The Prospects of Staying Virtual

Art by Philip Lindeman

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many advisers were forced into working from home, using video conferencing tools such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This has allowed for easy and almost instant contact with clients across the country.

Now that states and companies have lifted certain pandemic restrictions, advisers are working to understand how virtual meetings will fit into their practice, in doing so balancing their needs with those of their clients. To what extent do advisory firms plan to keep leveraging these digital meeting platforms? And might a digital-first meeting approach be here to stay? Five advisers shared their insights on these timely subjects and more.

Jeffrey Petrone, Managing Director, SageView Advisory Group

On the one hand, the virtual platform has allowed us to scale our service model beyond its prior limitations. We’re in Florida, and previously, we may have had to drive hundreds of miles just to get to a client’s office. By using virtual platforms, we can simply click ‘join’ or click ‘disconnect,’ which means we can meet with our clients, then return to our desk instantaneously. So, you can imagine how that makes working much more efficient from a service perspective.

“It has also been helpful from a prospect standpoint. Initially, I wouldn’t say that plan sponsors were as interested in engaging with a new adviser virtually. Things have changed as the pandemic has progressed. I have lots of my initial conversations with prospective clients virtually now, and I don’t see any significant difference between meeting for the first time in person or virtually. Of course, if things go well, we always will then try to have a secondary conversation in person, where we can develop that rapport you get from the in-person conversation. The deeper relationship-building occurs when you’re sitting across the table from somebody.

“The other side of this, for me, is that the pandemic has seen, and given rise to, considerable turnover within plan committees. You may have a new chief human resources officer come in or a new chief financial officer join up. This turnover has underscored the need to build new relationships with new leaders at client companies you might have worked with for a long time. If everybody follows this kind of virtual model, then you could get to a point where you might not have the same level of relationship—even with established and loyal customers. I think that dynamic could potentially put you at risk.”

Sean Patton, Founding Partner, Senior Consultant, Westminster Consulting

“I think virtual meetings are certainly here to stay. I don’t know if services will [continue to] be ‘digital first,’ as they have been, but I think much of it will have to do with the comfort level of clients being willing to meet in person, and, up until this point, that has been minimal. I think what comes next will be driven by clients.

“I think we’ll end up at some point, post-COVID, in a hybrid meeting world, where half of the meetings will be in person and half will be digital or virtual. That mix is how we’ll engage clients, going forward. Nothing replaces being in person. You can’t replace the collaboration and the side-talk that builds relationships with clients, and we certainly want to get back to that. Again, I think a lot of what happens next will be driven by plan sponsors.

“Virtual meetings will remain attractive in some cases. There’s a real ease of use, the ease of being able to dial in to a Zoom call no matter where you are. It’s easier to schedule a meeting, especially if you have clients who are moving around and traveling to meetings, as well.

“The challenges are that people still struggle with the technology at times—you know, being muted when trying to say something important or having your connection drop. I also think, when everyone is not in one location working, it can be a challenge as we try to schedule meetings. If clients are working from home, and they are doing things—picking up kids, or stuff that just wasn’t a distraction prior to COVID because they were at their work location—now those things might get in the way.”

Brett Shofner, Principal, Work Plan Retire

“In my view, digital-first service is 100% here to stay. And here’s the dirty secret: Advisers would have always loved to do it this way. I’ll give you a perfect example. I have a bunch of clients in the Denver area. We have an office there. I used to have to go out there probably every other month, at minimum, and I would go see a bunch of clients. Well, now, the digital-first model makes everything simpler. In this environment, clients don’t view digital meetings as being less professional or less of a commitment from the adviser. Our clients appreciate the efficiency, and they like knowing they can have some meetings without having to waste time with all the travel or small talk.

“Are you going to go to digital every day, all the time, and never meet people? No way. If that’s your strategy, that’s not going to work, because you still must have a human-centered element to what you do. But again, the efficiency of going digital with the very first meeting or for meetings with people you know well—it’s kind of perfect.

“Digital-first meetings with long-time clients will continue to make a lot of sense. In-person meetings will be more important in that middle ground, where the clients don’t know you as well or there has been turnover on the committee. It’s kind of like anything in life. If you’re talking to an old friend, he’s going to be comfortable whether in person or on the phone.”

Matthew Eickman, National Retirement Practice Leader, Qualified Plan Advisors

“The digital or virtual meetings will continue to be a critical ingredient in advisers’ plan service models, and what I expect will happen is that the stronger advisers will not switch to digital as a replacement for everything they were doing before. Instead, digital meetings will allow them to do slightly less in-person work, which will result in overall more efficient and effective service.

“Early on in the pandemic, there was this idea—people started throwing around the term ‘low-touch economy.’ I never really bought into that, because what I started to see from plan sponsors and from participants is that they weren’t looking for less service when we switched to remote working and virtual conversations. They just wanted to be talked with differently.

“What we found is that there’s a desire for at least as much service as before, and so, for those who really figured out the technology aspect, they can supplement in-person service with digital capabilities. I can supplement in-person service with virtual meetings, and I can actually give my clients 25% to 50% more service. I think that’s the winning formula for advisers, moving forward.”

Keith Huber, Leader, Participant Education Practice, Fiduciary Plan Advisors, a OneDigital Company

“I would say [digital meetings are here to stay for us], as long as it’s still efficient for our clients. For our firm, we would love to continue to leverage digital client service, and we still have the vast majority of our meetings predominantly using Zoom. It’s probably somewhere around 85% to 90% of meetings still on Zoom, and the other 10% to 15% have only gone back to in person at the request of the client.

“If clients aren’t asking for it, and most of them aren’t, then we really don’t plan on going back in person in the same way we used to. We quickly found that we could do the exact same level of service, a whole lot more efficiently, by doing it on Zoom. We’re in Baltimore, but so many of our clients are down in D.C. and northern Virginia, and I’m sure that even if you haven’t spent much time there, you might have heard just how bad the traffic can be.

“I think there’s one really clear pro and one really clear con with digital-first service. The clear pro is just the efficiency. For those few in-person meetings that I’ve had recently, I felt like I had to arrange my entire day around them. On the other hand, for the past two years, I’ve done four hour-and-a-half meetings in one day. So that’s a major pro.

“The major con is that this remains a relationship business. For our team in particular, we win and probably keep a lot of our business because we’re very personable. We’re a casual office—from how we dress to how we talk. I think that comes through to a lot of people, but I think it’s harder to get that across over Zoom. I guess to sum it up, I don’t think there’s any scenario where you can connect better with somebody, doing it virtually.”