Financial professionals often find the concept of “downtime” unfamiliar due to the demanding nature of the industry. When the summer months approach and the workload slows down, it's natural to struggle with navigating the best ways to maximize your available free time.
With tax season behind us, the summer months are precious—the days are longer, and many clients, prospects, and colleagues prioritize spending time outside the office walls. This time should be used wisely before the rush of year-end planning and reporting. Regardless of where an advisor is in their career, those who take advantage of the summer slowdown to strategically recharge, absorb and plan for the remainder of the year are positioned to significantly improve their practices.
Here are three suggestions that financial professionals should consider when making the rest of their summer plans.
- Embrace collaboration in strategic planning
Be intentional with the time you spend connecting with colleagues and encourage conversation by focusing on immediate and long-term goals. Individual sessions are productive in fostering open and honest discussions about lessons learned during the first half of the year. Small group sessions inspire collaboration to design how to measure success in the months ahead. Schedule mid-year reflections with your teams to discuss the first half of the year, prepare for future opportunities, and connect with areas for improvement.
When strategizing for the second half of the year, the summer months are ideal for engaging an outside consultant to conduct a practice analysis review. Just as the objectivity you provide to your clients can make a difference in their long-term results, third-party practice reviews can help you think objectively about how to grow strategically, create efficiencies, and break even. problems your business one day.
- Design your own summer reading list
Make time to read, listen and absorb innovative ideas outside the office. This can take many forms: strategize your newest beach read, morning coffee programming, or travel podcast to hear the latest insights from successful leaders inside and outside the financial industry to help diversify your perspective.
Deliberately taking the time to understand new business practices and leadership philosophies will enable you to think differently about traditional structures in a way that can be transformative for your practice.
For a more immersive experience, consider attending executive leadership meetings tailored to your interests, offering new environments and professional connections to stimulate critical thinking about the future. There's tremendous value in hearing from other professionals about how they've navigated the year—challenge yourself to ask about lessons learned, where peers have found success, times they've been challenged, and discuss their thoughts on potential obstacles and opportunities. for the remainder. of the year.
- Get smarter about new tools and technology
As new technologies and AI tools continue to advance rapidly, prioritize developing an understanding of what your customers rely on and what can create new efficiencies in your work.
Start by evaluating the tools and processes you currently use and ask: Are there better ways to do this? Consider making time to meet with a financial wholesaler for tailored educational programming and an outside perspective on the factors that may be hindering your success.
While it is difficult to predict the full impact AI will have on the wealth management industry, the technology has already shown benefits that can free up advisor capacity. Acting like a virtual assistant, new AI tools can synthesize and summarize phone conversations, long-form documents and other proprietary information to save time and help you “get to the heart” of a question faster.
We think some of the benefits of AI for advisors are reducing time spent on administrative tasks and cite research, which can create the capacity to spend more time on the more human elements of the practice, like having meaningful conversations with clients about life goals and financial priorities. making thoughtful allocation recommendations and being the voice of reason during times of volatility.
Using the summer slowdown to research and practice new technologies can make your life and your customers' lives easier. Enter the second half of the year well prepared, equipped with the latest financial tools and confident in your ability to use them effectively.
to 'sum up'
By strategically using the summer months to collaborate with colleagues, learn from professionals inside and outside the financial industry, and embrace new technologies, financial professionals can enrich their practices and position themselves for success in the second half of year.
Above all, financial professionals should begin their mid-year reflections and check in with themselves on what is required to create a successful second half of the year. The importance of proper rest and relaxation should not be overlooked. Make time for family, friends and fun and embrace a balance between professional and personal development.
Mary Mock is Senior Vice President and Head of Distribution for Touchstone Investments