The digitization of financial services is upon us and with it comes an opportunity to grow—not just in our use of technology, but also in the way we serve clients. In this age of hybrid financial advice, where clients wish to experience the same autonomy they have on Amazon with the customized advice they get from their therapist, we have a lot of growing to do in the industry to meet these demands. Innovation is the key and technology is just a piece of the puzzle.
Over the past century, life expectancy in the United States has dramatically increased, a fact that has profoundly impacted the financial security experienced during our golden years.
After World War II, the first generation of retirees were generally expected to live less than a decade after leaving the workforce. Now, the average American is living to be about 78.8 years old, and as a result retirement can last anywhere from 20 to 30 years, with some people spending more time retired than they did working.
That sort of longevity is wreaking havoc on the best of financial plans, particularly when combined with the rising costs of some of life’s most significant expenses.
...We are at our best as educators and space-makers for a deeper engagement with the financial world, and all our work with our clients should spur on hope.
Many people in my profession would not make an immediate leap from the late physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking to our work of capital markets, mutual funds and financial planning. This is understandable. Our work in financial advising is overtly pragmatic. It’s either mathematical or fervently personal, with little room for theory or imagining the “why” behind what we do. It is—I suggest—so much like the world of science Hawking was awakened to 50 or more years ago. He watched as the imaginations of his peers went deeply to the practical, to the technological, while he dreamed of deeper questions about how and why.
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