Tags: client loyalty | client satisfaction

Too many advisors knuckle under to keep their clients happy -- and ultimately don't do anyone any favors, says a Cincinnati advisor who manages over $3 billion.

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Mark Matson of Matson Money clearly knows how to retain accounts. He does it by telling his clients the truth about the markets and by refusing to change course simply because the client insists.

Investment News gave him a nice soapbox to tell other advisors to do likewise.

On the surface, this seems intuitive. Advisors are supposed to be the ones working overtime to convince investors to stay the course and stick with the plan.

But all that convincing conceals the fundamental truth of how a lot of advisors do business. They're convinced that the customer is always right and needs to be argued into doing the right thing.

The customer is not always right. The customer gets the final say and the customer needs to be kept happy, but if retail investors could be relied on to do the right thing, there would be no advisory business.

The advisor may not always be right, but he or she probably has a better track record and more perspective than the average retail investor.

Advisors get paid to be a second opinion and more, the voice of what passes for reason in the markets. If you're not doing that -- as hard as it may seem -- you're really just there to keep the clients happy.