Financial planning knowledge to help you better serve your clients.

Welcome back to the 241st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Bill Bachrach. Bill is the Chairman and CEO of AdvisorRoadMap, which provides training and mentorship to help financial advisors better attract and communicate with their ideal clients.

What's unique about Bill, though, is that as the creator of the values-based financial planning framework and the father of the now-famous question - “What’s important about money to you?”- he pioneered a repeatable process to put a client’s values and goals at the center of the financial planning conversation at a time when the industry was still focused almost exclusively on product sales.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how Bill’s “What’s important about money to you?” question not only gives advisors a powerful way to start a meaningful conversation, but also gives prospects an opportunity to communicate the value that they’re seeking from a financial planning relationship, how that opening question is just a part of Bill’s script for having values conversations with prospects to create a foundation of trust and, ultimately, helps advisors (as Bill puts it) rescue prospects from their current advisors, and how Bill uses his values roadmap as a deliverable to visually show prospects the steps that they can take in order to fulfill their most deeply held values and achieve their most important goals.

We also talk about Bill’s five prospect conversations (each of which occur during the first prospect meeting, including the Opening, Values, and Goals conversations, as well as All The Money and Commitment To Hire steps), Bill’s techniques and suggestions for leading those conversations without overly “controlling” the conversation, and how recording prospect conversations for later review not only helps advisors build even more trust and relevance, but also ends out helping advisors learn to listen more, say less, ask better questions, and answer prospect questions more effectively.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Bill shares his recommendations for helping prospects more concretely identify and define their goals, with not just the name, target date, and cost, but also the emotionally compelling words that describe what achieving that goal will feel like (to include on their financial roadmap), why Bill feels that it’s an advisor’s obligation to take full advantage of the financial planning tools that are available to them (and why doing so makes it even easier to “rescue” clients away from other advisors who don’t), and Bill’s view that trust isn’t a function of an advisor’s technical chops, but is instead a function of character, the ability to ask good questions, listen, and ultimately hold clients accountable to the advice that they’re given.

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Bill’s “What’s important about money to you?” question, his five prospect conversations, or how financial advisors can build trust, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Bill Bachrach.

Read More...

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.

Read More...