Although a financial advisor is a suit-wearing professional, the appropriate attire to wear tells another story.
The dress code of professional firms can vary greatly – and it’s not just a matter of the suit. Many advisors make the mistake of not matching their attire to the client’s expectations. This can lead to a potential client-losing scenario, as the advisor’s first impression does not build trust to the client.
Here’s what this guide will cover:
Straight to the point, this guide shares what financial advisors should really wear to strike the right balance of professionalism and approachability. Whether you’re getting ready to meet with clients or looking to refresh your wardrobe, understanding how clothing is perceived by clients is not optional – it’s a matter of survival in today’s competitive financial landscape.
The Evolution of the Financial Advisor Attire
The way financial advisors dress has changed significantly over the years, driven by business trends rather than client-centric thinking. In the early days, formal dress was a non-negotiable part of establishing credibility – if you wanted to be taken seriously, you had to wear a dark suit, polished shoes, and a conservative tie.
- Early Days: Financial advisors were at the mercy of strict business dress codes. Dark suits were often a requirement because they helped build trust, even if they didn’t align with the client’s personal style.
- 1990s and Early 2000s Shift: The tech industry’s emergence challenged conventional business dress codes. Tech leaders got the message that business casual was acceptable, yet financial advisors failed to make the same connection. They didn’t realize how their clothing choices might be limiting their access to certain types of clients.
- The Current State of Affairs: In today’s business environment, the landscape is somewhat split. In many firms, suits are the norm and business casual is not widely accepted. In some newer advisory firms, business casual is becoming the norm, and some are even moving to a casual dress code, including jeans. Each of these approaches has its merits, but the bottom line is that a one-size-fits-all approach can be damaging in some cases to client relationships.
The solution isn’t to dress down or dress up, but to be strategic about your approach to choosing clothing options based on your client base and firm type.
Current Trends in Financial Advisor Attire
While many financial advisory firms still sport outdated dress codes, the best approach to dressing appropriately for clients varies significantly depending on location, client type, firm culture, and much more. To make matters even more confusing, the shift to remote work has brought even more ambiguity.
- Geographic Differences: One client in New York may require a suit and tie, while another in a different region may be more comfortable with a t-shirt and jeans.
- Business Casual vs. Business Formal: Many firms will say they are business casual while also penalizing those advisors who don’t wear suits to meetings. This creates unnecessary stress for advisors trying to navigate the unwritten dress code.
- Client-driven Attire Choices: Regardless of the culture of your firm, client expectations should be what dictate what you should wear. Advisors who work with tech entrepreneurs who show up in suits will overly create a barrier to trust that more tailored clothing choices would avoid.
The trick isn’t to follow a list of dos and don’ts, but to be intentional about your outfit choices and consider your clients’ expectations. The less you assume about what “professional appearance” means, the better you’ll be able to connect with clients from different backgrounds and industries.
Dressing for Different Types of Client Meetings
Financial advisors who use a “one size fits all” approach to their wardrobe are often instantly turned off by a client who shows up inappropriately dressed. Different situations call for different outfit choices, but many advisors don’t consider this until it’s too late.
- For first meetings, a suit and tie can be a turn off depending on the client background. Some clients will perceive you as professional if you are wearing a suit, but many others associate suits with out of date or overly aggressive sales techniques.
- For regular update meetings, maintaining formality is more of a turn off than a relationship builder. Business casual can be just as professional as a suit. Smart shirts or light sweaters give your clients your perception that you are comfortable and authentic rather than maintaining a rigid professional mask.
- Video calls can expose “clothing confusion” among advisory professionals. Some advisors may feel that a more casual dress code is appropriate, but they may appear unprofessional on camera, which can undermine client trust just as much as a poor in-person impression, perhaps even more so given the limited video feed.
The answer isn’t to throw your professional standards out the window but to be intentional about your attire. Consider each client’s dress code and dress accordingly – the closer you align with their comfort level, the more productive your conversations will be.
The Psychology of Color in Professional Attire
Advisors can spend years agonizing over suit styles and label brands, but the color they select for their own wardrobe has an immediate, subconscious effect on clients. What do you notice when you see your advisor in a meeting? How does it make you feel? Unfortunately, many financial professionals don’t realize how much their color choices affect their ability to build trust. That’s why they may unintentionally wear colors that undermine their own credibility.
