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Illusion of Control

Online brokerages try to give this, with illuminated dashboards that rival an airplane.

…The instinct is even deeper in their financial services cousins, the wealth management firms.

This is embedded in the language they all use, that each client is special…is not just another client.

Consider one firm’s visualization of their offering: a pre-Copernican universe, with you at the center.

“You will die alone” is not a viable alternative marketing strategy, and “Our high fees just reduce the chance of blowing everything” isn’t much better. However, the sheer hassle something like the diagram above proudly represents…oof, what a horrible way to spend one’s final years. But it provides an illusion of control that a phalanx of specialists, the Justice League for paperwork, all dreaming about you constantly.

It’s a deeply felt need.

Ironically I wonder if this deep need is what hurts robo-advisor adoption. They tend to make exclusively logical arguments about fees and performance.

Published inBusinessMarketing

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