What if a visit to the financial adviser was more like an impromptu coffee grab than a dental checkup?
Instead of a boring annual visit, imagine a quick call from your adviser in which he makes a couple of simple suggestions to keep your portfolio on track.
That's the future, according to Michael Kitces, research director for Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia, Md. Speaking to financial advisers attending last month's Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago, Kitces tried to reassure them that investors, rather than turning their money over to automated investment platforms, will continue to pay for advice if it's relevant and timely.
"Most financial planning today is reactive," he said.
A spending splurge, a health crisis or a job loss will often cause clients to put off their regularly scheduled appointments with advisers, compounding the problem.
"So then they finally come in and you find that, whoa, they went off the rails a year ago, but we didn't know because they didn't come in," he said.
In a future aided by software tracking customer portfolios and everyday spending, advisers will already know their clients' problems and will use more frequent chats to figure out fixes, he said.
In a separate discussion at the same conference, Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown went even further from the idea that robots will replace advisers, saying innovation has actually been better for advisers than for savers.
