Historically, the battle for investors and new-investor acquisition in the investment services industry has been fierce. A finding similar in all J.D. Power and Associates research studies conducted for this industry indicates that optimizing investor satisfaction is paramount to not only retaining current investors, but also acquiring new investors.

It is equally important to optimize satisfaction among financial advisors and retain them, given that in many instances investor loyalties lay first with their advisor and second with their investment firm. In fact, when an advisor leaves their firm, they more often than not take a large majority of their clients with them, hitting the firm with a double expense--the costs associated with training and recruiting a replacement, as well as a substantial loss in assets under management. It is therefore critical that investment firms focus on best practices that provide advisors with tools and information to effectively manage their client portfolios as well as achieve operational excellence that keeps advisors in front of their clients and out of the back room. Wealth management firms have the unique challenge of satisfying both their end investor clients and their financial advisors. It is not a coincidence that the firms that perform well from a client investor satisfaction standpoint also perform well in advisor satisfaction.