Why advisor self-care is crucial to wealth management

The personal mental health and wellness of financial advisors and other wealth management professionals can often take a backseat to that of their clients and employers.

That’s why it’s important to professional development and business results for advisors to get support from their companies and carefully keep their personal capacity in mind amid the many demands on their time, according to speakers from Northwestern Mutual, JPMorgan Wealth Management and Wells Fargo Advisors on a panel at last month’s Association of African American Financial Advisors’ Women’s Impact Initiative Network conference in Chicago.

More advisors and practice management experts have been pointing that out in recent years, as the nonfinancial aspects of compensation grow more important in the race to recruit talent. The broad topic extends into discussions such as how to detach from clients on vacation, how to fire a customer and even how individuals think about the true meaning of wealth beyond money.

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The profession is going through a “generational shift” to a different approach, considering that advisors and professionals today are standing “on the shoulders of a generation who went through hustle culture and had to make those sacrifices — or at least thought that they had to — in order to survive,” said Alair Castro, the diversity and inclusion specialist with Atlanta-based The Callaway Black Group of Northwestern Mutual. 

Her own experience sticking to a busy schedule of sales calls and client meetings around the death of her father constantly reminds her to “make sure that I prioritize my health, mentally and physically,” she said. So she provides advisors with a “safe space for them to vent to” when personal matters begin to affect their focus and performance at work, she said, citing the importance of that resource.

“I take special care of those relationships and that one-on-one time with each other,” Castro said. “At some point in time we all hit that wall.” 

Across the industry, leaders “should notice a loss of passion in our employees and also a change in demeanor” if they are struggling, said Angelica Guardado, a Chicago-based executive director and market director of wealth with JPMorgan Wealth. Doing so could be easier for managers whose teams regularly meet in person, which is one factor that sometimes gets left out of the conversation around whether companies should mandate that all employees return to the office on a full-time basis.

“It brings out the human element in what we do,” Guardado said. “I find that my team just becomes more collaborative and uplifting to each other when they come together in person.”

Firms that don’t identify such aspects of their employees’ lives could risk losing advisors who no longer view them as pillars of their professional development, according to panelists. 

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Women in particular, who “lead in so many different ways” yet are frequently “struggling to find that balance” between their personal and professional lives, should strive to be diligent about navigating work-life boundaries, said LeShae Tyson, an executive director and associate manager with the Fort Worth, Texas-based office of Wells Fargo.

Advisors and professionals “only have 100% of our time,” and that is “not always going to be divided equally,” Tyson said. That makes it important for others on either side of the home and work equation to know when there is going to be a strain on availability.

“We need more time for our home life in this season. Sometimes we need more time for work,” she said. “It’s important that we have those conversations and not just be absent from work and not just be absent from home without any explanation.”