Your relationship with clients is never going to be the same.

We are witnessing the beginning of a third wave in financial services.
The first wave was about product. The second wave was about advice. What will define the third wave?

Here’s how we see it:
The overlapping influences of social media, robo advisors, Skype, changing attitudes of baby boomers, expectations of a new generation, and a raft of other social and technological upheavals have brought us to an inflection point. Change has been a constant in the financial advice business but this is different. More fundamental.

We know some of what has changed:

• Clients have better access to information and think they are better informed
• It is as easy to find an advisor across the country as it is to find one down the street
• Advisors service clients hundreds of miles away
• Practitioners have direct access to potential clients through the web
• Investors can make their praise and criticism known to everyone online and via apps of their mobile devices
• Clients can get up-to-the-minute portfolio information on their phones
• Independent advisors can run a successful practice in the cloud with virtual staff
• Investment management firms can hire a robo and fire their research and trading staff

Sine wave: A geometric waveform that oscillates
and is defined by the function

What will the advisor of the future look like? We don’t know for sure but we do know there will be lots of experimentation, breakthroughs, failures, and chaos in the meantime. It will be like making pastry – the process will make a terrific mass but ultimately we will end up with something beautiful and sweet. The difference is that there are thousands of chefs and no recipe.

The 3rd Wave Collaborative is a consortium of industry leaders engaged in uncovering the new fundamentals in the profession of financial advice. Our goal is to spark innovation and share insights and experiences to collectively discover what this new wave, the future of our industry, is about. We believe the changes taking place today will act synergistically to affect the very nature of the relationship between advisor and client. And we hope to attract thought leaders and forward thinking practitioners to help midwife this new era.

We have created this site to be a focal point for creative business ideas that move the industry to the next level, one that incorporates emerging capabilities and keeps the best interests of clients at its core.

Who’s behind this thesis?

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