For the economy and the world, 2023 was a year of instability — and in 2024, financial advisors expect more of the same. How will the industry adapt?
To find out, Arizent asked the advisors themselves. By surveying hundreds of wealth managers, Financial Planning's parent company has put together a wide-ranging forecast of the coming year, titled
What's in the report? Advisors told us what they see coming in every aspect of their industry, from regulation to technology to practice management. And they shared with us their top concerns, which include both economic volatility and geopolitical upheaval.
But perhaps most importantly, advisors told us how they plan to handle it all. To survive the world's instability, they plan to keep their own practices as stable as possible. From fee structures to client acquisition to working from home, wealth managers largely plan to keep the same strategies and priorities they had last year. To weather the storm, they'll stay the course.
But there was one notable exception: artificial intelligence. For an industry defined by caution and prudence, wealth management is remarkably open to this disruptive new technology. A large majority of advisors believe AI will have a positive impact on their industry, and many plan to use it in their practices this year.
How will they use AI? What does "staying the course" mean in practice? What changes do wealth managers expect from regulators and other outside forces? For all these details and many others,
