CHAPTER 4 The Big, Fat Lie
Some frames, like the advisor-as-salesperson frame, are problematic because they limit clients’ ideas about what the advisor can do for them, reducing profits in the process. Other frames may be right on track—well placed and with good intentions—yet if the advisor fails to live up to them, client trust gets broken, damaging the advisor’s reputation. We’ll look at one such frame—that of “we’ll always be there for you”—in this chapter.
It’s a strange irony: Advisors regularly frame themselves as planners for their clients, but paradoxically, many advisors fail to plan—not for their clients but for themselves and their businesses when it comes to continuity, succession, and longevity. As asset management and distribution analytics firm Cerulli Associates has indicated, only 29 percent of advisors have a succession plan at all.1 A full 59 percent of advisors within five years of retirement do not have a succession plan.2 Those advisors who do have a succession plan may just be fooling themselves into thinking it’s adequate. The plan may look good on paper, but when put to the reality test, it can easily fall apart, as will become clear later in this chapter.
Get You've Been Framed now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
