What Recent Investor Surveys Mean for The Future of Financial Planning Service Offerings
For comprehensive financial advisors, the scope of what clients want (and expect) from them is ever-expanding. 2025, so far, isn’t showing any signs of slowing down when it comes to what investors want from financial planning professionals.
Just this month, Orion released its Inaugural Investor Survey, which surveyed 1,000 investors during Orion’s annual Ascent conference. The findings were extremely telling and reinforced what many comprehensive financial planning professionals already know: the future of their service offerings will need to expand and evolve in order to meet client expectations and stand out from the competition.
Investors express a desire for a wide range of services that their advisor is not currently offering
Although the survey revealed several services investors want from advisors, such as estate planning, tax planning, and retirement planning, we’ll focus on one service in particular: healthcare planning.
Orion’s survey found that 38% of high-net-worth investors want their advisors to offer healthcare planning.
This is on par with similar studies that have been conducted about client expectations when it comes to healthcare planning as a financial planning service offering. One study found that 65% of clients expected insurance advice from their advisor, and an Accenture study revealed that 40% of respondents reported they were looking for insurance advice as a product/service beyond core investment management.
And even when healthcare planning and health insurance aren’t specifically cited, nearly all clients want a financial plan that accounts for their whole financial picture. The Orion survey shows this (see the table above), as well as several other studies. For example, a McKinsey & Company study reported that:
“More than ever, clients prefer one-stop-shop solutions for financial and other needs adjacent to wealth management. When we surveyed wealth clients in 2018, 29 percent said they prefer holistic advice across adjacent needs; in our 2023 survey, the figure jumped to 47 percent, a 60 percent increase.”
And if you aren’t providing the services clients want, they’ll go to someone who does—they might even look at other products they offer or move their assets with them. We say that because not only have we seen it happen, but there are plenty of studies that 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 one single financial provider for all their needs. Their research also found that investors expect holistic advice.
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 to start incorporating healthcare planning into your service offerings
So, how can you start practically incorporating healthcare planning into your comprehensive financial planning services to meet client expectations, beat out the competition, and not stretch yourself (or your budget) thin?
It all starts with picking the right healthcare planning partner.
You could go with average national estimates, but that doesn’t consider each client’s specific needs, preferences, and life events. Plus, you don’t create generic, average financial plans, so why would you add generic, average healthcare costs to a client’s plan?
A second option is to go with your local broker, but they’re often limited in which plans they can sell and are often restricted to specific geographic locations. You could even go with Medicare call centers that are large brokers, but that exposes you to poor client experiences and high-pressure sales tactics.
For most advisors, the most cost-effective, comprehensive option for healthcare planning is to partner with a third-party healthcare planning company that combines the power of technology with expert guidance.
At Move Health, we partner with financial advisors all over the country to equip them with the healthcare planning capabilities they need to incorporate clients’ health insurance and medical costs into their comprehensive financial plan. When advisors partner with Move Health, they gain access to our award-winning software and an expert team of non-commissioned, licensed agents* to provide insights and planning opportunities based on clients’ unique circumstances. From initial analysis to enrollment, our tech-enabled, human-driven approach to healthcare planning ensures you and your client have clarity and confidence at every step of the process. Most importantly, we uphold the same fiduciary responsibility that you do—to provide clients with the information and support they need to make the best choice healthcare coverage decision for their needs.
Final Thoughts
Investor surveys and industry reports are an excellent way for advisors to stay on top of what’s changing in the financial planning industry, and most of them show the same finding year after year: clients expect and want more from their advisors.
Advisors can do a lot of things, but no one can do all things. That’s why a critical component of advisor success, and the ability to expand service offerings, is to partner with trusted third-party professionals and companies. Not only is it necessary in order to meet client expectations without burning out, but the Orion Investor Survey also shows that clients are fully on board with their advisors utilizing outside resources for specific life events and needs as they pertain to their financial plan.
To wrap it all up, the answer to, “What recent investor surveys mean for the future of financial planning service offerings,” can be summed up in three points:
Clients expect more comprehensive financial planning services than ever from their advisors, including services like healthcare planning, estate planning, and tax planning.
The most efficient and cost-effective way for advisors to expand their service offerings is to partner with third-party professionals and companies.
Advisors who don’t expand their service offerings are going to be left behind, and conversely, advisors who expand their service offerings sooner than others will stand out as leaders.
