This article will help you understand the need for risk management in your financial advisory firm, how to develop a plan, and what steps you can take to ensure it works effectively.
Risk Management is Important
You may be thinking, “What does risk management have to do with me? This is about my clients, not me.” It’s true that your clients are the ones who will feel the effects of a bad investment choice or lose their life savings when an investment goes south. But for you as an individual and for your business as a whole, risk management has everything to do with you.
When it comes down to it, financial advisors have one primary goal: to protect their clients’ assets while working together to grow those assets over time. You can probably think of a few ways this can be accomplished—for example, by providing advice that allows people on fixed incomes or with limited funds access opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have available (such as investing in real estate).
But another critical component of protecting client assets is safeguarding them from potential harm through smart risk management practices. And those practices should include everything from setting up proper internal controls, so employees know what they’re doing when carrying out specific tasks (like selling securities), all the way up to creating robust policies that cover things like theft prevention measures and third-party vendor vetting processes before allowing someone else into your system.
Define the Risks That Are Part of Your Business
If you’re looking to get started with risk management in your financial advisory firm, the first step is defining the risks that are part of your business. This should be easy to do if you already work with clients with multiple assets. You know that they could lose money at any time—and if they do, it will probably be a big deal for them.
When starting this journey, setting goals before diving into solutions is essential. But don’t worry about other people’s goals; focus on yours! Be ambitious but realistic—you can always revise your goals later. But it will be hard to get there if you don’t know where you’re going from the start.
Identify and Monitor Your Risks
Once you’ve identified your business risks, it’s time to start monitoring them. There are two types of risks: those that are part of your business and those that aren’t. If you’re unsure whether a risk is part of your business, consider whether it could happen while working in financial advisement.
If a risk isn’t part of your job description, then it’s no longer vital for you to monitor—you probably won’t be affected by it if something goes wrong. However, if there is any chance at all that the risk might affect you while working as an advisor (for example: if you had to take out a loan for a client and the bank decided not to give it to them), then keep an eye on this one!
Develop Risk Controls
Risk controls are the policies and procedures you put into place to help mitigate the risk of your business. For example, if you have a client who is particularly prone to losing money, you may decide that it’s best for them not to invest in any investments that are too volatile or risky.
The key to developing a good risk control plan is keeping it simple yet thorough. You should be able to explain how each measure works without having anyone lose interest or become confused about what you’re talking about (which can happen if your risk control plan starts getting too detailed). Your plan should also be easy for employees at all levels of your firm—from support staff up to senior leadership—to understand and implement on the ground level.
Implement Your Risk Management Plan
Once you’ve decided to implement a risk management plan, it’s time for the most challenging step of all: implementation. Implementation requires discipline and resources, so ensure you’re ready to commit.
To successfully implement your risk management plan, you’ll need a plan. This means that when creating a strategy for implementing your risk management plan (i.e., implementing its implementation), be sure to do so with every detail in mind and consider how every aspect will work together.
It will also help if you have some resources at hand for any obstacles that may arise along the way—and there will undoubtedly be obstacles! Credible newsletter content for financial advisors and financial journals is an excellent place to start.
Communicate and Train Employees for Effective Risk Management
Your risk management plan needs to be used in practice by employees. You can’t just create the plan and hope it prevents problems—you need your staff to work with it daily. This means training them on how to use it and communicating with each other and clients about risks that arise in their work environment.
Your employees should be able to follow the guidelines in your risk management plan as if they were second nature, so they can respond quickly and efficiently when a new risk arises. If you want to be sure that your employees are prepared for the unexpected, you should schedule regular training sessions. You can also hold smaller meetings throughout the year as needed to address specific topics or situations.
Audit and Review Your Plan to Ensure It Is Working Properly
A good risk management plan is one that you review regularly. Every month, you should review your plan with your team, clients, and all of the above again. You should also regularly get feedback from your insurance company and attorney.
Auditing and updating your plan is essential to creating a successful financial advisory firm. If you don’t do this, then you will certainly not be able to manage any risks that may arise in the future or even identify them when they do pop up.
Conclusion
Risk management is a core part of any financial advisory firm. It’s important to know what risks you face and how to manage them so that they don’t cause problems in your business. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can learn how to take on risk management with confidence!
