Why Bull Markets Mask the Real Value of Wealth Advisors
This article is based on insights from Episode 12 of Visionary Advisor, where Alex Kirby, founder of Total Family, speaks with Matt Shechtman, CEO of Long Angle. Their conversation explores findings from Long Angle’s 2025 High Net Worth Professional Services Report, examining how first-generation wealth creators evaluate value, trust, and professional guidance, and why many delay working with wealth advisors despite growing complexity.
→ Listen to the full episode
→ Explore the Long Angle research
Many first-generation wealth creators did not grow up in households with wealth advisors. Financial decision-making was learned through independence, experience, and increasingly powerful tools, not inherited relationships or family offices.
Over the past decade, markets have been overwhelmingly bullish, and DIY investing platforms have expanded rapidly. In that environment, portfolios grew, self-direction was rewarded, and the need for outside guidance was rarely made obvious. As a result, many first-generation wealth creators have never experienced the kind of uncertainty where the value of a wealth advisor clearly reveals itself.
This creates a quiet paradox. As net worth and responsibility increase, financial decisions feel familiar, but the stakes become far more complex. Family, identity, and long-term purpose now shape outcomes in ways markets alone do not.
Understanding this dynamic matters for advisors who want to engage first-generation wealth creators before uncertainty forces the conversation.
When self-direction works, guidance feels optional
That paradox becomes clearer when looking at how many first-generation wealth creators actually work with a wealth advisor.
In Episode 12 of Visionary Advisor, Matt Shechtman points to a surprising finding from Long Angle’s research: only 32% of respondents currently use a wealth advisor.The number is lower than many in the industry would expect, given the level of wealth and complexity involved.
Matt’s explanation reframes the statistic. This is not a rejection of advisors, but a reflection of environment and experience. Powerful DIY tools and a long stretch of rising markets rewarded independence. Over that period, the core strengths of wealth advisors—preservation, diversification, and downside protection—were rarely stress-tested.
When self-direction is rewarded, the value of guidance can feel abstract. Optimization feels sufficient. Outside perspective feels optional.
But this only explains part of the story. As wealth grows, a different set of questions begins to surface—ones markets and tools are not designed to answer.
When financial stress fades, meaning becomes the harder problem
When markets and tools make financial management feel manageable, a different kind of complexity begins to surface.
In the Visionary Advisor conversation, Matt Shechtman describes a pattern he sees repeatedly among first-generation wealth creators. On paper, life looks good. Financial concerns are largely resolved. Careers have succeeded. Families are stable. And yet, something feels incomplete.
Matt’s description of a “perfectly A- life” captures a quiet but real tension. When basic needs are met and success arrives earlier than expected, questions of purpose, direction, and fulfillment move to the foreground. What do I work toward now? How do I use my time? What does progress look like beyond accumulation?
This is where the limits of financial optimization become clear. As Matt notes elsewhere in the conversation, additional wealth and incremental efficiency often deliver diminishing returns in satisfaction. Attention shifts toward health, family, time, and meaning rather than squeezing out the next financial gain.
These are not problems markets solve well. They are not issues most tools are designed to address. And they are often difficult to navigate alone, especially for individuals who did not grow up around wealth or advisors.
This is the moment where the advisor’s role begins to change, shifting from managing money to helping clients make sense of what comes next.
Trusted advisors are the differentiator
The takeaway for advisors is not to wait for volatility to prove relevance. By the time markets force the conversation, trust is often too late to build.
First-generation wealth creators do not lack capability. What they often lack is a trusted partner who understands the human complexity that emerges alongside success. Purpose, family dynamics, identity, and long-term direction quietly shape decisions long before financial stress appears.
Advisors who engage early and listen closely build trust before money feels complicated, and that trust sets them apart. In a world where referrals matter more than geography and clients can choose from anywhere, trust becomes the deciding factor.
They are not called only when something breaks. They are invited into conversations about what matters next.
In that role, differentiation is not earned through performance alone, but through trust built early and sustained over time.
Explore clips from this Visionary Advisor episode and discover more articles focused on first-generation wealth, trust, and the human complexity behind financial success.
