As our business continues to grow, we are very excited to welcome Chris Gentile to the team as Director, Strategic Partnerships & Accounts. Chris joins us from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, where he managed client relationships for customized executive education programs – many of which were delivered in partnership with Third Factor. Before Queen’s, Chris oversaw strategic partnerships at EF Education First, a private education firm focused on developing professionals through educational travel. Chris holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, and a certificate in Adult Learning & Development from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) at UofT. Chris has shown a true passion for helping organizations develop their workforce for the future and working with thought-leaders to develop innovative solutions that drive lasting change. We’re excited to see him continue to build on his success with Third Factor. In the midst of rapid expansion and a shift to a remote-first environment, retail consulting and technology company, Orium, partnered with Third Factor to give its leaders a framework and skills to lead with its values. Twenty-four of Orium’s leaders participated in a total of three days of training, leading to an uplift in engagement among leaders and their teams, and enabling the organization to navigate the pressure that comes with doubling in size. Click here to read the case study.

Seizing the Opportunity in Wealth Management

Wealth management is undergoing an epochal change with an $84.4-trillion wealth transfer at stake. The hearts, minds and wallets of the next generation will go to firms that can:
  1. Level up field coaching and enable advisors to have new and more uncomfortable conversations
  2. Up-skill advisors to manage bigger teams with a diverse range of experience
  3. Become exceptional matchmakers using psychometric data to create winning advisory teams
In this webinar, Third Factor CEO, Dane Jensen, will outline how to make the move from investment advice to "Personal CFO" using examples from our work with some of North America's leading wealth management firms and based on the whitepaper he co-authored with Third Factor Principal Trainer, Garry Watanabe.. You should attend if:
  • You're responsible for leadership development or change management within a wealth management organization
  • You need new ideas for up-skilling advisors to engage in new conversations and navigate the changing industry landscape
  • You're looking for innovative solutions to enhance the succession planning process
  • You want to learn more about how top wealth management firms are navigating the fundamental shift in client preferences

Seizing the Opportunity in Wealth Management


Sorry we missed you

This event has passed, but it won't be the last. Be the first to know about future webinars from Third Factor by entering your information below.

About the presenter: Dane Jensen is the CEO of Third Factor, the author of The Power of Pressure: Why Pressure Isn't The Problem, It's The Solution, an acclaimed speaker, an instructor at Queen's University and the University of North Carolina, and a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review.
Sitting across the table in an office in central Manhattan, a top financial advisor with one of the world’s largest wealth management firms didn’t mince words: “The investment business is dead. I want to be my clients’ life coach and personal CFO.” It was a provocation, but one that gets at the heart of the epochal shift happening in wealth management. For the affluent and high net worth segments, what was formerly a transactional business rooted in investment tips is rapidly shifting to an advisory business rooted in planning for a life well-lived. The stakes are well understood: firms that can make this shift at scale faster and better than their peers will emerge as winners in a once-in-a-lifetime $84.4-trillion intergenerational wealth transfer. Those who can’t make the shift will be forced to compete with increasingly capable, low-cost transactional platforms.

Having different conversations

At the heart of the transition is equipping financial advisors with the skills, technology and resources to have different conversations with their clients.

"The top advisors are doing something totally different," shared one manager. "No one wants your opinion on "which stocks should I buy right now?" Instead, success increasingly hinges on an ability to execute four categories of conversation – which tend to be progressively less comfortable for advisors:

Conversation 1: Help clients articulate financial goals

e.g. "I want to retire in 30 years with a $200k annual income" – and then develop a plan to reach those goals that leverages the full balance sheet – cash management, investments, and debt. In almost all firms, these conversations are supported by planning tools that advisors have access to but the comfort level with discussing cash management and debt is often not as high as with investments.

01

Conversation 2: Surface potential derailers

e.g. "what if you are incapacitated and unable to work?" – and help mitigate them by using insurance and other risk management tools. These conversations can be risky themselves. As one executive struggling to get advisor uptake on insurance put it: "advisors often don’t want to get caught in a conversation that creates more fear than hope."

