I learned a lot hearing Kitces talk at the Morningstar annual conference. So thought I’d relay some of his insights here.

1. Technology forces the constant evolution of the financial advisor’s profession.

• Advisors in the 80s would execute trades on behalf of their clients. Until that got commoditized by Schwab.

• In the 90s, advisors evolved into picking stocks for their clients. Mutual funds rendered that service unnecessary again.

• In the 2000s, advisors handled asset allocation more broadly. Yet, TAMPs, followed by rebalancing software, Robo-Advisors, and model marketplaces, one by one pushed the industry to rethink its core offering.

2. We are in the midst of a crisis of differentiation. Consumers cannot tell advisors apart.

• 76% of advisors believe they are above average in understanding their clients’ needs and objectives. 72% believes their client service is above average.

• Friends & family referrals only work for table stakes problems. “What would people gravitate to you for? What are you the best at? When you get clear on that, it’s easier to differentiate,” according to Kitces. Be known for something.

3. To really differentiate, advisors need to create the right experience for their clients.

• Tech can enable advisors to spend more time delighting their clients, by removing more basic tasks from their plate.

• When the internet commoditized booking tickets, travel agents didn’t quite become extinct. On the contrary, their productivity (and growth) quadrupled. They did that by expanding into services (itinerary creation, accommodation bookings) and differentiating themselves.

4. Advisors are going after the same (few) prospects. The baby boomers specifically, who hold 80% of investable assets.

• On top of that, it takes a specific personality type to be comfortable outsourcing their wealth’s management; it takes being a “delegator,” which only 30% of people are.

• To make matters worse, not all delegators are in the market for a financial advisor; a lot are already working with one. And so, advisors need to go after delegators who just who got money for the first time.

• This makes specialization more important than ever. A business owner, with complex financial needs, is unlikely to choose an advisor who also works with lawyers, dentists, and divorcees.

Turns out Kitces and FINNY see eye-to-eye on a lot of things:

1. Advisors need to stop going after the same few prospects. Find your niche, and double down on that. FINNY’s tech enables them to do exactly that.

2. Delegators on the receiving end of some money-in-motion event are prime prospects. FINNY captures such events, in almost real-time.

3. To really differentiate themselves, advisors have to double down on the client experience. For one, FINNY can take prospecting off your plate.

4. We are in the cusp of a breakthrough. Tech is about to, yet again, refine what it means to be a financial advisor. Don’t fall behind.