The advisory industry continues to shift toward personalization and customized financial strategies. This includes many facets of financial planning, from investment management and cash-flow planning to risk management. Technology allows RIAs to take advantage of this trend while effectively scaling their businesses. In turn, wealth managers can take on more tasks and otherwise elevate their service level

Large Advisory Firms Make the Pivot to Personalization

Individual investors gain more confidence when their wealth manager helps them with a variety of issues, needs, and goals. Just recently, many large financial services companies have taken note of what’s happening at the grass-roots level with independent RIAs. The big guys want to pitch their value proposition as one that can handle many of their clients’ financial tasks in a personalized way. We’ll see how that goes.

Advantage: RIA

This is where independent advisors have the leg up. It’s likely you’ve already built deep relationships with individuals, families, and businesses that are your clients. The challenge, though, is competing with advisors apart from large broker-dealer firms. Offering comprehensive services including insurance products and investment vehicles that address investor concerns are often thought to be out of reach for most RIAs.

Yet today, this is no longer true. Halo Investing’s solutions are geared toward advisors who want to provide a better investment experience, which often requires a range of services. The trend toward annuities, structured notes, and defined-outcome funds just continues to surge as market volatility rises and stock and bond returns keep getting worse.

An Industry Juggernaut Tries to Keep Up With Annuity Demand

In September, DPL Financial raised $20 million in the capital markets as demand for fee-based annuities continues to grow.  As an industry heavyweight in the annuity space, DPL has enjoyed tailwinds this year as seemingly all asset classes from traditional investments to alternatives have struggled.

Where DPL has felt some speedbumps, though, is with technology. The firm hopes the capital it has raised can augment tech-related challenges. Another purpose of the liquidity surge is to increase headcount as so many advisors look to go the DIY route with annuity transactions. According to RIABiz, most RIAs are uncertain about how best to integrate annuities into financial plans and how performance reporting should be carried out. Having the right tech stack is mission critical.

Halo is Built for the Independent Advisor

Halo Investing stands at the center of the current boom in tailored strategies and services with a nod toward protecting portfolios amid market turbulence. Not only do we offer annuities through our platform, but our technology brings costs down and increases fee transparency. Halo’s subject-matter experts guide advisors through the annuity research and buying process so that they are empowered to offer annuities to their clients. Halo’s Outsourced Insurance Desk (OID) can ease if not eliminate many of the common hurdles to getting started with annuities.

Adding Structured Notes to Portfolios

Advisors can do more than purchase annuities through Halo’s marketplace, though. Structured notes are also receiving increased interest. Higher yields and elevated market volatility make it a good time to consider including notes in portfolios. Part of customizing investment plans is identifying a client’s risk/reward profile, and the structured-note vehicle is designed to meet specific risk/reward objectives.

For example, if a married couple nearing retirement seeks a sustainable high yield with downside capital protection, a low-risk income note could be a solution. Through Halo, the advisor can simply select a note meeting certain criteria without having to shop around for offers. They can make the transaction with confidence knowing they are paying a competitive fee so their clients keep more of what’s theirs.

Those with a higher risk tolerance can own growth notes through Halo that take advantage of market upside following this year’s big drop. Halo makes it easy for advisors to show the benefits and risks of owning such a note. If you know how the stock and bond markets work, then you will be able to explain to clients how either a growth or income note works. Halo provides all the tools necessary to not only help RIAs offer these protective investments, but also to show clients why they can make sense.

Defined-Outcome Investing

Finally, advisors can take advantage of Halo’s marketplace to access defined-outcome ETFs for clients who might prefer owning a structured-note-like product within an ETF wrapper. These vehicles, too, have seen major interest in 2022.

The Bottom Line

The big broker-dealers and wirehouses are catching on to the trend that the financial advisory landscape continues to shift toward personalization. Cookie-cutter plans through computer algorithms are on the way out. Tailored plans with a human touch along with customized investment solutions with a nod toward risk management are in demand.

Halo brings protective investment solutions to RIAs in a simple, effective, and low-cost way. Our technology and people save time for advisors and handle back-end processes so you can devote more time to growing your practice and cultivating relationships.

Please see our Halo Disclaimer for other important disclosures.