IFA Trust: The most valuable 21st Century commodity

The year 2000 promised us the end of third world debt, to save our planet from us and the end of boom and bust economic cycles.

What the last ten years has actually delivered is:

Going to war on dubious evidence, fraudulent MP expense claims, our largest financial institutions becoming illiquid, shareholder value consistently eroded by highly paid executives and central banks printing money to stimulate economies regardless of the consequences for pensioners that have saved all their lives.

So is it any wonder that trust for corporate leaders, politicians and financial institutions are at an all time low?

Yet simultaneously, consumers trust each other in ways we haven't seen since the traders of the earliest civilisations.

Imagine buying an expensive product from someone using a false name, without knowing their exact location and paying in advance. Well that's exactly what thousands of people do on eBay every hour.

So while trust has diminished for our leaders and many leading brands, it has not disappeared completely. We still trust each other - our friends, our family and our colleagues, well some of them anyway.

So where's the opportunity?

It is in the advisors that can find a home not just in completing a transaction for their client, but in becoming part of their network and adding value to it. That is a Social Advisor.

RDR provides the opportunity for advisors that are sincere about their profession and to weed out those that are not. Simultaneously, it creates the challenge for advisors to find ways to efficiently and effectively manage more close customer relationships and maintain a low cost base.

Social Advisors = Successful Business  = Trust X Network / Low Cost Client Relationships