust those that do not go overboard with pushing themselves. This goes for messaging, frequency of interaction, and all aspects of marketing.
The unfortunate reality for us who have been in the financial services industry is that we know full well how much the industry has changed for the better for investors over the last 30 years, but investors do not. They remember bad practices of years past that they or their parents experienced, recall scandals like Madoff, and enjoy films like Wolf of Wall Street, that while great cinema, magnified the bad deeds of a small few.
Putting the investor first in all aspects of managing a wealth business, including in marketing, is an investment that will certainly yield dividends over time. And it’s the right thing to do.
Related: The Hardest Lesson for Investors: Staying in the Market