The Vanguard Advisor's Alpha concept outlines how advisors can add value, or alpha, by providing relationship-oriented services—such as cogent wealth management via financial planning, behavioral coaching, and guidance—as a primary objective of the value proposition
How to add value through wealth management
How to differentiate your practice through deeper client relationships. The era of the transactional advisor is behind us. But how can you differentiate your practice in a crowded field and insulate it from client attrition?
How to start the Advisor's Alpha conversation
This brief “How to” guide describes some important themes that will help you build a more convincing case for your transition to a successful advisor’s alpha model.
The Vanguard Advisor's Alpha guide to proactive behavioral coaching
The future is uncertain for everyone. Often, it's how people—both clients and advisors—deal with this uncertainty that leads to better, mutually beneficial outcomes.
How to help clients stick to their long term investment plans
Advisors have an important role to play as behavioral coaches for their clients. The following techniques will help you to implement behavioral coaching in your practice.
Putting a value on your value: Quantifying Vanguard Advisor's Alpha
This paper takes the Advisor's Alpha framework further by attempting to quantify the benefits that advisors can add by providing these services, either individually or in combination.
How to help clients understand the value of portfolio construction
A carefully conceived financial plan contains a wealth of information about your client, including short- and long-term investment objectives, risk preference, and anticipated savings rate.
The evolution of Vanguard's Advisor Alpha: From portfolio to people
As Vanguard’s Advisor's Alpha research has suggested, for the typical advisor, the path to greater client satisfaction and asset growth should lead to an underappreciated destination—relationship management.
The art of portfolio construction
Vanguard's Senior Investment Consultant, Hilly Cutler, discusses the importance of rebalancing portfolios during and after periods of market volatility.
The value of advice: Assessing the role of emotions
In the paper, The value of advice: Assessing the role of emotions , researchers estimate that the balance of the perceived value of advice—about 60%—is attributed to functional aspects of the advisory relationship, such as portfolio management and financial planning.
The value of advice: Improving portfolio diversification
For many nonprofessional investors, constructing a well-diversified portfolio is a challenging task. Instruments like mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can help these investors diversify across a particular set of securities and minimize single-stock risk—but investors’ behavioral or cognitive bias or lack of investment literacy can still hinder their efforts to diversify.