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Kitces & Carl Ep 07: Authenticity Vs. Professional Credibility And Admitting Your Own Financial Sins

May 16, 2019 07:03 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast Personal/Career Development

As a financial advisor, credibility is crucial to the advisor-client relationship; after all, if clients don’t believe the advisor’s advice is credible, then they’re not likely to follow through on it (and/or may not be willing to hire the advisor in the first place). Which, similar to professionals in other knowledge-based fields, often results in feeling the pressure to always have all the answers, and always have your own financial house in order… out of fear that a client may not trust and find credible the advice of an advisor who has made poor financial decisions themselves and hasn’t followed their own advice. Except the reality is that financial advisors are human beings too, we can all make mistakes, and in practice, it’s often our prior negative financial experiences as advisors that actually lead us to want to help others with their money in the first place. Which can actually make the financial advisor more authentic and relatable to clients who are experiencing similar challenges themselves!

In our seventh episode of “Kitces & Carl”, Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to debunk some long-standing myths around what it really means to be a “credible” financial advisor, why authentically owning up to your personal financial mistakes actually helps build trust and credibility (and might even end up helping you gain new clients), and why being relatable as a human being (who makes mistakes from time to time) may be one of the more important traits you can bring to the table as a financial advisor.

As a professional (whose fruits of that profession literally keep the lights powered on), one of the hardest things to do show your own vulnerability by admitting that you’ve made poor financial decisions yourself in the past, and/or don’t have all the answers to every question or problem. But the reality is that, if we can own up to our own poor financial decisions and mistakes that we’ve made along the way, both to ourselves and to our clients, it puts us in a much better position to meet our clients with empathy. Which in turn allows us to be less judgmental (and for clients themselves to feel less judged), and in a much better position to not only help them with the technical aspects of implementing the sound financial advice we give them, but to support their financial wellness as well (which is our ultimate goal in the end).

Because to achieve that goal and get clients to be honest with us, and themselves, about what they really value so that we can help them apply their capital towards what’s most important to them, it’s crucial to make sure that clients can relate to us as advisors. Which often means trying to bring yourself off the “advisor pedestal”, and meeting your clients where they are. Getting clients to talk openly about the financial mistakes they’ve made isn’t easy, but if you are open to sharing your own story, then you can help make them feel more comfortable by making it clear that you aren’t sitting there judging them (because you’ve “been there”, too).

And while there is such a thing as “over-sharing”, the key point is that authentically and openly admitting that you don’t know everything, and don’t always make optimal financial decisions, can ultimately help the people that you want to serve, and by extension, strengthen you own credibility as a professional in the process. Because all that fear that you have about feeling judged if you own up to your mistakes is the exact fear that every client who comes into your office has about being judged themselves by someone who they (wrongly) think has all the answers.

Kitces & Carl Ep 06: Building Resiliency For The Stress Of Being A Financial Advisor

April 25, 2019 10:41 am 7 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast Personal/Career Development

A big part of a financial advisor’s job is to be a release valve for their clients’ financial anxieties… it’s an essential aspect of how we add value in helping them manage their “behavior gap” and avoid making poor financial decisions for themselves. Because unfortunately, no matter how well we prepare our clients conceptually about the importance of keeping an even keel during the inevitable bouts of market volatility (or worse), the concept of “market risk” (and how clients will react to it) often feels purely theoretical until it actually happens… or as Mike Tyson so eloquently put it, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

And when market turmoil happens, it creates a huge amount of stress for clients, who oftentimes will then turn towards their advisors as they look for someone to blame. But while that can serve as the foundation for memorable “war stories” that advisors can bond over at industry events, the dynamic that isn’t discussed nearly as much is mental and emotional toll we as advisors face ourselves in serving our clients during severe market corrections or even deep bear markets. In fact, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, one study found that advisors ended out experiencing symptoms also associated with post-traumatic stress disorder! Which, in turn, raises the question: How can advisors prepare themselves mentally and emotionally to help not only their clients, but also themselves, cope with the stresses inherent in serving clients through their own times of stress?

