Financial Advisor Success Podcast Archives

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 473rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is George Kinder. George is the founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning, which offers courses that aim to help financial advisors practice a more fiduciary, comprehensive, and client-centered form of financial planning.

What's unique about George, though, is how his life planning concepts not only can help advisors uncover their client's deeper motivations and goals, but also help them offer a level of service that artificial intelligence-powered tools are unlikely to be able to replace.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how George emphasizes the social nature of financial life planning (as while an AI tool could ask his famous "three questions" and perhaps respond to the client's answers, it couldn't provide the same human-to-human connection that an advisor could), how George emphasizes the importance of listening for financial advisors (including allowing for pauses after client responses rather than immediately moving on to the advisor's next question), and how George finds that a key outcome of the life planning process is the ability for advisors to facilitate a sense of freedom for clients to live their lives as profoundly and richly as possible.

We also talk about George's structured EVOKE process for life planning that begins with an exploration meeting where an advisor might ask a prospect an initial broad question (such as "Why are you here?" or "What would you like to have as an outcome of our meeting together?") and then spend the majority of time in the meeting listening to the response (rather than trying to ask pointed follow-up questions), how George finds that advisors can help clients find their inspiration by working through three key questions (which have them consider what they would want their life to look life if money weren't an object, if they only had five to ten years to live, and if they only had one day to live), and how George's life planning process can help clients identify and overcome perceived obstacles in the way of achieving the vision they establish.

And be certain to listen to the end, where George shares how he is expanding his vision for fiduciary financial advice to the broader corporate world (and internationally), why George is proud of the community that has formed amongst advisors within the life planning movement, and how an extended illness led George to reconsider his own answers to the "three questions" and how he envisions his own legacy.

So, whether you're interested in learning about how (human) advisors can continue to thrive in a world with more advanced AI tools, how the life planning process can strengthen advisor-client relationships, or how fiduciary principles could be applied to the broader business world, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the financial advisor success podcast, with George Kinder.

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 472nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Carli Smith. Carli is the founder of Signal Wealth Advisors, an RIA based in Austin, Texas, that oversees $143 million in assets under management for 67 client households.

What's unique about Carli, though, is how she engages in multigenerational planning for her clients, not necessarily to retain the assets once the older generation passes on and leaves them to the next generation, but rather to provide a deeper level of service (and bring on members of multiple generations as clients today).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Carli finds that she provides value to many clients by helping them sort through the dynamics of having significant assets in both traditional IRAs and taxable accounts to pass on to the next generation (including what that means from a tax perspective for the future inheritors), how Carli finds that conversations with her ‘core’ client (who typically have both aging parents and adult children) frequently lead to these clients asking her to bring in members of the older and younger generations to foster greater communication and transparency, and how Carli’s client families can combine their assets for fee-calculating purposes (allowing her to serve other members of the family who might not meet her $2 million minimum for new clients but are a key part of the larger family’s planning dynamics).

We also talk about how Carli grew her AUM by 70% during the past year in part by cultivating relationships with and generating referrals from local estate planning attorneys (which also generate cross-referral opportunities, as her multigenerational planning approach often requires her to identify attorneys with specialized estate planning expertise), how Carli has also gained a number of new clients through referrals from current clients (in particular by identifying and nurturing clients who serve as active promoters of her business), and how Carli develops relationships with CPAs to identify those who are interested in moving beyond tax return preparation to engaging with her on tax planning recommendations.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Carli shares how the acquisition of a previous firm where she worked inspired her to go out on her own (while not knowing how many of her clients would join her at the new firm), how Carli was pleasantly surprised to find not only that 90% of her clients came with her to her newly founded firm but also that many became even more active referrers in the process, and how Carli has found that while advisors can find success working within a larger firm or on their own, the key is to identify one’s priorities (such as autonomy, income upside, or role) first and then seek out opportunities that meet them (rather than bounce among multiple firms looking for the right fit).

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to go deep into multigenerational planning for clients, building a network of high-quality centers of influence, or making the decision to leave an established firm to go out on your own, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Carli Smith.

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 470th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Debra Taylor. Debra is the managing partner of Carson Wealth Franklin Lakes, a practice within the RIA Carson Wealth and based in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, that oversees $500 million in assets under management for 120 client households.

What's unique about Debra, though, is how she has developed a client service calendar for her high-net-worth clients that allows her to close more new business and retain more clients by demonstrating the value her team provides throughout the year in return for the fees her clients pay.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Debra built out her client service calendar in response to a number of clients who left her practice to handle their finances on their own (perhaps not understanding the full value they were receiving from the planning relationship), how Debra implements the service calendar efficiently by having certain items apply to all clients (for example, an annual tax letter) and others only to clients with certain needs (for instance, changes to a client's estate plan), and how Debra divides the service calendar into “seasons” (that allow for greater flexibility compared to calendar quarters), with key service elements in each one (such as an investment deep dive in the spring and tax return review and analysis in the summer).

We also talk about how Debra puts tax planning at the center of her value proposition, in part by creating a tax-aware distribution plan for her clients (including strategic partial Roth conversions during opportune times in the year), how Debra finds that having a client service calendar (and sending video explanations when updating clients plans) reduces the pressure to fit in too much during client meetings (which can instead be a time for follow-up or client questions), and how Debra has found that implementing the service calendar (and being able to show the hard-dollar tax savings from distribution planning) not only has led to a higher closing rate of new clients (who better understand the depth of value her team provides) but also greater retention of current clients who can more easily see the value they're receiving (which goes well beyond what they could do on their own) for the fees they're paying.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Debra shares how she created a graphic that shows how her firm goes beyond traditional investment management to offer financial planning and in-depth tax planning to differentiate her practice in the eyes of prospects, how Debra's team might appear heavily staffed for the number of clients they serve but in reality reflects the revenue she's bringing in (and the level of service provided to clients throughout the year), and how Debra transitioned her personal clients to other team members so she can focus on business development and speaking opportunities (and how the calendar supported this by helping clients see the value her firm can provide beyond her individual presence).

So, whether you're interested in learning about building a client service calendar to demonstrate the value your firm provides throughout the year, putting tax planning at the center of your value proposition, or creating one-page graphics to explain your offering and win more clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Debra Taylor.

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