FP+Careers - Part 16

#FASuccess Ep 225: Generating A Positive Marketing ROI With Direct Mail Seminar Events, With Matt Gulbransen

April 20, 2021 07:06 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 225th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Matt Gulbransen. Matt is the President of Pine Grove Financial Group, an RIA in Minnesota that manages over $550 million for about 325 families.

What’s unique about Matt, though, is that despite the widely held belief that direct mail and educational seminars have gone the way of the dinosaur, he has continued over the past decade to see positive marketing results from using direct mail to fill seats at in-person seminar events geared towards educating people about planning for the plethora of life transitions they face as they approach retirement… and then convincing them to work with him to navigate those retirement transitions.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about the ROI that can still be generated from a marketing funnel built around direct mail seminars, Matt’s key realization around why fear-based marketing will only get you so far and doesn’t ultimately help clients move forward to do business, the reason Matt started to charge an upfront planning fee for new clients as he gained traction with his seminars as a means of demonstrating that the work he and his team was doing had value, how Matt has adapted his process in a world where in-person events haven’t happened for a year, and why Matt feels that pre-retirees and retirees are still an attractive target market despite the level of competition in the niche.

We also talk about the way Matt has been able to leverage a relatively lean (at least by industry standards) team of nine people to service $550M of AUM by building out workflows and integrations within their tech stack in order to become ultra-efficient at their most common tasks, why the firm’s desire to focus on tax-savvy household-level allocations led Matt to choose 55IP as their core portfolio management software instead of more popular alternatives, and the various other technology tools that Matt’s firm has implemented to support “tax alpha” as a key value-add they bring to their clients (especially given that Matt and his clients live in a high-tax state).

And be sure to listen to the end, where Matt shares the challenges of starting his career as a young advisor at a wirehouse, how the challenges of prospecting led Matt to shift to the bank channel that had a more captive audience of prospects that could be referred to him, how it was Matt’s initial success with seminar marketing and the realization that he could grow an advisory firm without having a big-name brand behind him that eventually led him to launch his RIA, and how Matt has started to further scale the efficiencies he’s already built in his practice by bringing on outside advisor teams who are able to bolt on seamlessly to his system.

So whether you’re interested in learning how direct mail is still a viable means of attracting qualified prospects, how advisors can still use seminars to demonstrate the value of financial planning, or how Matt has been able to manage a relatively lean team with workflows and automations, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast with Matt Gulbransen.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Apr 3-4)

April 2, 2021 02:55 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the announcement that the CFP Board is updating the Principal Knowledge Topics of the CFP exam to reflect the ever-growing focus on behavioral coaching for clients that emerged from its latest Practice Analysis of what financial planners do in practice with clients, adding in not just a "behavioral finance" educational component but an entire "Psychology of Financial Planning" category that will become incorporated into CFP curricula (and the CFP exam itself) in 2022 and beyond.

In addition, there are several other notable studies about financial advisors and financial advice in the news this week, including:

The majority of consumers earning more than $100,000/year use a financial advisor, and a whopping 95% of them say the advisor is worth it (but more than half of consumers think financial advisors are far more expensive than they actually are!)
The overwhelming majority of consumers working with a financial planner agree that it's better to focus on the long-term and ignore short-term market volatility (though it's not clear how often financial advisors change their clients' minds to be more long-term, or simply attract long-term-oriented clients and then help them to stay on track?)

From there, we have several articles on advisor marketing:

Why it's important to "get mad" in speaking about the frustrations and 'financial injustices' in clients' lives to get them motivated to work alongside a financial advisor to solve those issues
Thinking differently about 30-second or even one-sentence "elevator pitches" to open the curiosity loop with prospects (or quickly figure out if they're not a fit and move on)
Why good branding isn't just about showing your value and Values but also tackling head-on the primary objections that result in not getting business the way you're currently doing it

We've also included a number of articles focused on retirement planning:

Who exactly will be eligible for the new "free" COBRA health insurance subsidy that just took effect at the start of April
How technology is changing the way we engage as we get older to "get more life from our longer lives"
5 different "types" of retirement savers based on their psychographic tendencies to save for and be optimistic about the future (or not)

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of maximizing your own career and productivity:

How perfectionism is the enemy of delegation, and the way to break through if you're stuck trying to figure out what you're comfortable delegating
A framework to build your own career plan as a young financial advisor
Creating a system for and around yourself to pull your focus away from the $10/hour tasks that can be delegated and towards the $10,000/day tasks that only you can uniquely do to add the most value to the business

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

#FASuccess Ep 222: Scaling Growth By Separating Prospecting And Leadership From Client Advice, With Jonathan Kuttin

March 30, 2021 07:04 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 222nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Jonathan Kuttin. Jon is the founder of Kuttin Wealth Management, a hybrid RIA headquartered on Long Island, NY that manages over $3 billion dollars for about 5,500 clients.

