For decades, financial education in the US and other countries has followed a single playbook. Programs were designed around what compliance required – not always around what investors needed to make confident decisions about their money. The result has been a widening gap between what the industry offers and what clients are looking for, and a real opening for the firms ready to do something different.
Aaron Harding is a former MD and Head of Coaching at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Employee Financial Well-Being Practice Leader at PwC. He has spent most of his career working to close the distance between the financial education people receive and the financial education they need.
His view is that financial education has never realized its potential – not for lack of information, but because it was never built around how people learn, or where they naturally turn when they have questions.
In this episode of the Innovation Spotlight, Aaron makes the case for wealth management firms to think and act like media companies – reaching clients with the right content, at the moment it matters and in the places they are already looking.
In this conversation:
- Why most financial literacy programs have stayed the same for 30+ years – and the growing disconnect between what advisors teach and what investors need.
- How AI is shifting where investors go for information, and why investment professionals who adapt and show up with the right content will be the trusted source investors are already looking for.
- Why becoming like a media company is the move that helps investment firms reach more clients, win a bigger share of wallet and grow AUM.
Innovation Spotlight highlights the leaders and ideas driving the Intelligence Era. Click here to see more.
