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Taking the Measure of Advice © 2022 Envestnet. All rights reserved. 9 THE INTELLIGENT FINANCIAL LIFE ADVISOR PRACTICE SCORE As part of this research project, Aite-Novarica Group developed an Intelligent Financial Life Advisor Practice Score that advisors could use to assess their transition to delivering financial wellness and to identify areas in which improvement is needed. In order to develop the Intelligent Financial Life Advisor Practice Score, Aite-Novarica Group examined a range of advisor behaviors and capabilities, as captured by the survey data. The research identified five categories of behaviors and capabilities that closely correlate with the overall financial wellness of each advisor's client base. 1 Aite- Novarica Group then used these correlations to construct an Intelligent Financial Life Advisor Practice Score that measured the extent to which advisors exhibit the five categories in their practice. 2 Aite-Novarica Group's analysis of the survey data found that the following categories correlated with advisors' delivery of financial wellness and an intelligently connected financial life for clients: • Breadth of financial advice provided: Delivery of financial wellness strongly correlated with the breadth of financial advice delivered. Advisors who advised on a wide range of topics—not only investing and retirement readiness but also wealth transfer, tax planning, insurance planning, debt advisory, and cash flow planning and budgeting—produced better outcomes for their clients than advisors whose advice was more narrowly focused. • Frequency of multigoal financial plans: Delivery of financial wellness strongly correlated with the creation and implementation of comprehensive financial plans for clients. Advisors who developed comprehensive or multigoal plans for the majority of their clients produced better outcomes than advisors who didn't engage in formal plans or who delivered plans that addressed only one or two goals. 1 The quantitative assessment of clients' financial wellness took into account a wide range of factors, including level of client satisfaction, client use of client portal planning tools, the extent to which clients proactively seek their advisor's counsel for important financial questions, and whether or not clients viewed the survey advisor as their primary advisor. 2 The details of how the Intelligent Financial Life Advisor Practice Score is calculated can be found in the appendix.