How do you make the most out of 4%? Time is Money.

Time management is a critical success factor for professionals. The world of financial services professionals has evolved into a highly competitive workplace. Although there are only 24 hours in any single day, as the saying goes, time is money. Therefore, effective time management is a competitive advantage for professionals looking to become more productive and effective in achieving better work-life balance.

• Financial advisors balance and manage competing priorities every day as they meet with clients, place trades intermittently throughout the day, or work on data analyses.
• Without proper time management, for some advisors, this can lead to procrastination, distraction, and mismanagement of time.
• Finding the time to meet sales targets, prospect new clients, and meet your continuing education requirements, while ensuring the key to growth – prospecting – can be daunting for both Insurance & Financial advisors

Finding the time to find new clients:

The combined responsibilities of managing clients, managing investments, and managing a business leave about as much time for prospecting as is spent filling out compliance paperwork.

The amount of time the average financial professional spends on regulatory compliance is now equal to the amount of time they spend on prospecting. And yet, all financial professionals believe that they need to find new clients.

On average, more than 60% of the week is spent managing current clients. This includes 26% of the week spent meeting with clients and another 22% managing client communications. On average, financial professionals spend only 13% of the week managing client investments. When it comes down to it, financial professionals spend only 8% of their workweek, or about half an hour per day, on prospecting activities. Even less time is spent on marketing (3%).

If financial professionals are to live up to high expectations for growth by bringing new clients and new assets to their practice, they will need to find new efficiencies in other areas of their practice.

Source: Natixis 2020 global survey of financial professionals.

The amount of time spent on regulatory compliance has increased from 5%, in 2009 to 8% in 2020 and it’s growing. It’s also higher individually than time spent on media/social media work and marketing which both play to prospecting as well. Financial professionals are also spending twice as much time on compliance than educating themselves.

How do you make the most out of the 4%?

Financial professionals are only investing 4% on education or in themselves. Effective use of this time is vital, especially in an industry that has mandated continuing education requirements. Knowledge leads to expertise which in turn drives incremental revenue. Embracing new technologies and processes to help better manage time and better focus on improving client service, and client acquisition is vital to success. Manage time efficiently, because increasing time is not possible.

Written by: Colin Henry, B.A., CIM, President of CE Records Inc. CE Records is a software company that serves Canadian financial advisor’s needs to better manage CE credits. www.ce-records.com