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Kitces & Carl Ep 81: Increasing Client Touch Points With Asynchronous Client Meetings

March 10, 2022 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Kitces Carl Ep Increasing Client Touch Points With Asynchronous Client Meetings Featured Image

Conventionally, meeting with a financial advisor meant meeting in-person, usually at the advisor’s office. With today’s technological advances, though, compounded by changes in social dynamics brought forth by the pandemic, meeting virtually (or mostly virtually) has become increasingly normalized, which has made it easier than ever before to accommodate more meeting time into busy schedules. But while the capacity to schedule more meetings has also given advisors the opportunity to spend time engaging more deeply with their clients, it has also meant that they may have less time to accommodate touch points with a broader range of their entire client base. One potential solution that can help advisors address this time crunch is to consider using asynchronous meeting strategies to help free up more of their time.

In our 81st episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss what it means to meet asynchronously, when it is appropriate to utilize, and how advisors can use asynchronous meetings to increase touch points for clients.

As a starting point, it’s important to recognize that while advisors may still need to devote more time to certain clients with complex financial circumstances who simply require more attention, newer clients often need frequent meetings only initially in the relationship. This is because in-person meetings early on provide a space for dialogue that lets new clients build trust and rapport with their advisor in the first place. But, once a certain level of trust is established, many clients often feel that frequent meetings are no longer necessary and may actually request fewer routine meetings; in fact, they may prefer communicating only on an as-needed basis to ensure that they stay on track with their financial plan.

Furthermore, while there may still be times when synchronous meetings are the most appropriate method of contact, they are not the only way to maintain the right level of touch points with a client. For instance, asynchronous meetings can sometimes be more suitable for situations between in-person meetings or video chat sessions, when a real-time connection is not entirely necessary (e.g., answering a question about how to find information on a platform). Using asynchronous meetings to quickly address lower-priority issues helps free up time for the advisor, as it generally takes less time to record a quick, informal video response than it does to write an email or to meet in person. Asynchronous meetings also don’t require the need to schedule or prepare for an in-person meeting, which can be time-consuming and simply unnecessary (especially when a 5-minute video clip can suffice).

Ultimately, the key point is that asynchronous meetings are not meant to replace all meetings; instead, they can be used to communicate more easily and quickly with clients when an actual meeting isn’t really necessary. While there will always be pressure to maintain a certain level of touch points with clients, advisors can rely on advances in technology that have made it easier and much more affordable for them to use asynchronous strategies (e.g., recording a quick video response) to respond to their clients’ needs without having to schedule meetings. And taking less time to schedule meetings means more time for the advisor to create more touch points and provide a better client experience. Because the more touch points an advisor can have with clients, the more opportunities there are to deepen and maintain long-term relationships with those clients!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Mar 5-6)

March 4, 2022 02:02 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and the European Union are preparing sanctions on the Russian central bank, which could cause a severe financial shock to the Russian economy… and raises concerns about how the impact of sanctions could ripple back to US investors. But while the war in Ukraine has created a major geopolitical shock (and a humanitarian crisis), historical data show that similar events in the past have not necessarily caused a major decline in the U.S. stock market (at least, not for any sustained period of time).

Also in industry news this week:

Despite ‘SECURE Act 2.0’ stalling in Congress, another potential bill has emerged that would enhance consumer protections and options in workplace retirement plans
While the Biden administration will not halt the upcoming overhaul to the Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule, a pending proposal likely would increase the number of financial professionals who must provide a fiduciary standard of care when providing investment recommendations for 401(k), individual retirement accounts, and other plans

From there, we have several articles on financial advisory industry trends:

A recent study shows that the vast majority of advisors who outsource their investment management are happy with their decision
Why the uptake of model portfolios has stalled out among advisors who are still predominantly focused on making portfolio construction their own value proposition instead
How firms are increasingly trying to expand the number of services they offer to attract clients in a world where more and more advisors are converging on the assets-under-management model