02

Conversation 3: Navigate inter-generational matters

Estate planning, tax, and financial literacy skills for the next generation. Beyond the unique expertise required to navigate these areas, these conversations can be infused with inter-family tension, especially when a prized asset like a cottage hangs in the balance. No client wants the transfer of their wealth to result in rifts amongst their children. As a result, advisors are sometimes hesitant to insert themselves into what feels like a fraught discussion.

03

Conversation 4: How to lead a life well lived

The best advisors provide access to expertise and experiences that support clients in living long, meaningful, healthy lives that allow them to enjoy the benefits of their financial freedom.

04

Taking stock of the list above can be overwhelming. “What is most different from three years ago,” shared one advisor, “is the amount of things you need to know – from planning, to asset management, legal, mortgages, insurance, and so on.” And sitting above the array of new technical and product expertise is a heightened level of conversational skills required to build client relationships in which individuals feel safe to discuss highly personal matters – hopes and fears that they often have not shared even with their family or close friends.

Better conversations at scale

In every wealth management organization, there are high performing advisor teams already having these conversations with their clients. The challenge is doing it consistently and at scale. Even planning conversations, the first and most straightforward of the four categories above, are not yet happening with consistency. As of 2023, JD Power reports that only 57% of full-service wealth management clients say they have a financial plan in place. So how do we scale excellence? Our experience points to three key leverage points for seizing the opportunity:

01.

Level up field coaching to both role model the new kinds of conversations we want advisors to be having with their clients, and to surface and overcome barriers to the adoption of new products and technology.

02.

Equip advisors with the leadership skills to manage bigger teams.

03.

Become exceptional matchmakers to team up advisors with complimentary businesses and skill sets.

Hey look, a one-pager.

We’ve put these ideas in a handy one-page document you can take to go.

Download it as a PDF, or share it by email or on LinkedIn.

Want something more substantial? You can also download the full whitepaper.

LEVELING UP FIELD COACHING – FROM DASHBOARDS TO BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Just as client conversations are shifting from transactional to advisory, so too must internal coaching. In their conversations with advisors, field managers are the critical role model for the types of curious, developmental conversations we want advisors to have with clients. Historically, field coaching has been dashboard driven – focused on identifying and rewarding high performers and highlighting areas of under-performance to those lagging. As advisors are asked to have new and more uncomfortable conversations with clients that touch on planning for death or disability, surfacing hopes and fears, and shaping legacy – simply highlighting metrics and asking for ‘more’ is not sufficient. Similarly, driving technology adoption at scale in wealth management is not like rolling out a new, mandatory operating model at McDonald’s. As one consultant put it: “this is an incentive-based business, not a rules-based business.” Field leadership plays a crucial role in helping advisors see the value in new technology and understanding the role it can play in enabling their success, and that of their clients. To drive new conversations and speed adoption of new technology, field managers need the coaching tools to go beyond dashboard metrics to get at the underlying drivers and blocks of behavior change. This requires equipping field managers with:
  • Strong relationship building skills – in the high autonomy environment of wealth management, the strength of the relationship determines the level of influence.
  • A deeper understanding of what drives behavior change (or resistance) – managers need to have a mental model of where resistance comes from and how to overcome it. This is what allows them to be curious rather than judgmental in the face of push-back and dig deep to understand the block they need to remove to change behavior.
  • Exceptional questioning, listening and curiosity skills – finally, helping field leaders strengthen their ability to have discovery conversations that seek to understand advisors’ hopes and fears rather than ‘objection handle’ their concerns. Again, this provides role modeling for the types of client conversations we aspire to have.
In our experience, building these skills is best accomplished by identifying an initial cadre of field managers who have both the interest and capacity to become stronger coaches – and investing disproportionately in their development. The results driven by this group can serve as a strong incentive for other managers, and the individuals targeted can serve as internal champions. For example, in one organization we work with, 17 branch managers were nominated by their regional directors to receive extra training and 1:1 support from a master coach for a 12-month period.

