Schwab Advisor Services recently asked advisors who custody their assets with the firm to think about six trends that would affect their firms over the coming decade.
Twenty-nine percent of advisors cited longer client lifespans as the main one, 27% said information privacy/data integrity and 25% pointed to changing workplace dynamics.
Artificial intelligence, climate change and medical advancements followed, cited by 14%, 2% and 1% of advisors.
“The world in which advisors and their clients live is changing rapidly and the implications of these changes will ultimately manifest in how advisors evolve their firms to serve the changing needs of their clients,” Bernard Clark, head of Schwab Advisor Services, noted in the study.
Logica Research conducted an online survey in December among 778 independent advisors.
Nearly two-thirds of advisors who responded to the poll said that increasing client longevity would have a mostly positive effect on their firms, with advice and portfolio management and asset allocation being the main areas affected.