While wellness and mental health have become a more common conversation among the broader US population since the pandemic, it's a topic still untouched by the financial services industry. New research from Kitces.com aims to measure and track trends across advisor wellness, just like the industry benchmarks everything else.

Over 1,500 members of financial advisory teams responded The Kitce Report: 2023 Counselor Wellbeing Study. Respondents reported their current level of quality of life, or well-being, on a scale of 0-10. The mean was 6.84, with sole practitioners feeling better about life compared to advisers at mid-sized or larger firms.

In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor at WealthManagement.comspeaks with Michael Kitces, blogger and chief financial planner at Kitces.com, about key points from the study, including the positive impact of team involvement, strategic delegation of less desirable tasks, and the need for fair compensation, especially for those advisors that are service oriented.

Michael Kitces

Michael discusses:

• The impetus behind the initiation of this study
• How does he define it? well-being and happiness in study
• The relationship between firm size and advisor welfare
• Key drivers of counselor well-being: autonomy, experience, team, and service
• How firms can foster happiness and engagement among their advisors

Sources:

Connect with Michael Kitces:

Connect with Wealth Management and NREI:

About our guest:

Michael E. Kitces is Chief Strategy Officer for Buckingham Wealth Partners, a privately held wealth management firm located in St. Louis, Missouri, overseeing approximately $50 billion in client assets. In addition, he is the co-founder of the XY Planning Network, AdvicePay, fpPathfinder and New Planner Recruiting, former practice editor of the Journal of Financial Planning and publisher of the electronic newsletter The Kitces Report and the popular financial planning industry blog Nerd's Eye View via his website www.Kitces.com, dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in financial planning.

If you are struggling and would like to share your experiences and help others in similar situations, please contact Diana at (email protected).

The Healthy Advisor Podcast is available at Apple Podcasts, Android, Sewing machine, Spotify and wherever podcasts are found.