The Cost of Ignoring Client Concerns

Comprehensive financial planning is about so much more than portfolio management (although that’s an important part!) 

When you take a look at client surveys, there are several areas of financial planning and specific concerns that aren’t being addressed, and ignoring these client concerns can be quite costly for advisors. Additionally, clients also lose out when certain areas of comprehensive financial planning aren’t met. In this blog, we’ll look at the costs a client pays when their financial planning concerns aren’t met, particularly as they relate to healthcare. We’ll also look at what advisors are losing out on when they ignore client expectations.

Unmet client expectations and concerns: healthcare planning

Let’s start this section with what clients today expect from their advisors, as it pertains to healthcare planning:

- An Orion survey found that 38% of high-net-worth investors want their advisors to offer healthcare planning.

- Another study found that 65% of clients expected insurance advice from their advisor.

- An Accenture study revealed that 40% of respondents reported they were looking for insurance advice as a product/service beyond core investment management.

And what happens when these needs go unmet? Well, one consequence (or “cost”) is that clients will go to an outside source for guidance. This puts your relationship with the client at risk, and their financial well-being at risk.

Another cost is that clients won’t accurately plan for their healthcare costs. Two-thirds of Americans greatly underestimate how much they’ll spend on healthcare costs in retirement, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, many Americans overspend on their healthcare costs each year because they’re on coverage plans that are not optimized to their needs. And when a client’s retirement or financial plan doesn’t pan out how they expected, you, the advisor, end up paying in the end.

How advisors lose when they ignore clients’ healthcare planning needs

You’ve probably said it yourself: relationships as a financial advisor mean everything. A huge cost you risk by ignoring clients’ concerns around healthcare is losing the relationship, or assets, to other professionals or products. 

If you aren’t providing the services clients want, they’ll go to someone who does. We say that because not only have we seen it happen, but plenty of studies show that clients expect to receive their financial advice all under one roof. Envestnet, Inc. found that 62% of U.S. investors prefer or already use a single financial provider for all their needs. Their research also found that investors expect holistic advice.

Additionally, not including healthcare planning in your clients’ financial plans puts the comprehensive financial plan you’ve spent so much time and effort on at risk.

But how can you, an already busy advisor, add more capabilities to your service offerings? Well, Orion’s survey offers a solution based on investor feedback:

“Most investors want their financial advisor to collaborate with third-party professionals (like CPAs and attorneys) in some capacity, either on all financial matters, or when a specific issue arises.”

How advisors win when they address clients’ healthcare planning concerns

Remember the stat about 65% of financial planning clients expecting healthcare planning advice from advisors? Well, that same survey revealed that only 4% of those same clients reported actually receiving healthcare planning advice. The gap in the availability of healthcare advice is an incredible opportunity for comprehensive financial advisors to provide better service to their clients and increase their value. 

As a fiduciary, you are committed to always working in your client’s best interest—helping them build medical costs into their financial plan, analyzing their health insurance options, and providing guidance on the options that are right for them is part of acting in their best interest. And you can do this by partnering with a third-party healthcare planning partner.

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When you, the advisor, offer healthcare planning in your suite of services, you increase your value to existing and prospective clients, resulting in better retention and more referrals, and add value and clarity to your clients’ lives, resulting in a deeper sense of trust and satisfaction.

Final Thoughts

We’ve talked about cost and risk a lot in this blog, so you’re probably asking, “Well, what’s the cost of offering healthcare planning to my clients?” 

Depending on how you decide to offer healthcare planning, the cost can vary greatly. But the good news is that using Move Health to address client concerns around healthcare costs less than what most financial planning firms spend on office supplies in a year: $750 annually per advisor on the platform.

If you’d like to learn more, schedule time here to talk with a member of our team!