Ultra High Net Worth professionals make up about 20% of UHNW households (defined as having a net worth, not including the value of their primary residence, of at least $5,000,000).

Per Spectrem Group research. These highly educated investors are experts in their field and their investment-related attitudes and behaviors differ significantly from their affluent cousins, as do their expectations of and relationships with their advisors.

Advisor Action Steps:
To gain high net worth professional clients:

Make a habit of mentioning to your professional clients that if they are pleased with your guidance, you would appreciate their referring you to their colleagues.

To maintain relationships with high net worth professionals:

Encourage your clients to rely on you as a resource for all aspects of financial expertise, but be ready to back that claim up with outside sources if need be.

Set communication expectations correctly. Establish a service level agreement that you are both happy with.

Professionals Will Listen

A recent Spectrem Perspective™, UHNW Professionals: Understanding the Unique Financial Needs of Doctors, Lawyers and Other Professionals shows that a majority of professionals consider themselves fairly knowledgeable but with a great deal to learn. Being experts in their specific and highly selective fields gives professionals a higher expectation of other “experts”. This makes high net worth professionals an ideal target market for savvy advisors.

Only 19% of the professional high net worth investors believe they can do a better job of financial planning than an advisor as opposed to the 36% of the non-professional high net worth who believe the same. Professionals do not rate themselves as financially knowledgeable as other affluent investors. Only a little over a quarter of professionals think of themselves as very knowledgeable about financial products and investments whereas 40% of the overall affluent market considers themselves very knowledgeable about investments.

Expect a Higher Level of Financial Expertise

An important point for advisors to keep in mind when dealing with the high net worth professional is that, though they are more advisor dependent than their high net worth counterparts and less likely to think of themselves as experts, they expect a higher level of financial expertise from their advisors. Their overall satisfaction with their advisor is 71%, compared to the 84% that other affluent report. Some of this lack of satisfaction is due to the high net worth professionals’ high standards in regards to communication and knowledge. Professionals think of their time as very valuable and expect almost instantaneous responses to their queries from their advisors.

How Can you Serve Professionals

Establishing a service model that allows you to be responsive to your professional clients in a manner and timeframe that meets both of your needs is an important first step in setting their expectations for a long and profitable relationship. If you promise that you or someone in your office will call them back within fifteen minutes of their leaving a message, make sure you can hold up your end of the agreement. Also keep in mind that your face-to-face meetings with them may not be a traditional sit down in your office or their home or office. You may need to meet at their company cafeteria, in between patients or clients, walking down the halls of the hospital, or perhaps at 5 a.m., which is the only time they have available before their busy day begins. Being available in this way might make it easy to establish yourself as a reliable advisor to a specific group of professionals, like physicians of a certain specialty. Because professionals are involved in professional organizations and trust the referrals they receive from their colleagues, getting well known within a group like this will be its own reward, in referrals.

Another point on which professionals report dissatisfaction with their advisors is proactive communication. Professionals expect their advisors to contact them with issues or problems, not the other way around. Reaching out to your professional clients once a week with an email is a good idea. Scheduling a meeting once a month or quarter, depending on their preferences, is a good guideline for face time.

Taking into account the many factors that make a relationship with an high net worth professional client different from a relationship with an high net worth client will help you capture business and maintain a long term and successful association. Proactive communication, expertise and staying on top of trends and industry changes, will establish you as an advisor that knows how to give the high net worth professional what they want and need and help them reach the upper echelon of their financial dreams.

For more information: Doctors, Lawyers, and Accountants and their Unique Financial Needs

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