Financial Advisors Need Enhanced Insurance and Cybersecurity Capabilities to Stay Ahead of 2022 Trends
To My Fellow WSR Community Members:
As children, our parents warn us of threats that we “courageously” ignore. As financial industry professionals, substitute risk experts for parents and we’re in the same situation – facing a maelstrom of risks to our businesses and clients – but with wisdom gained through experience.
We listen to experts now because they’ve saved clients, advisors and firms from countless pitfalls unforeseeable by us but well known to them – often using insurance and cybersecurity solutions.
Intersection of Insurance & Wealth Management
Insurance occupies a crucial position in holistic financial planning – avoiding the insurance discussion with unaware clients feels easy in the short term, but it never works out for clients or an advisor who failed to incorporate insurance tools into a client’s financial plan.
In terms of the bigger picture for our industry, a combination of broader demographic and economic forces have intensified the intersection of insurance and wealth management.
Clients are increasingly seeking greater protection for their income and wealth, and financial advisors are under more pressure to deliver insurance solutions that can help achieve thee goals, while doing so within the context of clients’ long range financial plans.
Rising Urgency of Greater Cybersecurity Protections
Speaking of protections, 2022 was a year of dramatic cyber-crimes across multiple industry sectors, from financial services, to energy to – yes, hard to believe – meat packing.
With digital criminals continuing to proliferate, cybersecurity for firms, financial advisors and their clients is even more critical.
We are in an environment with active, rapidly-evolving predators that often operate beyond the law’s reach. Firms must stay ahead in the cybersecurity race or fall victim to hackers.
Some Highlights in This Week’s Issue
Here are just a couple of highlights from this week’s issue:
- In our Capital Connections section, Jim Gelder, CEO of Highland Capital Brokerage, explains that financial advisors must offer insurance products, including annuities, life insurance and long-term care solutions and how to implement these into holistic financial planning, then shares the latest industry trends.
- In The Digital Domain, cybersecurity firm Entreda’s CEO and founder Sid Yenamandra updates us on the integration of recently-acquired Privva, a provider of cyber assessment tools for vendor data risks, and warns us to prepare for the top cyber threats of 2022: zero-day and vulnerability exploits, ransomware and the risk of compromised data up the supply chain.
- This week, we also have additional insights and analysis in our Upmarket and Digital Domain sections on the role of insurance solutions with members of the HENRY (high earnings, not rich yet) and HNW client segments, as well as the evolving role of artificial intelligence at the intersection of insurance and wealth management.
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All the best and have a wonderful week!
Cheers!
Larry Roth, CEO
Wealth Solutions Report
