Drawing on the rich consumer data in RFI Global’s MacroMonitor, Kehrer Group found that engaging in financial planning is a win for banks and credit unions, a win for their advisors, and a win for their customers and members.

From the standpoint of the institution, helping to prepare the household’s financial plan results in a customer/member relationship that is deeper, more durable, and over time, much more profitable.

For the institution’s financial advisors, helping to prepare the household’s financial plan positions the advisor as the household’s primary source of advice, and appears to result in the household holding the bank or credit union financial professionals in higher regard.

And for the client household, having a financial plan lifts the fog and uncertainty around the financial future, helping the household feel more confident financially, with the assurance that comes with having a clear financial strategy.

The RFI Global’s MacroMonitor is a comprehensive survey of US households conducted every other year since 1978, and offers financial-services providers reliable, validated, single-source research about US economic households’ financial needs, attitudes, and behaviors. The MacroMonitor measures all financial areas: transactions, credit, assets, protection, and information and advice.  Each wave of the survey encompasses over 4,000 US households, including an oversample of 2,000 affluent households reweighted to be representative of the US population.

Firms seeking to maximize the opportunity in financial planning have a choice of delivery models. They need to understand how clients want to access, digest, and engage with the financial planning process. Kehrer Group examined data on consumers with financial plans to help firms looking to sharpen their delivery of financial planning services identify best practices.  The study, The Importance of Client Engagement in Financial Planning, is available for complimentary download here.