Insurer-Affiliated Advisors: How They Work, What They Need
Report Summary
Insurer-Affiliated Advisors: How They Work, What They Need
To meet the demands of a retiring population, insurer-affiliated advisors will require improved tools to offer top-flight service.
Boston, October 4, 2011 – A new report from Aite Group focuses on the role of insurer-affiliated advisors, and discusses their practices and technological needs and preferences. The report is based on a Q1 2011 Aite Group survey of 438 U.S. financial advisors, including 32 insurer-affiliated advisors, and is bolstered with qualitative insight derived from Aite Group conversations with and project experience from working with insurer-affiliated advisors and broker-dealer home-office staff and wholesalers. It serves as a supplement to Aite Group’s August 2011 report, Insurer-Affiliated Advisors: Key Attitudes and Attributes.
Aite Group estimates that some 44,000 financial advisors are employed by insurer-affiliated broker-dealers; in aggregate, these advisors manage roughly US$325 billion in assets. Given the large number of retiring baby boomers and the fact that insurers are particularly well suited to help retirees manage their decumulation needs, Aite Group estimates that 47,000 insurer-affiliated advisors will manage US$443 billion in assets by the end of 2014. To meet the demands of a retiring population, advisors who clear through insurance broker-dealers will require improved tools to offer top-flight service. Survey respondents demonstrated a reasonably high inclination to dedicate more of their budgets toward improving technologies to enable capabilities such as broker workstations, customer relationship management, portfolio management, improved integration between applications, and mobile access to applications.
“The technology platforms broker-dealers make available to advisors are important to insurer-affiliated advisors selecting where they want to work,” says Clark Troy, research director with Aite Group and author of this report. “Given that top-producing advisors are difficult-to-come-by, prized assets for broker-dealers, those affiliated with insurers should work hard to offer attractive, best-in-class platforms that can attract and retain top talent.”
This 29-page Impact Report contains 22 figures. Clients of Aite Group's Life Insurance service can download the report.