We also have a number of articles on cash flow and budgeting:

How a new database that ranks colleges based on their return on investment can help advisors and their clients determine which college is likely to pay off financially for a given student
How saving on big items (e.g., cars and houses) is important, but spending prudently on the ‘small’ stuff still matters, or it can add up and undermine the big savings
The wide range of ways couples can organize their finances, from a shared household account and separate guilt-free side accounts for spending, to simply splitting every couple’s expenses down the middle to pay from their own assets

We wrap up with three final articles, all about when and how to say ‘no’:

Why the decision on whether to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to opportunities can depend on what stage of life an individual is experiencing (and how problems emerge when we start out saying ‘yes’ to everything and fail to realize when it’s time to start saying ‘no’ more often)
How saying ‘no’ to some prospective clients can actually increase a firm’s efficiency and profitability
How using a ‘positive no’ can make saying 'no' a better experience for both the individual saying 'no' and the person who made the offer

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Feb 5-6)

February 4, 2022 02:11 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the news that the Department of Labor has (at long last) begun enforcement of its Fiduciary Rule, and how (despite multiple pandemic-related delays in the rule’s implementation) many broker-dealers (and even some small RIAs) may still not be in compliance – perhaps because of confusion over how the DOL’s rule differs in practice from the SEC’s already-in-force Regulation Best Interest, but ultimately exacerbated by the DOL’s failure to set a clear framework on how to handle conflicted compensation in the context of a fiduciary standard for everyone who gives financial advice on retirement rollovers.

Also in industry news this week:

M&A activity in the RIA industry continued at its record pace in 2021, and an increasing supply of funds from private equity firms continues to drive deals with a focus on building and acquiring in-house wealth technology solutions
A new AdvisorTech Directory launches to allow advisors to search for and browse the full range of advisor technology solutions, and create their own personalized tech stack.

From there, we have several articles on practice management:

How compensation costs rose for RIAs between 2016 and 2020, particularly amongst experienced employee advisors, and why it takes more than a strong salary to motivate and retain top advisor employees
Why outsourcing certain tasks to contractors can be more cost- and time-efficient than hiring a full-time employee
Why cultivating next-generation leadership is an important part of succession planning for RIAs, and the emergence of new training programs to help develop next-generation leaders

We also have a number of articles on taxes:

Why it may be a good idea for taxpayers to file their 2021 tax returns early, both to receive refunds earlier, and to avoid the processing delays that have plagued the IRS since the start of the pandemic
How the IRS’s new process for creating an online account is causing a backlash due to its stringent identity verification process and use of facial recognition technology
Why Vanguard came under criticism after its Target Retirement fund share classes generated a higher-than-expected capital gain distribution in 2021 (though the risk is far from limited to Vanguard funds, as all mutual funds distribute their capital gains each year, especially when faced with net outflows in or after a bull market)

We wrap up with three final articles, all about the benefits and challenges of remote work:

Why workers are craving flexibility in their work location and hours, and how managers can help promote transparency and equity
How remote work has blurred the lines between home and work life, and how you can maintain boundaries between the two
Why a challenging role at work can be superior to having an ‘easy’ job

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

#FA Success Ep 263: Building A High-Touch Boutique Firm Serving Tech Executives As Their Personal CFO, With Joyce Franklin

January 11, 2022 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 263rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Joyce Franklin. Joyce is the founder of JL Franklin Wealth Planning, an independent RIA based in the San Francisco Bay Area that oversees about $200 million of assets for 40 client families.

