Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 431st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today's podcast is Nick Rodkin. Nick is the managing partner of Stoic Financial, an LPL-affiliated advisory firm based in Boynton Beach, Florida, that oversees $107 million in assets under management for 70 client households.
What's unique about Nick, though, is how, after nearly 15 years of practicing as a financial advisor, he went back to graduate school to get a master's degree in marriage and family therapy… which opened entirely new doors when working with client couples to help them better understand and resolve their own couples conflicts around money that would otherwise slow down or entirely stop their implementation of his financial planning recommendations.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about why Nick now dives so much deeper with client couples into questions about their relationship with money early on in the planning engagement (so that each partner knows where the other is coming from before more stressful situations emerge in the planning process), how Nick deploys a particular series of questions (including what money was like in their household growing up and whether they see themselves and their partners as savers or spenders) to gauge how each partner talks to each other when discussing money, and how Nick's goal is for these questions and conversations to drive more productive money discussions between client couples not just during the planning meeting but even and especially after they leave his office (as he wants couples to be what he calls "budget buddies" rather "expense enemies").
We also talk about how Nick is able to serve client couples with different levels of financial planning (and sometimes outright counseling) needs by offering separate AUM-based financial planning, flat-fee financial coaching, and for a few, hourly therapy services, how Nick segments his service model based on total client revenue generated rather than their just their assets under management (allowing him to work with clients with a broader range of financial circumstances), and how Nick uses the advice engagement tool Elements to efficiently understand a client's financial 'vital signs', especially early on in the relationship, and identify potential trouble spots to address through the subsequent financial planning process.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Nick shares why he finds that clients typically prefer their advisor to focus planning meetings on direct meaningful action items rather than just highlighting the recommended options for them to consider, how Nick finds that having money conversations with one's own spouse (as a financial advisor) can help us as advisors better unearth better questions we might ask our client couples, and how going to therapy himself helped Nick realize he didn't like the product-centric path he was on in earlier in his financial services career and inspired him to pursue what he now calls a more human-centered approach to financial advice.
So, whether you're interested in learning about ways to help improve financial communication between members of client couples, the questions that can drive these conversations, or how to incorporate aspects of financial therapy into a practice, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Nick Rodkin.