What’s unique about Jon, though, is that as his firm grew to the point where it became necessary to separate client service from leadership and operation of the business, Jon did not hire a COO to run the firm, and instead made a deliberate decision to move himself away from a client-facing role of working in the business so he could spend all of his time working on the business and developing its systems and culture instead.

In the episode, we talk in-depth about how Jon has carved out three distinct roles within his firm that allow employees to focus solely on what they’re good at (creating both superior results and clarity around responsibilities within the firm itself), why Jon has found that the business is growing better by getting his advisors completely out of the prospecting business and focused on delivering an amazing client experience, and how Jon has powered the growth of the firm by separately building a CPA referral program to bring in prospects that his advisors then close by leveraging the “borrowed trust” they receive from the CPA referrals.

We also talk about the way the “entrepreneurial itch” influenced Jon’s decision to leave his salaried management role at Ameriprise to start his own practice, how once Jon achieved financial security for himself and his family his focus and drive shifted towards helping people within his organization get what they want out of life, how Jon has carried lessons that he learned early on around fostering a strong culture and developing leaders throughout his career, and the “WDYWFY” question of “What Do You Want For Yourself” that Jon has found to be the most effective way to build both loyalty and a culture that really cares about and values the people within the organization.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Jon shares the challenges that still come along the way of scaling an advisory firm by nearly 100X from $30M to $3B over the past 20 years, why Jon felt it was necessary to transition the firm to a vision-based culture that didn’t require him to make every key decision, how Jon learned that having integrity still isn’t a substitute for also having key legal agreements in place after a key partner broke up with the firm and took away a significant segment of clients and revenue, and the 5 levels of leadership that Jon tries to cultivate in all the leaders of the firm – including himself – as he looks to continue growing in the decades to come.

So whether you’re interested in how Jonathan forged productive relationships with CPAs who actively refer clients to his firm, why he’s focused so intently on culture as a key part of his organization, and why getting his advisors out of the business of prospecting has allowed his firm to scale even faster, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast with Jonathan Kuttin.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Mar 27-28)

March 26, 2021 02:59 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 new health insurance planning opportunities that have emerged under the American Rescue Plan, from the potential to receive several months of "free" (tax-credit-subsidized) COBRA coverage to new rules for Premium Assistance Tax Credits that can produce thousands of dollars in tax savings for those who buy health insurance from state insurance exchanges in 2021.

From there, we have several articles on advisor marketing:

What is a "Retargeting Ad" and why retargeting can be an especially efficient way for financial advisors to spend their marketing dollars
Why "Email" continues to be the #1 most popular marketing channel for financial advisors (and is becoming more popular with the rise of email marketing automation tools)
What it takes to become "an authority" where your expertise attracts your ideal prospective clients
The rise of website providers dedicated to working with financial advisors to produce websites at a "reasonable" (i.e., not $20,000+) cost

We've also included a number of articles focused on retirement planning:

Why new retirees are beginning to look at taking a "gap year" between the end of work and the beginning of retirement (to better figure out what they want to do, and where they want to live, in retirement)
How "retirement" itself isn't just a phase, but continues 6 sub-phases in retirement (that advisors can help their retired clients navigate through)
A new approach to thinking about more "flexible" retirement spending strategies and why "spending flexibility" itself is a continuum along which retirees can choose an optimal spending strategy
The rise of new Social Security training programs, from the National Social Security Advisor (NSSA) program to the new Registered Social Security Analyst (RSSA) certification

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of (re-)drawing the line between work and home life:

How work itself is increasingly becoming "omnipresent", where "are you available" isn't a question of whether you're actually available and have time, but whether you're ready and willing to give attention to work at that moment
How the pandemic gave rise to the staycation (taking a vacation but staying at home), and now the work-from-home work is leading to the rise of the "workcation"
The ways that businesses are (re-)designing Paid Time Off programs in the modern environment, from more flexible sick-plus-vacation time, to "forced" vacation days, and floating holidays

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

#FASuccess Ep 220: Taking A Tech Startup Approach To Building And Pivoting Your Advisory Firm, With Shane Mason

March 16, 2021 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 220th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Shane Mason. Shane is the co-founder of Brooklyn FI, a fee-only RIA that Shane and his partner AJ founded in 2018 in Brooklyn, NY (but has since shifted to being fully virtual), that serves 159 next-generation clients charging a monthly subscription fee of almost $500 per month for their ongoing financial planning services.