What's unique about Joyce, though, is how she built a true boutique financial advisory firm by serving as a personal CFO for high-profile tech executives, creating loyal relationships by not only helping them leverage their equity awards and stock options and positioning herself as a steward of their wealth with her firm averaging of 71 hours of service work provided to each client every year.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Joyce started out as a CPA preparing tax returns at Big 4 accounting firms during the tech bubble in the 90s (where she developed her expertise in stock option and equity award planning), how Joyce has intentionally maintained a smaller boutique-style client base to ensure she can provide all of her clients with a deep personal touch (but has recently turned her sights on growing her staff to create a succession plan), and how Joyce continues to execute high-touch comprehensive planning services for her clients while still only charging an Assets Under Management fee.

We also talk about Joyce’s desire to stay away from commission-based products from the very start of her career and how she instead focused on building client trust through expertise-based service (and writing two books in her niche to demonstrate that expertise), how Joyce turned a side business of preparing tax returns in her early days into an independent advisory firm (after realizing her entrepreneurial spirit and passion for financial planning), and how Joyce implements her core values by focusing on every last little planning detail for her clients.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Joyce shares how she realized that, by having a trusted team, she was able to let go of time-consuming tasks and hone in on the bigger picture of her firm, how Joyce motivated herself to become a go-to expert for entrepreneurs and executives building wealth with startups, and how Joyce uses the years of information she gathered through interviewing other advisors to help educate future advisors.

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Joyce provides high-touch CFO services to tech executives, how she helps her clients leverage their equity awards and stock options, or how writing books on her specialty attracts new clients in her niche, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Joyce Franklin.

#FA Success Ep 260: Breaking Bread Together To Build New Client Relationships As Their Financial Chef, With David Ortiz

December 21, 2021 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 260th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is David Ortiz. David is the founder of Financial Chef, an independent RIA operating as a lifestyle practice, serving clients in southern Florida. What's unique about David, though, is the way he combines his experience as a classically trained chef with the growth of his advisory firm, which now includes driving a Sprinter van with a full kitchen, so he can travel to a wider range of clientele across South Florida, to cook custom meals for them and then provide financial advice while they eat their freshly prepared food together.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how David grew his advisory firm by leveraging his training as a chef, first by building relationships with local charities, where he would provide in-house cooking for a party of 10 as a silent auction offering to get access to high-value prospects who are affluent enough to bid thousands of dollars on his donated chef services, how David then built an office space with a professional kitchen where the timing of client meetings was based on the available breakfast, lunch, and dinner sittings that restaurants use, and why David ultimately decided to make his cooking plus advice services more mobile by buying the van with the kitchen so that he could bring the food directly to his clients in what David calls the Ritz-Carlton of food trucks.

We also talk about how David has evolved his financial planning services for clients, including how David has largely eschewed relying on traditional planning software and instead, built his value proposition directly around the ongoing and never-ending financial planning tasks that his clients need his help to implement, how David built his own custom portals for each client through Microsoft SharePoint to help clients track their financial planning progress over time, and why David has decided to evolve his business model towards charging ongoing planning fees as a percentage of client income for his financial planning task support, in addition to AUM fees where his clients need their portfolios managed.

And be certain to listen to the end where David shares his own journey through the advice business from how he made the transition from being a chef and doing a brief stint at a software company before getting started as a life insurance agent, why David ultimately decided to leave the broker-dealer world and structure his firm as an independent RIA instead, and why David believes that a chef who cooks for his clients in addition to providing them financial advice has been so effective at deepening his client relationships.

So whether you're interested in learning more about why David decided to join his talents as a chef and as a financial advisor into a successful business, why he opts for an almost subscription-style fee model, or how he designs his financial plans with a task-oriented approach, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

The 11 ‘Best’ Financial Advisor Conferences To Choose From In 2022

November 15, 2021 07:03 am 5 Comments CATEGORY: Conferences

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a number of dramatic changes for the typical financial advisor, who suddenly found themselves meeting with all their clients virtually, managing their entire team virtually… and trying – usually unsuccessfully – to network with other financial advisors at virtual conferences. As in the end, while the transition to Zoom-based conferences was ‘reasonably’ successful at delivering content for advisors, it’s done very little to alleviate the sense of isolation that has come with 18+ months of a work-from-home environment and the near-total shutdown of financial advisor conferences.