EQUIPPING ADVISORS TO LEAD BIGGER TEAMS

A survey of the conversations advisors are being asked to navigate makes it clear that no one has the skills to do it alone. World-class advisory is a team sport and organizations need to support advisors in building larger teams with a diverse range of expertise that cuts across debt, insurance, estate planning and more – with the client service, risk, and back-office functions to support it all running smoothly.
“Advisors all want a team – but they don’t want to manage a team.”
From the advisors’ perspective, downward pressure on fees means they need bigger teams to serve more clients in order to make the same compensation. And bigger practices are more highly valued when the time comes for an advisor to sell their business down the road. It seems like a win-win. And yet, as a seasoned coach to financial advisors put it, “advisors all want a team – but they don’t want to manage a team.” Most advisors pride themselves on their subject-matter expertise and their relationship and selling skills. Managing a team and dealing with the administrative burden from growing headcount is rarely aligned with their areas of core competence. And while some of these responsibilities can be delegated to an office manager, ultimately the leader is responsible for building a compelling vision and team culture that attracts and retains top talent. More consistent success with creating bigger teams requires that organizations help advisors build people leadership skills. High performing advisors will not get committed to doing things they don’t feel competent at. Training for advisors must go beyond product, sales and client service skills to encompass setting them up for success with ever-growing teams.

BECOMING EXPERT MATCHMAKERS TO TEAM UP ADVISORS

Finally, beyond equipping individual advisors to grow their teams, firms must become experts at developing a repeatable model for combining the practices of individual advisors into teams with multiple advisors.
“Advisors with different backgrounds and skills produce the best performance when teamed up, but those differences can also produce tremendous friction.”
Research by McKinsey has shown conclusively that “team-based wealth management advisors outperform sole practitioners on almost every metric.” Specifically, teams in which the advisors bring a diversity of skills and backgrounds produce the best advisor team performance. Beyond performance, teaming up advisors also provides more redundancy, allowing advisors to live more balanced lives, and aids in succession planning – a critical priority as a generational shift occurs over the coming 10-15 years. Accessing these benefits is easier said than done. Advisors with different backgrounds and skills produce the best performance when teamed up, but those differences can also produce tremendous friction and lead to combustion that is both costly and demotivating. To access the advantages of team performance, wealth management organizations need to bring science to the art of matchmaking to achieve a higher hit rate and fewer blow-ups. This requires:
  • Using psychometric data, not just business data, to identify strong teams – two practices may look like an obvious match based on their client lists but be unworkable due to the personalities of the advisors. Using psychometric tools gives organizations a clearer, data-driven view of whose distinct styles will be complimentary vs. combustible.
  • Having tough interpersonal conversations up front – using the same psychometric data, organizations can increase eventual success rates by having tough, data-driven conversations up-front that surface and plan for likely sources of conflict based on each advisor’s unique style.
  • Building the skill of collaboration – collaborating with someone different than you is a learnable skill that can be improved with practice. Providing advisors with up-front models for working through conflict and effectively working together can head off potential derailers down the road.
There has never been a moment of so much opportunity and risk in the wealth management industry. The firms who can pair a team-based structure with high quality field coaching and technology that enables advisors to confidently broaden the conversations they have with clients are those who stand to gain from volatility and win the hearts, minds, and wallets of the next generation.

Take this whitepaper to go

Enter your name and work email address to instantly access the PDF.

(Required)

About the authors

  • Dane Jensen

    Dane is the CEO of Third Factor, an acclaimed speaker, instructor at the University of North Carolina, and a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. Learn more

  • Garry Watanabe

    Garry Watanabe is an expert on coaching and performance psychology with a wealth of experience working under the peak of pressure in both business and sport. Learn more

Take this whitepaper to go. Download the PDF.

At Third Factor, we’ve made it our job to learn as much as we can from top performers in sport, government, academia, industry, business and share their best practices with people like you. It should come as no surprise that this group of lifelong learners loves to read, and our deep curiosity leads us in some unexpected directions. Because reading is no fun if you can’t share it with others, we’ve made it an annual tradition to share our top picks in a Summer Reading List. Whether you want to learn something new or lose yourself in a story, these are the books our team recommends for Summer 2023.

