3 Things We’re Thinking About for the New Year (So You Don’t Have To)

By Aneri Jambusaria, Executive Vice President of LPL Services Group

In 2022, we saw dramatic market volatility, the first extended bear market in decades, rising interest rates, and mixed economic signals that seemed to change daily. Wow, it was quite the year – one in which our dynamic industry was forced to navigate nearly every headwind possible.

While we hope an upswing comes sooner than later, we’re thinking ahead to 2023. We’re taking every kind of market condition and challenge into account so we can make things easier for our advisors and firms to deliver great advice and run thriving businesses.

With that in mind, here are the top three ways we plan to help you do just that.

1. Reducing stress

You deal with many stressors, even when markets are bullish. Managing staff, dealing with client concerns, juggling your work/life balance, and more. Don’t let the day-to-day running of your business add more stress.

Delegation is a proven way to reduce stress. Our research shows satisfaction among advisors generally increases as they outsource more of their business needs, and 45% of you said you outsource three or more of your business needs to run your businesses.¹ Taking things off your to-do list, and freeing up your time, allows you to offload effectively and schedule more downtime.

Hundreds of our advisors have turned to Admin Solutions, effectively delegating long-term work and even shorter seasonal tasks. The top five tasks we’ve handled for advisors in 2022: opening new accounts, account transfers, Move Money tasks and requests, required minimum distributions, and account maintenance.

In 2022, we introduced Bookkeeping Services so that advisors could spend less time in their books – thanks to dedicated LPL bookkeeping support – and get accurate, reliable, and timely financial reporting. It’s another service designed to help financial professionals focus on moments that matter most. As one advisor who spent hours on bookkeeping said, “What I get to do with my extra time is just incredible.” 

2. Planning is key

Demand for advice is growing exponentially. Providing financial planning for clients strengthens and deepens their trust in you – and studies show that 50% of investors who have a financial plan put at least 10% of their income away.² Clients with financial plans are much more apt to stay the course, have a better sense of security and safety, and stick with their advisor for the long haul.

That’s why LPL offers a full spectrum of financial planning services. LPL’s Financial Planning Consulting group can provide complimentary planning consultations, strategize on planning strategies, or offer a second opinion on your plan before delivering it to a client.

We continue to listen to advisors’ requests about how we can help further in the financial planning arena. One of the ways we responded to advisors’ needs was the launch of Paraplanning Services, a scalable solution that any financial professional can use – whether you’re new to financial planning or want to expand your capacity. Advisors using Paraplanning Services are thrilled that we offer comprehensive and custom plans for clients that adhere to the highest of industry standards and practices.

To help you continue to guide your clients during heightened market volatility, check out my recent LPL Newsroom article that offers additional tips and tools for your planning toolbox.

3. Meeting your top strategic challenges

In our annual awareness survey,³ LPL advisors ranked their top two challenges as:

• Maintaining and deepening client relationships
• Developing business and growth strategies

So how are we addressing those challenges?

You’re getting a lot of calls from clients. So we’ve made sure Marketing Solutions has an “always-on” component to deepen, strengthen, and optimize current client relationships. Your Marketing Solutions team can send your clients regular communications addressing market conditions, and increase frequency whenever needed. In 2022, we helped advisors by sending over 400,000 client emails. That’s in addition to the consistent multi-platform stream of outreach our team does. Advisors and firms using Marketing Solutions this year reduced the volume of panicked calls about market volatility from clients. As LPL advisor Ben Melton notes, “The amount of calls I get is now half or a third – which significantly frees up my time.”

If you’re still deciding how to achieve your 2023 goals, having a thought partner is key. We’ve helped hundreds of advisors uncover more profitable client segments, increase capacity to spend more time with clients, and focus on their goals. And as we track through 2023 and beyond, CFO Solutions is evolving to support your goals in a variety of ways. With every plan the CFO Solutions team deploys, we’re ensuring that no time is wasted on financial analysis or strategy that doesn’t move your business forward.

We continue to innovate to make sure that running your business – and your life – is easier at every turn. Look for new service launches in 2023 that will make it possible for you to focus more on what you enjoy the most and do best – taking care of your clients. We invite you to check out this video and learn how several LPL advisors effectively weathered the 2022 storm by leveraging LPL Business Solutions.

^{The views and opinions by the Financial Advisor(s) are as of the publishing date. These views may not be representative of the views of other Financial Advisor(s) and are not indicative of future performance or success. Neither LPL Financial nor the LPL Financial Advisor(s) can be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information offered.} 

<sup>Sources:
1 Tell LPL Omnibus Survey, Data collected from 710 financial professionals and 100 admins/support staff, July 2022.
2. Having a Written Financial Plan Improves Savings and Asset Allocation, PlanSponsor.com, February 8, 2022.
3. LBS Q3 2022 Awareness Survey, Data collected from 629 financial professionals, August 2022.</sup>