And so as vaccination rates continue to rise across the country – now accelerating as age 5–11 vaccines begin to roll out – advisors are steadily returning to the office, conferences are preparing to re-open their doors for in-person events in 2022… and a lot of advisors are expressing a newfound desire to get out from their 4 walls, take a trip (or an extended vacation!), and reconnect with other financial advisors and get some fresh ideas and inspiration about ‘what’s next’ for their own advisory businesses. Which just raises one key question: if you’re going to go back out for a conference in 2022, for the first time in nearly 3 years… what’s the best conference to attend?

As someone that has been speaking at 50-70 conferences a year for almost 15 years myself, I’ve seen the good and bad of our wide range of industry events, which are spread across membership associations, broker-dealers, insurance companies, RIA custodians, product manufacturers, media companies, private events, and more. And as a result, I am often asked for my own suggestions of what, really, are the industry’s ‘best’ conferences to attend.

Accordingly, back in 2012, I started to craft my own annual list of 'best-in-class' top conferences for financial advisors, allocated across a range of different categories (as what’s best for solo advisors isn’t the same as what’s best for larger advisor enterprises, what’s best for fee-for-service advisors isn’t the same as what’s best for AUM firms, more technically oriented advisors will prefer different conferences than those seeking practice management or marketing ideas, etc.).

Having updated our annual conference list in every year since, I’m excited now to present my newest list of “Top Financial Advisor Conferences” for the upcoming 2022 year, including both some technical conferences, a wide range of practice management conferences, and highlighting a few never-before-seen events that are emerging for the first time in the coming year.

In addition, we've also launched a new "Master Conference List" of all financial advisor conferences in 2022, for both advisors looking for a wider range of events to attend, and for vendors looking for more conferences to exhibit at!

Of course, because of the disruption of the pandemic, it’s not entirely clear whether some events will show up in 2022 differently than they did the last time they were in person (which for most, was all the way back in 2019!). Nonetheless, as long as you find the conference that is the right type for you, the odds are good that your experience will be good when the content is more relevant, and the other attendees are similar to you (because they, too, were looking for the same thing!).

So I hope you find this year’s 2022 conferences list (and our new Master Conference List) to be helpful as a guide in planning your own conference budget and schedule for next year, and be certain to take advantage of the special discount codes that several conferences have offered to all of you as Nerd’s Eye View readers!
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Kitces & Carl Ep 72: Do You Want A Lifestyle Practice Or Fear Building A Bigger One?

November 4, 2021 07:03 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

To most advisors, expanding one’s practice from a ‘lifestyle’ practice to a larger firm that is more encompassing requires two sets of skills: financial planning skills that can build and service a growing client base, and the management skills required to lead an effective team that will make strategic long-term decisions to sustain and grow the business. This generally ends out with two types of advisors in lifestyle practices: those who deliberately pursue a lifestyle practice and enjoy operating as a sole practitioner, and those who have simply settled for one to avoid the management responsibilities involved in growing a business.

In our 72^nd episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how building a bigger practice doesn’t necessarily mean having to become an all-in-one manager and visionary; advisors who feel stuck in their current roles may find that by questioning some of the recurring scripts they follow (and that may actually limit their ability to realize their own potential), they can identify and seek out the right talent to help implement their vision for a larger firm!

