A new survey of nearly 650 wealth managers, fiduciaries, and financial planners across more than 50 broker-dealers and banks found that 83% believe they will be returning to a normal, in-office schedule sometime in 2020. However, 51% do not have a plan for how to return to the office. That number only grows higher when dealing with top producers (those with revenue over $800,000 last year) as 61% of them do not have a written plan.
According to the survey, which was conducted by Incapital and Red Zone Marketing, 61% have announced safety measures for clients or employees, including the types of safety measures that will be employed. Those measures include hand sanitizer (25%) and spacing out appointments (19%), somewhat shockingly low numbers considering CDC guidelines for business and employers.
While it is clear that most wealth management professionals do expect to return to work this year, even though most don’t have a plan in place for that to happen, there still seems to be confidence in the virtual method currently in place.
According to the survey, 67% remain confident that they can attract new business though virtual meetings. The top tier producers feel even more confident about their video or phone chat game as 78% feel they can still attract new business.
With so much confidence in marketing abilities and so few plans laid out for returning to the office, it must be wondered why advisors seem so set on returning to the office?