In our sixth episode of “Kitces & Carl”, Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to discuss proactive steps advisors can take to prepare themselves to deal with and manage the stresses inherent in being a financial planning professional, some common but less-well-known sources of advisor stress, and how a subtle shift in mindset can help advisors make self-care a priority.

As a starting point, the best way to put yourself in a place where you’re able to deal effectively with the inevitability of stress is self-care, which only gets more important as we age and includes (among other things) diet, exercise, and rest (both physical and mental). Meanwhile, as an “accountability partner” who’s there to support and guide clients towards reaching their goals, you also need to have a support system that you can reach out to when things get tough, including family, colleagues, a mentor, and other industry peers. Because, just as your clients need someone they can vent to when it seems like everything is falling apart around them, you also need to have a group of folks you can turn to when you need to express your frustrations and anxiety. It also may mean allocating a part of your personal budget towards hiring your own “accountability partners” to help you stay (get?) fit, eat right, and establish a healthy work-life balance… which will almost certainly end out providing a positive ROI for you both personally and professionally.

Ultimately, the key point is simply to realize that as a skilled financial advisor, you are still no good to your family, friends, and colleagues if you’re stressed and unhealthy yourself, and you certainly won’t be able to provide the level of service that your clients expect… and deserve. And in order to do that, perhaps a smart approach might be to stop treating things like rest and recreation as a “reward” for working hard, and instead start thinking about those things as a prerequisite (that needs to be actively scheduled for on your calendar) for doing good work in the first place!

Kitces & Carl Ep 05: Do Clients Really Value Getting Help Managing Their Behavior Gap

April 11, 2019 07:03 am 4 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication Kitces & Carl Podcast

One persistent struggle for financial advisors has been to find ways to communicate the value that they bring to the table. Fortunately, several recent studies have tried to quantify that value - down to a specific number of basis points annually – and have generally shown that financial advisors can more than cover their advisory fees with a wide range of value-added benefits… most significantly, by helping clients overcome the dreaded “behavior gap” that exists between the returns of the market, and the (lesser) returns that investors would otherwise realize on their own due to their behavioral biases.

Unfortunately, however, a recent Morningstar survey of almost 700 individual investors found that the advisor’s ability to help “control their emotions” is perceived as the least valuable service an advisor can provide from the consumer’s perspective… even as it’s the most valuable benefit from financial advisors according to the advisor research! Yet this ironic gap in the value of getting help with the behavior gap actually makes sense, since investors themselves often don’t see that their behaviors are a problem in the first place.

Nonetheless, this gap between what the research suggests is a benefit of working with a financial advisor, and what consumers state they actually value, raises the question: Does the real gap lie between market and investor returns, or between what investors actually value and what advisors think they value?

In our fifth episode of “Kitces & Carl”, Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to discuss the question of whether advisors should even bother trying to communicate the value they provide when helping clients manage their “behavior gap”, why attempting to convince prospects that you can help them manage their behaviors is perhaps an uphill battle, and how maybe the best way to overcome the behavior gap (and the perceived value of getting help with the behavior gap) is by shifting a client’s perspective altogether.

The starting point is to realize that most clients don’t initially seek an advisor’s help because they suddenly decide they need help clarifying their life goals or making better decisions at key junctures; they come to an advisor first and foremost because they have an acute pain point they need help with. And while for some new clients, that pain point may be due to devastating decisions in the depths bear market - which then prompts them seek out an advisor because they (or more often their spouse) realize that they do need guidance when it matters most – for many consumers, the pain point that drives them to a financial advisor is about some other non-portfolio issue in the first place.

Furthermore, even if many people do undermine themselves by making poorly timed decisions, it’s nearly impossible to “sell it” as a benefit of entering into an advisory relationship, since a client will first have to admit to themselves that they are so bad at making financial decisions that they have no other choice than to hand the task off to someone else! And denial about our own failings – even if it’s true – can be quite powerful. Which is why, in general, trying to position yourself as someone who can help clients “control their emotions” or change their “bad” behaviors is challenging at best. Which is not to say that managing those clients’ behaviors isn’t beneficial… it simply means that people who are in most need of that help will likely have a hard time admitting it.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that advisors do truly add value for their clients by managing the “behavior gap”… but selling that as a key feature of the relationship probably isn’t going to get most advisors very far. Instead, the best way to help clients close that gap is by connecting their use of their capital with what they say is important to them in the first place. And the only way to help a client down that path is to absorb with empathy where they are presently, and then gradually help them understand continuing to make them same decisions that they’ve made in the past won’t get them different results. Which creates the real opportunity for financial advisors to demonstrate their value!