As a starting point, advisors may wonder, “Okay, but if I don’t manage my company, who will?” To address this dilemma of finding the right help for an advisor to manage and grow their company, Gino Wickman, in his book Rocket Fuel, outlines two essential business roles: the visionary who envisions the new directions for the business to take, and the integrator who does the actual building, hiring, training, etc. Wickman points out that the visionary/integrator dynamic is quite common in many successful high-profile businesses, such as Walt Disney and Roy Disney, and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

In reality, establishing a successful visionary/integrator dynamic involves two key requirements. The first is to identify team members with unique visionary and integrator “superpowers” and to assign them to roles where their talents can be expressed. The second is the importance of establishing and fostering trust between team members. Because when a visionary introduces an integrator to the team, they have to be able to rely on the integrator not just to implement and manage the processes that support the company’s vision, but also to make the right decisions to sustain business operations. Even though this may require some initial effort to plan the role and recruit the right person, when done successfully, delegating responsibility to an integrator will eventually free up more time for firm owners to leverage their strengths and dedicate themselves to realizing their vision.

Ultimately, the key point is that for advisors who want to grow beyond a lifestyle practice, unlocking growth potential to realize something larger may be as simple as shifting one’s mindset – instead of getting stuck on the question, “How can I do this on my own?”, advisors can instead ask themselves, “Who can help me do this?” After all, advisors with a vision to grow their firm need to have the bandwidth to focus their energy on attracting clients to come to them in the first place. And with the right team in place, growth doesn’t have to come at the cost of all of an advisor’s free time; in fact, it may actually open them up more bandwidth and freedom than they’ve ever experienced before!

#FA Success Ep 247: Systematizing How To ‘Deliver Massive Value’ To Charge What You’re Really Worth, With Matthew Jarvis

September 21, 2021 07:03 am 4 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 247th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Matthew Jarvis. Matthew is the owner of Jarvis Financial, an RIA in Seattle, Washington that manages $240 million for 170 households.

What's unique about Matthew, though, is his ongoing focus on increasing the overall efficiency and profitability of his firm first by systematizing his business processes in order to deliver even more value to his clients... and then raising his fees so that he's fairly compensated for the greater, more systematized value that he now delivers.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Matthew's practice has evolved since he was one of the first guests on this podcast, including hiring an additional advisor who is taking over 90% of the firm's client relationships so Matthew could scale the launch of his advisor coaching program and fintech solution, how by graduating clients that aren't a good fit for his firm (and referring them out to younger advisors who are) Matthew has managed to more than double his AUM in the past four years by focusing on onboarding increasingly higher net worth clients, and how Matthew uses a concept he calls "extreme accountability" as his own impetus to move forward on important (but sometimes unpleasant) business tasks… by making the status quo more even more unpleasant than the task itself.

We also talk about why Matthew feels that mastermind groups are so important (and the specific steps advisors can take to create and nurture their own mastermind groups), how Matthew decides which clients to "graduate" in order to improve the performance of his practice (and the things he does for those clients to make their transition as smooth as possible), and Matthew's thought process behind his decision to raise his fees (and how he communicated that increase to his clients).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Matthew shares how his entrepreneurial drive has continued in recent years, including the launch of The Perfect RIA advisor coaching program, a fintech offering, and two podcasts, how Matthew got over his own limiting beliefs and (as he calls it) "head trash" around hiring another advisor on his team by envisioning what he wanted his practice to look like five years from now and identifying what was standing in the way of him getting there, and Matthew's four rules for success, including, "deliver massive value, be intentional, do what works, and willpower is not enough".

So whether you’re interested in learning how Matthew honed his business process in order to deliver more value to his clients, how he doubled the size of his practice with only a slight increase in the number of clients he serves, or how he uses the concept of extreme accountability to move his practice forward, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Matthew Jarvis.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Sept 11-12)

September 10, 2021 02:30 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a look at the latest SEC initiative on the 'gamification' of investing (e.g., Robinhood) to the use of behavioral nudges (e.g., certain robo-advisors), with a new warning that it will be delving deeper into the "digital engagement practices" of broker-dealers and investment advisers that use technology to entice investors to roll over assets and/or trade on their digital platforms... with a particular eye on when a technology-driven investment 'nudge' may turn into investment advice (with the higher fiduciary duty that would attach to such advice).