- Blue: This is the safest, most universally accepted color. It’s best to wear blue in your suit and shirt if you want to appear trustworthy and build rapport quickly without being perceived as threatening.
- Gray: While gray is a versatile and practical color that can be effective, its subtle message of dependability can sometimes come across as bland or wishy-washy to certain types of clients. If you know your clients value bold thinking in their financial advisor, it’s best to avoid gray altogether.
- Black: The formal look of a black suit is often at odds with advisory work. Unless you’re speaking to a leadership team or your client is extremely conservative, a black suit will only create unnecessary distance between you and your client. Use black only for the most formal cases when assertiveness is more important than establishing a connection.
- White: White shirts are an obvious choice, but they can also be a trap – if you don’t balance out the look with some color, white can come across as bland and lacking in personality.
- Red: Most advisors recommend avoiding red, but this color can be a powerful tool if used in a tie or accessory. It’s best to pop a red into the conversation during the most important points in your presentation – but overuse it and you’ll come across as aggressive instead of confident.
The point is that you don’t need to avoid these colors, but rather use them only when it makes sense for your specific relationship with the client. The less arbitrary your color choices, the less they’ll detract from your relationship building efforts.
Accessories and Personal Grooming
While advisors focus on the suit, they often miss the accessories and grooming details that clients will notice first. These are often the details that can make or break your credibility when mishandled. What should look professional and polished will instead appear to indicate poor attention to detail. Here are a few examples:
- Watches: The watch you wear isn’t just keeping time; it’s transmitting a subtle message about your reliability that clients can’t help but pick up. A flashy watch may cause clients to worry about how you’re spending their fees, while a beat-up watch can make you appear sloppy.
- Pens: Many advisors don’t realize how clients perceive the pen you use to take notes or sign documents. A nice pen indicates you’re well-prepared and respect the time they’re giving you. A cheap promotional pen suggests you’re cutting corners elsewhere.
- Glasses: If your frames don’t flatter your face shape or don’t look current, they can influence client perceptions more than you might realize. Choosing frames that flatter your face shape and are on-trend can enhance rather than detract from your professional image.
- Personal Grooming: Even if your suit is expensive, neglecting to properly groom your hair, trim your nails, or use cologne appropriately can immediately destroy the positive impression you previously created. Your clients are making direct connections between your ability to manage these basic aspects of your life and your ability to manage their finances.
The solution isn’t to obsess over the accessories, but to make sure they help deliver the right professional image. Pay attention to how these details build or detract from the credibility you need to establish with clients who notice more than you may realize.
Specific Considerations for Women in Finance
Female financial advisors face a different sartorial landscape than their male counterparts – what should be a simple matter of dressing professionally can become a minefield of conflicting expectations. Many women encounter criticism for being “too feminine” or “not feminine enough” – no matter how many financial acumen points they have on the board.
- Skirt Suits and Pant Suits: These are classic options. Unfortunately, they also come with some hidden drawbacks. Skirt suits can lead to a focus on appearance, rather than on your professional expertise. Pant suits can create a perception of trying too hard to look like the male colleagues you work with, or a lack of confidence in your own professional identity.
- Blouses and Shirts: If you go with a safe, neutral color, you’re likely to be forgotten. If you go with a bolder option, you risk drawing inappropriate attention to your appearance rather than your expertise.
- Conservative Dresses: A well-fitting dress can command authority and look professional, but it also carries the risk of being taken less seriously than a suit-wearing peer. There’s no logical reason why the same level of formality in two different garments should lead to the same consequences, but it does anyways, meaning women are forced to consider an extra factor when choosing what to wear.
- Footwear: The need to wear heels for comfort while spending 10 hours walking around with clients on a long day is a physical challenge that male advisors will never face. The choice between looking professional and feeling okay in your feet is a difficult one, and it’s unfair that women have to make it.
- Accessories: Low-key jewelry is often the safest bet, but even conservative pieces can become a distracting focal point in client meetings if not chosen with an eye toward how they work with overall appearance.
The solution isn’t to ditch personal style but to be strategic about clothing that enhances rather than detracts from professional expertise. Female advisors have to navigate a much more complicated wardrobe calculus at the very same time they’re expected to meet or exceed the level of financial acumen of their male colleagues.
