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The future financial advisor

By Steven
I recently spoke with an executive of one of the largest asset managers in the country. He was the first, outside of kasina, that has been trying to figure out what the next generation of financial advisors are going to be like and what impact they will have on his business.

The future advisor is now 26 years old and four years out of college. He/She has been:

- Using a PC since elementary school
- Blogging for the last three years
- Doing all research, at school, for term papers through the Internet
- In school downloading her professors lectures from the university Intranet
- E-mailing since 15
- Communicating with friends through IM for the last eight years
- Having a myspace.com profile for the last two years and before that was on friendster and facebook
- Podcasting about recent trips to Costa Rica and Peru
- Using wikipedia to help understand many finance topics

What are the implications of this for selling asset management products? The advisor of the future will use technology like advisors of the past used the fax, phone and their Rolodex.

The advisor of the future will:
- Primarily use the Web to research products
- Read blogs to stay informed and educate
- Write a blog to communicate to clients
- Write a blog to share her expertise with colleagues
- Communicate with IM and e-mail to their clients as well as to the asset manager
- Share research sites through del.icio.us
- Podcast or videocast to clients
- Want to use tools such as:
- Webex
- Brainshark
- Use wikies to collaborate with her colleagues

Most heads of distribution are looking in the rear mirror instead of seeing the signs ahead. It was very refreshing to talk to someone who is interested and has vision for the future.