Kitces & Carl Ep 04: Does Social Media Really Matter For Financial Advisors

March 28, 2019 07:07 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast Marketing

Despite the recent public scrutiny of various social media platforms, the number of active users on mediums like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram continues to grow exponentially, making social media an increasingly attractive channel for financial advisors to not only reach prospective clients and centers of influence, but to nurture relationships with existing clients as well. Yet, it’s also incredibly easy to spend a lot of time (and potentially money) on social media, only to find that your efforts have been for naught, leading many to wonder if social media really matters for financial advisors at all.

In our fourth episode of “Kitces & Carl”, Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to discuss the question of the extent to which financial advisors should or “have to” participate in social media (or not), why it might be a worthwhile endeavor if done correctly, some ideas that advisors can use immediately to get more out of their social media efforts, and why, ultimately, using social media successfully is ultimately about a series of “micro interactions” to better connect with other individuals.

The first question to consider is whether or not it’s absolutely essential for financial advisors to build a social media presence to begin with. As while there are numerous stories of advisors landing multi-million-dollar clients solely through social media, the reality is that the only non-negotiable virtual presence that every advisor must have is a modern, professional-looking website (not a social media account). Because, in a world where consumers are far savvier and more informed than they’ve ever been, the one thing you can count on is that a prospective client will have done their due diligence on you before they decide to book that first meeting, and there’s no better way to throw ice water on a warm prospect than an outdated website… or one that prominently features a sailboat, lighthouse, or long, winding road tapering off towards the horizon, that doesn’t really connect with prospects today.

Beyond that, though, for financial advisors, the task of getting in front of prospective clients has always been primarily a social endeavor, and at its core, social media is an avenue for humans to communicate and interact with each other. Which means that social media can not only augment and amplify how you present yourself to the public, but it can be a particularly effective means of connecting with others… especially if you have yet to crack the code of networking events or other organized social activities. In other words, whether face-to-face or through “the interwebs”, authentic communication is the best pathway for developing relationships, and social media is simply one of many channels to do so.

And when it comes to social media, a side benefit is that even those you’re not interacting with can see how you communicate with others, and can form their own opinions about you and decide whether or not they want to learn more about you and your services. Because one of the most powerful aspects of developing a social media presence is that it allows you to reach a much larger audience than would be possible by concentrating solely on in-person events. Moreover, social media can also open avenues of access to centers of influence and other people in your target market that you might not have access to otherwise.

Ultimately, though, the key point is to recognize that developing a quality social media presence takes time. There are no overnight successes, and you won’t miraculously have a line of people who want to hire you banging on your door because you sent out a tweet or few, but (as is the case when helping clients build their own solid financial foundations) small actions taken repeatedly can still lead to massive changes. Or stated more simply: repeated authentic interactions compound over time, whether in-person or via social media. In other words, regardless of the way in which you make it happen, in the end, communicating authentically with others is the most reliable and effective way for any financial advisor to build a successful practice. Social media just happens to be a particularly efficient channel to do so. At least for some advisors.

Kitces & Carl Ep 03: The Importance Of Likability As A Financial Advisor

February 28, 2019 10:51 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast Personal/Career Development

In a world where it can take as few as 50 great clients to build a successful advisory practice, many seasoned advisors have been able to build a business around a small group of clients who they like to work with (and who like them in return). Yet advisors who are at an earlier stage of their careers don’t typically have the luxury of being so selective in picking and choosing the clients who they want to work with and like, while instead there’s even more pressure on the advisor to be “likeable” in the first place; as the common aphorism goes, a client has to first “like you” before they’ll decide to trust you and hire you. Accordingly, then question then becomes, to what extent does likeability really matter in bringing on new clients and building relationships with existing clients, and conversely, how far should you go to come across as “likeable” to clients (even if it requires doing something that isn’t otherwise natural), and how common is it for clients to fire their advisors because they are “unlikable”?

