Advice firms need to adapt or die
I’ve had two interesting conversations with financial advisers the week. Both said the same, very telling thing.
Matthew was for many years my own adviser, until he left the profession, fed up largely with its resistance to change. He’s since been on a similar journey to me, discovering the evidence about how investing really works, as opposed to the way the fund industry and most of the financial media want us to think it works.
Why, I asked him, are so many advisers stuck in the past? Why do they continue to put all the emphasis on the investment piece when it’s becoming increasingly commoditised? And why do they still recommend products and strategies that will almost certainly leave their clients worse off in retirement?