Investors and financial advisers have had a challenging year. Many are reevaluating portions of their financial planning in light of record inflation, declining asset prices, soaring rents, and imminent recession fears. They are still determining whether their desires will remain the same in 2024.
As advisers anticipate the coming year, here are the top financial advising trends for 2024:
- Engagement
- Defensive planning
- Tax and estate-planning software
- Combining banking with wealth management
- External solutions for investment
- Financial health
Engagement
Applied Insights director Bill McManus describes the trends that will continue through 2024 as engagement. Uncertainty and volatility will continue unabated in the next year, he predicts. Still, the obstacles customers confront will remain the same, such as earning retirement income and resolving housing, transportation, and social connectedness issues.
Financial professionals will have to continue to modify their client interactions to educate and link customers with resources, adds McManus. He suggests striking a mix between in-person and virtual meetings and harnessing social media and websites by disseminating pertinent information and conducting client events.
He adds that a mechanism in place throughout the year may go a long way in assisting them to overcome obstacles, seize opportunities, and, perhaps most importantly, avoid making errors. The financial professionals and teams who can accomplish this will be able to service their clients better, cultivate connections, attract new prospects, and operate a more effective firm.
Defensive Planning
According to most forecasts, many obstacles confronting the economy and stock market in 2024 should diminish by 2024. Inflation is anticipated to decelerate, and the United States may barely avoid a recession, but advisers and investors should not rest easy.
According to Michelle Young, a private wealth adviser at Ameriprise Financial, having a strategy is essential if the U.S. economy enters a recession next year. Your advisor should contact you at least twice a year, inquiring about their employment stability and discussing their emergency financial reserves.
Young stated that she would focus on anticipating business earnings in 2024 since “this propels the stock market.” She intends to highlight chances for each investor based on their particular circumstances and time frame.
She stated that she would do this by explaining the benefits of CDs and fixed-income products in a climate of rising interest rates. Diversification, as well as other areas that decrease portfolio risk, should remain a priority for investors. You should assess your financial objectives, risk tolerance, and any necessary modifications in the new year.
In 2024, Stephanie Genkin, proprietor of My Financial Planner LLC and licensed financial planner, anticipates a revived interest in cash equivalent accounts such as CDs, I bonds, and Treasury bills.
They give protection and a guaranteed income that has not been accessible for a very long time with cash, she explains. She adds that while savings accounts are helpful for short-term needs, investing remains the most effective approach to building long-term retirement plans.
Tax and Estate Planning Software
Holistic financial planning is familiar, but advisers will need to integrate it more in 2024, particularly in integrating tax and estate planning services.
According to Brian Dudley, Wealth Enhancement Group’s senior vice president and financial advisor, they are no longer collecting fees to manage investment-only portfolios, and advisors who are not adding services to their suite of offerings will eventually lose clients.
Expanding services to include tax and estate planning is crucial in the next year, and advisers may and should provide you with fewer assets under management instead of keeping them for wealthy clients. Fortunately, this will also become easier to accomplish as adviser technology evolves.
“Companies like Holistiplan, for instance, enable a financial adviser to assess a client’s or prospect’s tax return and deliver practical financial advice within minutes,” explains Dudley. In 2024 and beyond, tax and estate planning advisor technology will be a significant impetus – or obstacle, for some – for financial guidance.
Combining banking with wealth management.
Banking and wealth management under one roof is an additional consolidation that advisers should anticipate to see more customers seeking in 2024. According to a McKinsey study, the proportion of investors who choose to integrate these two under one roof will increase from 13% in 2018 to 22% in 2021. In particular, younger and wealthier investors prefer consolidated partnerships: over half of investors under 45 and one-third of those between $5 million and $10 million prefer them.
According to Rajini Kodialam, chief operating officer and co-founder of Focus Financial Partners, advisors will need to offer tailored, open-architecture solutions from which customers can select the most useful services in 2024.
He says advisors with access to organizations that provide complete solutions like alternatives and private investments, financing and credit, valuation and investment banking, and family office solutions will flourish. This is because it enables advisers to address their customers’ complicated wealth structuring demands with more success.
External solutions for investment.
Providing a wider variety of services is a challenging task for advisers, and this may be why external investing solutions have been on the rise. A recent FlexShares poll of 500 advisors found that almost one-third of registered investment advisers (RIAs) expanded their use of third-party providers in 2024, compared to 27% of RIAs who increased usage in 2020. According to Laura Hanichak Gregg, director of practice management and advisor research at FlexShares ETFs, this trend is anticipated to persist until 2024.
She adds that advisors that outsource typically spend more time with clients and provide more customized financial planning services. Additionally, outsourcing has recently shown to be a source of stability in increasingly volatile market situations.
However, advisers should proceed with caution in outsourcing since authorities have yet to determine their position on the practice. An SEC proposal would require RIAs to use third-party service providers, for instance. According to Gregg, this is a significant development that they will continue to monitor over the next year.
Financial health
Another financial planning trend that Genkin expects to see in 2024 is a rise in the use of the term “financial wellness.” When it comes to money, the world is a terrible place, she explains. Inflation is at a 40-year high, and retirement account balances have suffered this year due to the volatility of stocks and bonds. Many families are priced out of the housing market due to rising mortgage rates and a lack of housing stock in many regions of the country, which maintains high property prices.
In a society still reeling from the economic disruption produced by the COVID-19 epidemic, “financial pain is more pervasive than ever, and people are seeking healing,” she adds.
As a culture, she explains that we sincerely desire financial well-being, but individuals will not find it in a product. Genkin believes that there is more to financial wellness than the statistics in your portfolio, and it’s about establishing a healthy relationship with money.
Financial therapists who are educated to assist clients in managing their financial stress may be in greater demand. Genkin is one of these professionals, and she recommends the Financial Therapy Association if you want to learn more or locate a financial therapist in your area.