In our third episode of “Kitces & Carl”, Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to discuss the question of how important it is to be “likeable” as a financial advisor, why being your “authentic self” when it comes to communicating and interacting with clients might matter more, and why it’s important for newer advisors to avoid sending mixed signals to clients when trying to differentiate themselves.

Foregoing the (remarkably intriguing) possibility of developing a practice around the “curmudgeon” niche, the reality is that those who self-select into a career of financial advice often do so out of a desire to make a difference in people’s lives, which necessitates having some level of competency in interacting with others. Though beyond just being “likeable,” being able to connect with others is also about your style, behavior, and even your appearance… all of which might be adjusted in order to be more appealing to potential clients.

Because the reality is that it is important to tailor the way you communicate with and present information to various clients, as not all clients have the same preferences in how they want to receive advice in the first place (i.e., some clients might “only” want a big-picture summary, while others love to delve into all the gritty details).

Still, though, that doesn’t necessarily mean advisors should try to be something they’re not… and in fact, the more you try to be something you’re not, the easier it is to come off as inauthentic, instead. Rather, the key to finding people who like you and want to do business with you is by being your “authentic self,” and recognizing that, while not everyone may respond well to you, some will… and those are the people who you ultimately want to work with anyway!

On the other hand, “being your true self” doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to totally throw social conventions to the wind. Be aware that, particularly when clients come in, they expect certain things of a “professional”, and if you stray too far in an effort to try to stand out from other advisors (or just be your authentic self), then you can easily create uncertainty in the client’s mind as to whether or not you have the professionalism and competency to help them solve whatever problem it is that brought them to you in the first place.

Ultimately, the key point is that likability is important, to the extent that you need to provide great service to your clients in a way that works well for them. But, especially for newer advisors, it’s equally important to not create more barriers for yourself being inauthentic, or by trying to differentiate yourself in a way that is off-putting to clients. Because the differentiator that matters the most resides not in how you present yourself (whether by manner or dress), but in the questions you ask and the experience you create for clients… effectively differentiating on the value delivered to clients themselves, and not just by the advisor’s own style and likeability!

Kitces & Carl Ep 02: How To Price Your Financial Planning Services

February 14, 2019 10:16 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast Practice Management

For most of the financial advice industry’s history, figuring out compensation has been relatively straightforward, as the commission rate that a broker received was set by the manufacturer of the products that were sold. And even as the industry moved more towards the investment management (AUM) model, compensation rates became a little less rigid, the standard fee of 1% of assets under management acted as a firm pricing anchor. However, with the shift in recent years to holistic, advice-centric approach – where advisors sell the value of their personal time and advice and can ask for any price they want – clear pricing standards have gone out the window.

In our second episode of “Kitces & Carl”, Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to discuss the question of establishing a price for your financial planning services, why many advisors feel such anxiety over setting (and sticking to) their pricing model, the ways in which advisors can communicate their value to prospects and clients to justify their price, and why, many times, problems around pricing are really the result of our own inward confidence problems.

Because the reality is that advisors offering holistic planning are essentially rudderless when it comes to knowing how much to charge for their services. For the first time we, as advisors, have to convince our clients (and ourselves) that the intangible service that we provide is worth at least the price at which it makes sense to operate as a viable business. As while value in the past was defined by the products brokers had access to, now that “value piece” is far more esoteric and relies not only on our own knowledge and expertise, but (sometimes more importantly) in our ability to communicate effectively enough that it results in positive client outcomes!

And since consumers have access to far more information than they did in the past, the odds are that, at some point, a prospective client is going to push back on your price and wonder why they should pay you more than some other advisor with a seemingly similar “comprehensive financial planning” offering who charges less… or the inexpensive, automated service from the online robo-“advisor” with a substantial advertising budget. Fortunately, though, by focusing on a niche with unique challenges and by going deeper on issues that that virtually no one else is talking to them about, advisors can have an easier time communicating the value they bring to the table.

