In the world of wealth management, where a sudden market dip can ruin a client’s morning faster than a cold cup of coffee, the most valuable thing an advisor can offer isn’t a high return or a complex strategy.
It’s the simple certainty that someone is picking up the phone.
During periods of market volatility, responsiveness matters. Fidelity research shows investors are looking for guidance and reassurance beyond investment management, making timely communication one of an advisor's most valuable services.
A client sends an email during a market dip; the advisor gets buried in a committee meeting; and 48 hours pass in silence. In that vacuum, trust doesn't just erode, it evaporates.
But a shift is occurring. A growing cohort of elite firms is abandoning the "I’ll get to it when I’m free" mentality for a deceptively simple mandate: the 24-hour rule. It is a policy that is doing more for client retention than any proprietary algorithm ever could.
The rule is straightforward: Every client inquiry must receive a human response within one business day.
“It’s important for the client to be heard in a timely manner,” says Kelly Renner, a financial planner at Life Strategies Financial Partners, in Augusta, Georgia. “After all, we are dealing with their finances, a very important part of their life.”
“Responsiveness is the easiest way for clients to know if their advisor cares about them,” says Stacey McKinnon, COO and CMO of Morton Wealth based in Calabasas, California.
Putting a 24-hour response rule into practice takes more than setting a reminder. It means making timely communication an expectation across the firm, rather than something that depends on how busy an individual advisor happens to be.
At its core, the rule is about the client experience. A quick acknowledgment lets clients know their message was received and that someone is paying attention, even if the full answer has to come later.
Technology can help make that consistency possible. Instead of relying on advisors to remember every email, call or request, firms can use their CRM to track incoming messages and flag anything that hasn't been acknowledged within a certain timeframe.
It also doesn't have to fall entirely on the lead advisor. If they're tied up in meetings or planning sessions, the request can be routed to an associate or relationship manager who can respond, let the client know it's being handled and provide a realistic timeline for next steps.
That simple process keeps requests from getting stuck in one person's inbox. More importantly, it allows a firm to maintain the same level of responsiveness as it grows, without making clients feel like they've gotten lost in the shuffle.
Wealth management is built on relationships, and the best referrals usually come from the client experience. When someone recommends their advisor, they’re rarely leading with a rate of return. More often, they talk about how the advisor shows up, answers questions and is there when they need guidance.
The 24-hour rule helps shift the client relationship from transactional to more engaged. When clients know their questions will be acknowledged quickly, they spend less time wondering when they’ll hear back and more time having meaningful conversations about long-term goals, estate planning, legacy and family wealth. Those deeper relationships are what create lasting value for both the client and the firm.
You reduce clients’ stress, which is a primary reason they came to you in the first place, according to Bruce, who favors an “immediate” response to clients’ requests. “The sooner you respond, the better,” says Bruce. “We want clients to have the best life possible and the best life possible is one that means they’re worried less.”
This is especially important at a time when our attention spans have declined sharply due to the digital world in which many of us operate.
“If I try to reach out to my advisor and my advisor doesn’t get back to me, it conflicts with my everyday experience because others in my life text me back right away,” says McKinnon. “If the advisory experience is different, clients can easily draw conclusions that their advisor is ignoring them.”
If you want to revolutionize your client relationships, don't wait for a market crash to test your communication infrastructure. Implement consistent responsiveness standards today.
A roadmap for implementation:
Choose your standard time to respond. For most, 24 hours is the sweet spot. For ultra-high-net-worth boutiques, you might tighten that to four hours for Tier 1 clients.
“Our ideal is a four-hour rule, because we don’t want our advisors and our client service team to have what I call an email addiction, making sure that their email is open all the time,” says McKinnon. “We want to give our team the freedom to manage their email and periodically shut it off so they can do deep work on something like a financial plan.”
For clients requesting money movements and transfers, however, even four hours may be too long. “If a client is relying on having a certain amount of money deposited into their bank account, it is important to respond to them as soon as possible,” says Saunders.
Train your team that a "placeholder" response is 100% better than a delayed perfect answer. Acknowledge the receipt, state the action being taken and provide a deadline for the final answer.
“Some things take hours and hours and days and days of research to try to figure it out, but an immediate personal response by someone on your team, a non-automated response, is important,” says Bruce. “Always tell them when you’re going to get back to them and then always get back to them by then even if you don’t have an answer.”
Tell your clients about the rule during onboarding. This creates immediate trust and sets a professional boundary. They know they will hear from you, so they don't need to call three times. But remember to adhere to the rule.
Use your CRM to track response times. If your average is creeping toward 48 hours, it’s a leading indicator that you are understaffed or your internal workflows are broken.
“Tasks are set in our CRM with high priority for our advisors,” says Renner. “We check these throughout the day and before we go home.”
There are several ways to set up an early response system for advisors in addition to moving all emails into a CRM.
A member of an advisor’s team can simply be designated to monitor all emails so that nothing falls through the cracks. Or a special email address can be created where clients can send their requests and concerns.
McKinnon’s firm, Morton Wealth, has instituted three email-checking blocks a day: before 9 am, midday and at the end of the workday, so that advisors are not inundated with checking their emails all day, which can take away time from doing the “deep work” necessary for client accounts such as creating financial plans.
Bruce recommends that advisors have an independent advisor for themselves at a different firm so that they can have the client experience themselves. “They get to experience the same anxieties and timeframes. Nothing is going to make you respond to your clients faster than your advisor responding slowly to you.”
In wealth management, performance may get you the client, but presence is what keeps them. By mastering the 24-hour clock rule, your firm has a solid grounding on how to provide clients with peace of mind.