Also in the industry news this week are a number of other interesting industry headlines:

A recent survey shows that more than 9-in-10 CFP certificants are strongly satisfied with their choice of career, and that the majority of advisors have seen more prospects and had more communication with existing clients since the pandemic
FINRA's new Rule 4111 is taking effect, which will make it more onerous for broker-dealers to take on brokers with multiple dings on their on their regulatory record (in the hopes of curtailing the number of brokers that get re-hired after engaging in 'problematic' behavior)

From there, we have several articles on spending and saving, including:

How to think about the allocation of financial duties within couples (and ways for couples to structure their spending accounts for marital harmony)
Challenges in home affordability are being driven in part by the reduction in builders constructing "starter" homes, as the number of new homes costing <$200,000 has dropped from 60% in 2002 to <2% today
Tips on simple "money-saving" phone calls (from cable providers to property tax assessors), and potential services that can make those calls for you

We've also included a number of marketing-related articles:

The desire of advisory firm marketers to begin using testimonials is creating friction with compliance departments that are still figuring out how exactly to implement the new rules in their own practices
13 marketing KPIs that advisory firms should track to monitor the health of their advisory firm's growth path
The problems with marketing "service" as an advisory firm differentiator

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of maximizing business efficiency and productivity:

Why it's problematic to simply look at "hours worked" because it rewards the high-hours inefficient worker over the more efficient employee who gets the work done in less time
The difference between efficiency (doing the same, with less) and productivity (doing more, with the same), and why efficiency drives profits but productivity drives growth
How companies historically showed their size by their employee counts and why a growing focus on productivity means "revenue per employee" may be a better metric for success

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

#FA Success Ep 240: Driving Client Growth By Communicating Solutions In Practical Terms, With Thomas Gau

August 3, 2021 07:04 am 10 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 240th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Thomas Gau. Tom is a financial advisor at Materetsky Financial Group, a hybrid-RIA located in Boynton Beach, Florida, that manages $525M in assets under management for just over 500 clients.

What's unique about Tom, though, is the way he translates abstract financial planning strategies into very concrete and practical terms that he can enthusiastically communicate to address the very specific tax and estate planning needs of his retiree niche clientele.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Tom’s quintessential client communication and persuasion skills landed him on the radar of Malcolm Gladwell (who profiled Tom in his book “The Tipping Point”), how early in his career, as he expanded his focus beyond his accounting services as a CPA, Tom decided that he needed a niche, focusing first on retirees and then niching down even further to a concentration on the tax ramifications of retirement distributions, and why Tom feels that the best way for financial advisors to differentiate themselves to prospective clients isn’t by discussing investment solutions, but by offering to help with specific tax planning issues, because, as Tom points out, “investments are a matter of opinion, but taxes are a matter of fact”.

We also talk about how Tom utilizes educational workshops to get in front of prospective clients as well as the specific strategies he uses to create awareness for and interest in his workshops, why Tom feels that the three keys to having a successful advisory practice include having a solution to a common pain point felt by a specific target market, being able to easily implement that solution, and making sure that the issue involves a not-insignificant amount of money, and why Tom believes that most financial advisors still underappreciate how addressing advanced planning topics with their clients can be a powerful differentiator against a vast number of advisors in the industry who are still generalists.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Tom shares what led him to turn his business development success into a Coaching Program for other advisors, the surprising consistency in the issues that retirees face regardless of their locale as Tom builds an advisory firm for the third time in a new location after selling the first two, Tom’s philanthropic efforts in less fortunate countries (which also makes him appreciate all the more the abundance in his own life), and how, at the end of the day, Tom finds that it’s his enthusiasm and passion, even more so than his tax and estate planning focus, that gets prospective clients excited about working with him.

So whether you’re interested in hearing the story behind Tom being featured in “The Tipping Point”, the advice he offers around how financial advisors can differentiate themselves, or how he runs his educational workshops to generate new business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Thomas Gau.