Dane Jensen, CEO

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow

Titan is an incredible book that chronicles a remarkable life. Neither celebrating nor condemning Rockefeller, author Ron Chernow delves deeply into the inherent contradictions of a deeply religious man who amassed the greatest fortune in history, a robber baron who ruthlessly accumulated capital and also revolutionized science, medicine and education through his unprecedented philanthropy. It is a biography that provides a wealth of lessons on leadership (my copy is full of dog-eared pages on communication, delegation, and management), a reflection on ethics, a cautionary tale on the inter-generational challenges of wealth, a rollicking account of the dawn of industry in the late 19th and early 20th century, and an intimate survey of a 98-year life that is unlikely to ever be duplicated. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Peter Jensen, Founder

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

Let me start by telling you what this is not. It is not a traditional time management book. We are mortals and assuming you live to 80 years of age you have roughly 4000 weeks. The human lifespan is observably, terrifyingly, insultingly, short.

When you get efficient at managing your tasks, you actually end up with more of them and many of them will not be what you really want to do. In other words when you get efficient at using your time, time ends up mastering you, and you end up with more demands that will offset any benefits.

In the appendix, at the end of the book, Brukeman includes 10 tools for embracing your finitude. That list alone is worth the price of the book.

This is an easy book to read, light in tone, and very practical on a philosophical level. I highly recommend it!

Peggy Baumgartner, Chief Learning Officer

Nothing but the Truth by Marie Henein

Nothing but the Truth is the memoir of Canadian lawyer Marie Henein and is an inspiring example of an authentic leader amidst numerous obstacles. Breaking away from the confines of a male-dominated system, Henein fearlessly embraces her true self and values. Through her actions and choices, she demonstrates the power of staying true to oneself rather than conforming to societal norms. “Nothing but the Truth” is a surprisingly brilliant read that will leave you motivated and empowered.

Kim Fulton, Practice Lead, Coaching & Leadership

Tomorrowmind by Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman

Our modern approach to work looks radically different than the hunting and gathering work that our brains evolved to do – it’s no wonder burnout, disengagement, and unhealthy work cultures are so prevalent across our organizations today. In Tomorrowmind, Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman explore our changing workplaces through the lens of behavioural science and offer practical solutions for fostering resilience, creating meaning, navigating change, and tapping into creativity to build the mindsets needed for the workplaces of today and the future.

Garry Watanabe, Principal Trainer & Sport Lead

Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly is the former editor of “The Whole Earth Catalog”, the Chief Maverick at Wired Magazine and dubbed “the real life world’s most interesting man.” His book, Excellent Advice for Living, is essentially a collection of quotes or mottos to help guide practical action and decision making in everyday life. For example: “That thing that made you weird as a kid could make you great as an adult – if you don’t lose it.” While you can read it in an hour, its insights are worth practicing for a lifetime. I wish I had picked it up earlier.

Karyn Garossino, Associate Trainer

Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley

With a long history of studying and teaching resilience I’m drawn to life stories that demonstrate conscious reflection and balanced perspective. Run Towards the Danger is a collection of 6 essays that bring an insightful voice to adversity and the inner dialogue that occurs while navigating challenging times. Award winning actor, screenwriter and director Sara Polley reveals intimate details about work, family, and health that represent the complexity and humanity that surrounded her. As Polley makes sense of her own life experiences one cannot help but think more deeply of one’s own. There is tremendous vulnerability and pain, curiosity and humour on these pages and much inspiration to live fully with courage and understand the past with compassion.

Sandra Stark, Partner

this is how it always is by Laurie Frankel

This is a beautifully written story of family with five boys, the youngest of whom begins to voice thoughts and feelings about being a girl at a very young age. What unfolds is an insightful and enlightening exploration of how the family, the parents and the brothers, manages the challenges presented for the child and themselves. There are so many layers morally, practically and emotionally that inspired and challenged me as I reflected on how I would respond as a parent. While this sounds like a dark and psychologically dense topic the book is written with a beautiful lightness that captures the chaos and joy endemic in a family with two good parents and 4 boisterous, kind young men and one young woman in the making. Reading this book was an enjoyable and mind broadening exercise complete with hope. It evoked deep empathy and great respect in me for any family or individual who must make this journey.

Chris Farris Zabaneh, Associate Trainer

The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

This inspiring and thought-provoking book was my intro to performance psychology. In this captivating memoir, former child chess prodigy and martial arts champion Josh Waitzkin shares his insights on achieving excellence in any field. This taught me all about the concept of the learning process as an art form, emphasizing the importance of mindset, adaptability, and resilience. It’s a great way to enjoy a read while in the pursuit of mastery in any field (from leading in an organization to simply tending to your summer garden).