More generally, advisors who get questions about their fees might look at their own “lead nurturing” process. Because, if a prospect has opted to sit down with you in the first place, and after uncovering their desired future state, what’s holding them back, and how you can close that gap for them, they still don’t understand why you charge what you do… then the problem might not be with your pricing, but with how you present yourself to the public in the first place.

Ultimately, the key to the pricing conversation is that you, as an advisor, have a story that you believe in around the value that you provide, and can articulate that to clients and prospects. Because once we believe in ourselves and the value that we bring, then we can set a price… and be confident that we are worth what we say. In other words, if at the end of the day you’re concerned about your pricing, be mindful of whether it’s really a problem of whether your price is appropriate for the value you provide… or if you just need to get more confident in your own value proposition in the first place.

Kitces & Carl Ep 01: How To Value The Value Of Financial Planning

January 31, 2019 12:01 pm 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast Planning Profession

One of the biggest challenges comprehensive financial planners face today is that “everyone” says they do financial planning. Yet in practice, what they actually do, whether it’s really comprehensive financial planning, or even what constitutes “financial planning” as opposed to just ad hoc financial advice, has no clear and consistent definition within the industry. And if we can’t figure out what the differences are within the industry, then it’s almost impossible for the public to understand the differences between the services offered (including any potential conflicts) by a whole bunch of people who do different stuff (frequently playing by different sets of rules) yet say they all do the same thing! Not to mention trying to help the public understand the value (both financially tangible and intangible) of the financial planning choices available and being offered to them.

To explore this issue, we’re introducing you to a new experimental (but possibly recurring if you like it!) content format we’re simply calling “Kitces & Carl” here at The Nerd’s Eye View, where Michael Kitces and financial advisor communication guru Carl Richards sit down to discuss industry topics from their own unique perspectives. And in this inaugural episode, Michael and Carl talk about the Value of Financial Advice, efforts to quantify that value, and why we may need to move past the asset-based model in order to define and communicate the real value of financial planning to our clients and the public in general.

Fortunately, both Morningstar, Vanguard, and Envestnet have done some research to try and quantify an answer to this very question. Their studies suggest that, even when we ignore any potential excess investment return, the advice that advisors provide around the dollars that they are managing can amount to an additional 1.5-3.0% over what a client would have likely gotten had they “done it themselves”

But, outside of “helping clients avoid big mistakes” by re-allocating their portfolios or talking them off the proverbial “ledge” when volatility ticks up, there’s arguably another aspect to helping clients that transcends the “quantifiable” aspect of the profession. Because most clients don’t have anywhere else they can go and feel safe talking about this topic of money, that is so important yet remains a taboo topic of discussion, and for many carries an enormous amount of baggage. And those hurdles only expand geometrically when it’s a couple that’s sitting across the desk.

In fact, perhaps the greatest problem of trying to explain the value of financial advice, especially while the industry is in the midst of such rapid change, is that we are still tying all our value conversations back to the portfolio-based model... to the extent that, even when trying to quantify the behavioral aspects of planning, industry studies still scale them to a percentage of assets. Even though an increasingly amount of the value of financial planning advice is specifically about the advice that occurs outside of the portfolio!

Alternatively, perhaps instead of trying to put a dollar value on the advice we provide as advisors at all, we might just consider framing it in terms of the real-world outcomes for clients. For instance, what if we as advisors simply said to a couple having stressful arguments about money that, “We help couples have better conversations about money, so they’re not as awkward”? And then let them figure out if it’s valuable enough to them to pay for it? Because, if an advisor can help reduce marital stress and reduce the number of marriages that end out in divorce because of money issues… then clients might consider that a whole lot more valuable that we might have ever imagined anyway!

Ultimately, then, the key point is to recognize that as financial planning continues to expand beyond just building and managing diversified asset allocated portfolios, the key task as an industry is to figure out how we can frame that value beyond the context of “investable assets”. Because if we want to better communicate our value to prospects and clients, especially beyond the portfolio, we must first be willing to fully embrace and acknowledge that value ourselves.