David Tait on the adviser skills the wealth transfer demands

Trillions of pounds are expected to pass between generations in the UK over the coming decades, and the clients receiving that wealth can already reach investment platforms, financial information and AI tools without an adviser. Redmill Advance, which builds learning programmes for financial advice and wealth firms, has argued that this changes what a good adviser needs to be able to do.

David Tait is the company's founder and managing director. In written answers to Disrupts, he described what firms are now asking to train advisers on, how the harder skills can be assessed, what advisers should hand to AI and what they should keep, and the one change he would make first.

The technical fundamentals, Tait said, have not gone anywhere. "Firms still need advisers with excellent technical knowledge, and technical competence will always be central to professional development. What is changing is the breadth of the conversation around adviser capability, particularly on the soft skills and behaviours that connect the adviser to their client emotionally."

Firms increasingly recognise that expertise is only part of the job. "How advisers communicate complex information is important, but empathy is also critical. Understanding a client's long term goals, understanding their concerns, what scares them when they think about the future or their children's future builds a deeper connection."

Assessing what a test cannot

The obvious objection is that judgement, communication and behavioural coaching are harder to measure than a pensions rule. Tait accepts the difficulty and rejects the conclusion. "It would be wrong to assume that because something cannot easily be measured through a multiple-choice test with a pass or fail attached to it that it cannot be developed and indeed assessed."

Embedded training needs analysis tools and assessment software, he said, give development teams "tangible evidence of competencies being met". Firms can also observe advisers in client environments or scenarios, with structured feedback. "Can they identify when a client's behaviour or emotions influence a decision? Can they challenge a client appropriately rather than simply agreeing with them?" AI may help here too, "through online role plays that assess and provide personalised recommendations for further learning".

Information is not advice

Younger clients arriving with platforms and AI tools in hand does reduce one part of the adviser's role. "Technology is undoubtedly reducing the role of an adviser as 'a source of information.' Clients can already research investment types, compare financial products, and even model different financial scenarios using free cashflow modelling tools." The same tools are available to advisers, he noted, so the analytics that once took hours need not.

He does not think the profession should be defensive about that. "If technology can perform an administrative, analytical or information-gathering task efficiently and accurately, we should embrace it as ultimately younger clients most certainly will."

The line he draws is between information and advice. "Knowing that there are five possible investment or retirement strategies is different from understanding which is appropriate for a particular person based on their personal circumstances, long term goals and individual family needs." Major financial decisions rarely exist in isolation, he said, and often carry emotion; an adviser brings context "through professional judgement and experience honed over time".

Asked what advisers should stop doing, he pointed to initial research, summarising information, analysing data and producing suitability reports, with a caution. "Whilst AI can save time on administrative and research tasks, an adviser should never blindly accept an AI produced output." What should never be handed over is judgement itself, "as ultimately the adviser remains responsible, both legally and ethically for the recommendations given". The opportunity, he said, is not to remove the adviser from the process but to remove the administration that keeps the adviser from the client.

Trust does not pass with the assets

Tait's warning that firms cannot assume transferred wealth stays in the existing relationship rests on a simple point. "An adviser may have spent twenty to thirty years building enormous trust with a client, but their children have not necessarily shared that experience." Beneficiaries may already have their own adviser, use digital platforms directly or want to engage differently. "Intergenerational planning should not begin when somebody dies, and that wealth passes to the next generation, it should begin earlier where a feeling of trust can emerge before the need for advice."

There is also the service model. "The parents may have really enjoyed home visits and making sure a plate of their adviser's favourite biscuits were ready for arrival, the children may value online or office-based meetings more." The assets may transfer predictably, he said, "but trust does not necessarily pass as freely", and an adviser has no automatic right to inherit the relationship.

Digital confidence, for an adviser who qualified fifteen years ago, does not mean becoming an expert in every new tool or understanding how a model is built. "It means being comfortable operating in the environment their clients increasingly inhabit by learning the basics and learning the parts that make their own roles easier and more efficient." That adviser once had far more access to information and tools than the client, he noted. "That balance is closing rapidly." Most firms have already adopted AI tools at firm level; advisers should explore them, and firms should provide basic training "focused on the value they can genuinely add to both adviser and client".

If a mid-sized firm could make one change in the next twelve months, Tait would start with a firm-wide capability review, testing whether the existing competency framework reflects what future relationships will require, and whether relationship-building, active listening, questioning skills, critical thinking and digital capability "are being developed and ultimately assessed". A training needs analysis establishes the gap; advisers should self-assess and help close it. Once a baseline is established, he said, learning and development can become "much more deliberate and purposeful".

"The Great Wealth Transfer is not a sudden event that will happen on a specific day," he said. "It is an ongoing change in their client base that is happening now and will continue into the future, and adviser capability needs to continually evolve alongside it."

Redmill Advance is part of the Kinrock Learning group and provides e-learning, exam support across the CII, CISI and LIBF, and live training programmes for financial advice and wealth management firms.