Alexis Ullerick, Program Logistics & Materials Lead

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Essentialism is about eliminating the non-essentials from your life to make more room for doing less, but better. I chose this book because it inspired me to make small changes to how I prioritize my life at home and work that have really made a difference. Some tips I took to heart were if something isn’t a clear yes, it’s likely a no – and how to say no gracefully, yourself. It also emphasizes the importance of sleep which is key to getting everything else right.

Lori Quinn, Account Executive

A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston

I love a good memoir and this book did not disappoint. A Life in Parts is a story about the joy, necessity and the transformative power of simple hard work. It’s a wonderful and inspiring story of how we can tap into some skill or natural talent when we have the single-mindedness and fortitude to commit. If you’ve watched and enjoyed Bryan Cranston’s work, you will enjoy this book.

Jordan Lavin, Marketing Lead

Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

This summer I’ll be reading Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, whose work has helped governments and businesses around the world achieve better outcomes not through force or persuasion, but using environmental design. The Final Edition promises to incorporate new stories and insights learned from the frenzy of activity the first edition initiated when it was published in 2008.

Many websites use affiliate links to make money when you buy something from Amazon – we don’t. Feel free to follow the links provided or pick up the book you want from your favourite local bookseller. As our business continues to grow, we are very excited to welcome Kim Fulton to the team to lead our coaching and leadership practice. Third Factor has been teaching coaching skills to managers for 30 years, since our Founders Peter Jensen and Sandra Stark pioneered the application of the principals they were observing in their work with Olympic coaches to the corporate world. Rooted in our best-in-class 3×4 Coaching model, our suite of coaching programs have helped tens of thousands of leaders become better coaches. I can’t think of anyone more perfectly suited to continue this tradition of excellence than Kim. Kim joins us from the consulting firm, Kearney, where she created and led the firm’s employee experience centre of expertise. As part of this role, she established Kearney’s thought leadership in the employee experience space and developed new product offerings to help organizations reimagine work from an employee-centric perspective. Kim also brings expertise in, and passion for, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She’ll be drawing on her experience working with Catalyst, a leading voice in DEI, and as the leader of Kearney’s Women’s Network, to ensure our coaching and leadership programs continue to lead the way when it comes to inclusivity. Kim not only earned her MBA from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University, but graduated at the top of her class. She now serves on the Advisory Board for the Full-Time MBA. Welcome to the Third Factor team, Kim. We can’t wait to see how our programs will benefit from your passion and expertise. How do you make a leadership development program stick at a time when there are so many competing priorities? This is the problem Renee Landry, Bayer’s U.S. Learning Lead, and Rachel Lamb, Bayer’s Senior Leadership Expert, set out to solve. The solution was Rise & Thrive, an innovative microlearning experience developed in partnership with SweetRush and Third Factor. Approximately half of Bayer’s US leaders voluntarily participated in the program, which has received outstanding quantitative and qualitative feedback from participants as well as attention from the broader learning industry. The program has also been recognized with four Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards. Click here to read the case study. We’re excited to announce that we have received accreditation from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) for our flagship coaching program, 3×4 Coaching.
Based in our thirty years of working with great coaches, 3×4 Coaching teaches the 3 plays and 4 skills that exceptional coaches use to deliver results and build commitment. We’ve delivered 3×4 Coaching to thousands of leaders across hundreds of organizations ranging from tech startups to one of the world’s largest banks. As the leading global organization for coaches and coaching, the ICF sets the gold standard for coaching education. This accreditation demonstrates that 3×4 Coaching meets the highest standards in coaching professional development, meeting the ICF’s strict educational and ethical requirements. ICF-credentialed coaches who complete 3×4 Coaching in its 2-day classroom or virtual learning journey formats will earn a total of 12 CCE credits that may be used when renewing their credential. Coaches who complete the 1-day classroom workshop will earn 7 CCE credits. Click here to find details on our upcoming open enrollment programs. Learn more about the ICF Continuing Coach Education (CCE) accreditation and standards at their website.