You may not have noticed, but your clients may be just like you

Do advisers work better with clients who match them demographically?

Common ground between advisers and clients can help form great relationships, but some advisers target clients whose lives mirror their own.

Age

Some firms fear a young intermediary advising someone twice their age could be patronising.

“An adviser straight out of university should not be saying to a 50-year-old: ‘I know where you are coming from’,” said David Hindle, IFA at Sterling Asset Management. 

However, Anthony Flynn, financial planner at the Fry Group, said: “It takes time and honest conversations to prove a 30-something can understand what a 60-something is going through,” he said.

Gender

Gina Miller, director at SCM Financial Planning, focuses on women because some prefer a female adviser.

“We have a strong female focus as experience taught us many women want financial independence without being patronised by what has traditionally been a male-orientated industry,” she said.

Miller said female clients come to her after feeling intimidated and alienated by a male adviser whose advice they did not understand.

Miller does not deny some male advisers have great soft skills, but added women can use “empathy, intuition and nurturing” to build trust with clients which “can significantly add to profitability”.

Religion

An adviser’s understanding of a client’s religion can develop trust, Hindle says.

“Clients come to me via the Association of Christian Financial Advisers because they want an IFA who understands their principles, such as the idea all wealth is God-given,” said Hindle.

However, he added: “I work with a Jewish solicitor who is only interested in my professionalism.”

Nick Bamford, executive director of Informed Choice, says he does not base his proposition on shared beliefs but on “expertise, skill, integrity and transparency.”

Relationships

Personality comes above beliefs or background in client relationships, Hindle said.
“If your personalities clash, there is no point working together,” he said.

Flynn said all clients put up defence mechanisms and make advisers work to earn trust. 

“They are asking ‘can this person understand what I am going through?’ rather than ‘does this person have the same specific beliefs as me?’” Flynn said.

Bamford said the key is not common ground but an adviser’s approach.

“The adviser doesn’t have to match the client but must be genuine in the way they feel about their clients,” Bamford said.