An innovation boom in ESG products, while good for consumer choice, is leaving advisors and clients behind – at best confused and overwhelmed, at worst hesitant, cautious and mistrustful. The stakes are high. Generational change and differing attitudes to ESG will reorder the wealth management space in the coming decade. Getting the ESG experience right—right now—matters.

Methods for understanding clients’ sustainable investment preferences have hardly advanced. Most firms still simply ask clients what they care about. These ad hoc profiling methods cannot match the granularity in client preferences to the expansive and growing ESG product set available. Advisors will (unwittingly) continue to compete in a product-centric ESG arms race because they lack a client-centric basis for personalizing the sustainable investing experience.

The advisors that will emerge on top through the ESG boom will build differentiated, personalized ESG experiences that draw clients to them and spark long-term, loyal relationships. The foundation of their personalization strategies will be a deep understanding of the full contours of each client’s unique ESG preferences. To gain this level of client understanding, industry leaders will rely on revealed preferences methods, which sit at the intersection of decision science, behavioral economics and human-centered design.