The Impact of Attire on Personal Branding
Many advisors consider their wardrobe a separate issue from their personal branding, but the truth is that people’s perception of your capabilities and values is heavily influenced by what you wear. Inconsistent or misguided wardrobe choices can undermine even the most sophisticated marketing plan.
- Consistency is Key: Making random clothing choices creates client confusion about your professional identity. Creating strategic consistency in formality level helps reinforce your brand even when you’re not speaking – people remember how you consistently present yourself.
- Fitting: If you look like you’re wearing clothes that don’t fit just right, your client will assume you don’t care enough to worry about the way you spend their money. Many advisors pay too much attention to brand labels and not enough to the most important aspect of fit that clients notice: their financial portfolios.
- What You Wear: When your firm’s message doesn’t match your personal dress code, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. If you’re at a cutting-edge firm that focuses on using the latest technology to make clients’ lives easier, but you are still wearing the same outfits you wore 20 years ago, it’s going to create cognitive dissonance in your client’s mind, making them question your credibility.
- Personal Touches: The safest choice of total conformity will make you blend in with other professional-looking advisors, making you indistinguishable in the marketplace. Intentional personal touches – a signature accessory or signature color – can create memory anchors that help you stand out in the market and improve recall of your existing clients.
- Feedback and Adaptation: Many advisors never ask for the honest truth about their appearance. Without feedback from others, they can never address unintentional messages that their clothing may be sending. Seeking regular input from respected colleagues can help you spot blind spots in your professional appearance.
The solution isn’t getting obsessed with clothes, but being intentional about which clothes you wear that work with your professional brand, not working against it. The more intentional you become with how you dress in alignment with your expertise and your client’s expectations, the more your clothes will be working for you, not against you.
Creating a Professional Online Presence
While advisors are intentional about what they wear in-person, they often ignore the way their website visually communicates their professional credibility. A poorly managed, outdated website can completely negate the impact of an otherwise well-dressed advisor.
- Website Design: Your website is often the first impression your clients receive – and it can often be the last. Just as wrinkled shirts and rumpled trousers convey a lack of concern for personal appearance, a cluttered, confusing website signals that you may be equally careless when it comes to managing your clients’ finances.
- Professional Photos: A few badly lit, awkwardly posed photos from 10 years ago can be more damaging than many advisors realize. Invest in a set of professional photos featuring recent images of you in proper business attire to ensure consistency between your online presence and in-person interactions.
- Content Reflects Professionalism: Just as you should dress for the client you want, your website content should reflect the needs and knowledge level of the clients you’re targeting. Blog entries that sound like they could apply to any financial professional, or website content that is so technical that it alienates potential clients, can signal potential communication problems in the advisory relationship.
- Consistency Across Platforms: If you’ve got one image for your professional LinkedIn page and another for your Twitter profile, you’re sending mixed signals. Doing the same for your website and other social media platforms won’t do you any favors. Think of it like wearing a suit and tie to one client meeting and then showing up to the next in a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops. It’s not going to inspire confidence and it’s not going to make you look very professional.
At Ventnor Web Agency we offer custom website design for financial advisors. If you’re looking for a website that not only looks great, but also works well and reflects your business and your client service philosophy, contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.
The solution isn’t to abandon professional attire altogether, but to make sure your online presence reflects the quality of your in-person appearance. When your online and offline professional presence are strategically aligned, you can provide clients with a consistently positive experience that fosters trust rather than eroding it.
Next Steps
As a financial advisor, the clothes you wear can make or break your first impression – but they also have a profound impact on how clients perceive your expertise throughout the client relationship. Every clothing choice is a clear indicator of professionalism, values, and attention to detail.
By choosing the right clothes that meet your clients’ expectations, maintaining a professional appearance in both office and online environments, and paying attention to the messages your appearance sends, you will have the foundation for successful advisory relationships. The way you dress and present yourself, both in person and online, directly impacts the trust your clients have in you, and will play a significant role in determining your professional success.
Remember, dressing appropriately won’t win you any clients, it’s your competency and conduct that will. Dressing strategically simply removes a barrier to the meaningful conversations about money that benefit your clients.
