Five ways advisors can take back time to boost productivity.

By Matthew Schlueter, Executive Vice President, Operations & Technology Solutions

Many advisors can likely point to the exact moment their day goes sideways: a “quick” client request that turns into three spreadsheets, two client follow-ups for account updates and a futile effort to gather all the information needed to complete a new financial plan. These administrative detours can quietly erode productivity, consuming hours that could be better delegated, automated or outsourced.

One Kitces study confirms what many advisors experience firsthand: planning complexity, administrative burden and fragmented tools consume an increasing share of their workday, limiting their availability for higher-value activities. This time drain rarely comes from a single issue. More often, it stems from a series of operational tasks that cut into a packed workday—managing technology infrastructure, fielding routine client inquiries and fulfilling portfolio management duties. Collectively, these layered functions can divert advisors from growth-generating activities.

Planning complexity is outpacing advisor capacity

While advisors might be meeting a growing client demand for holistic planning—from tax optimization to estate planning and cash flow management to insurance decisions, the tradeoff is time. It can take 45 days from client sign-on to construct a comprehensive plan, with 71% of advisors requiring several meetings to implement it. The drain on time doesn’t stem from planning complexity itself, but rather how that added work is distributed across the firm. Oftentimes, advisors get deeply involved in tasks that could be delegated and front-line team members spend hours on administrative work that could be automated or outsourced.

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