What’s unique about Shane, though, is how he and his partner have intentionally built their advisory business in the style of a tech startup, acting as de facto product managers within their advisory firm... where their financial advice service offering is a product unto itself, and they continually iterate on that advice product to quickly respond to new client opportunities in the marketplace.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Shane and Brooklyn FI first launched into a niche of serving successful creatives operating as high-income sole proprietors, why they decided to pivot away from the creatives niche to a focus on people who work in the tech industry and have complex equity compensation planning needs, how almost all of Brooklyn FI’s new clients are referrals from tech industry Slack channels and message boards, and why Brooklyn FI has been especially successful by publishing their fees right on their website to maximize the accessibility of their highly specialized expertise to the most highly motivated time-sensitive clients.

We also talk about Shane’s early career as a CPA, and the path he took that eventually led him to decide to launch an independent RIA, why (after long consideration) he and AJ intentionally structured Brooklyn FI as a 50/50 partnership from the start despite the fact that he was the only one bringing existing clients and revenue (and how that partnership has turned out to be the “secret sauce” behind the rapid growth of their firm), and how Brooklyn FI communicates with legacy clients in the niche that Brooklyn FI no longer focuses on and who aren't a good fit for the firm anymore,

And be sure to listen to the end, where we talk about how Shane has moved away from actively seeing clients in order to focus on broader business opportunities that the rapid growth of the firm has created, the firm’s internal initiatives to expand its structure to support more scalable growth in the future, and the key lesson that Shane shares around getting comfortable delegating the things that he’s already mastered.

So, whether you're interested in how Brooklyn FI has grown so quickly since launching in 2018, why equity compensation planning is such a ripe opportunity for advisors, or why Shane and AJ structured their firm as a 50/50 partnership from the start, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

#FASuccess Ep 219: Serving Families Of Multi-Generational Wealth By Tackling The Personal Problems That Money Exacerbates, With Coventry Edwards-Pitt

March 9, 2021 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 219th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Coventry Edwards-Pitt. Covie is the Chief Wealth Advisory Officer at Ballentine Partners, a wealth management firm headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, that oversees nearly $8 billion dollars for just over 230 ultra-wealthy families.

What’s unique about Covie, though, is that when her firm has almost $8B of AUM for “just” 230 family households, it means their average client has almost $35 million of investable assets… and as a result, Covie’s firm has a unique focus on the issues that reach beyond ‘just’ doing a great job when it comes to the technical aspects of wealth management, and to the problems that very large sums of money can exacerbate rather than solve, helping families navigate the decisions that can affect multiple generations… and the unintended consequences those decisions often have when not carefully considered first.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Covie helps ultra-wealthy families (many of whom did not “come from money” and have suddenly found themselves in uncharted parenting waters after experiencing a liquidity event) pass along valuable lessons about money when default parenting scripts about limits – like “we can’t buy that because we can’t afford it” – suddenly don’t hold sway anymore, what Covie has learned about children from ultra-wealthy families who are well-rounded (and well-grounded), and the common experiences they share around gaining a foundational sense of self-esteem and achievement outside of what they were born into, and why Covie and team at Ballentine may not introduce these deeper discussions until years after the client relationship begins and once all the initial complex technical wealth management work has been done (and clients are ready to have those more personal money conversations).

We also talk about how Ballentine Partners organizes its own internal structure around Senior Client Advisors, who both manage the client relationships as both “generalist experts” and also lead internal Knowledge Management Teams and service a client load of “just” 10 to 15 ultra-high-net-worth (and ultra-complex and high service) clients, why the firm settled on an annual flat fee structure at the family office level (and the myriad of topics and issues that the firm covers with clients), and the matrix structure that the firm employs to be able to build the sort of institutional knowledge that comes from managing 230 ultra-high-net-worth family relationships.

And be sure to listen to the end, where Covie shares her own journey that eventually led her into a senior role at an ultra-high-net-worth firm, how the challenges of trying to help families where family relationships had already been damaged was part of what pushed her to write two books about the wealthy, and why it was the pursuit of her passion around writing that helped open new doors both for herself and for her firm in the first place.

So whether you’re interested in learning what it’s like to work with ultra-high-net-worth clients, why it’s the deeper conversations around helping them raise well-grounded children that really differentiates a firm like Covie’s, or how such a firm structures itself and its fees, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Feb 27-28)

February 26, 2021 02:50 pm 10 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the big industry news that Apex Clearing is going public via a SPAC and in the process will raise a massive $850M of cash to reinvest into its custody and clearing services, with a particular eye on pivoting away from its roots in serving as a back-end platform for robo-advisors and instead bringing its 'tech-savvy custodian' solution to take on the oligopoly of current RIA custodians including Schwabitrade, Fidelity, and Pershing.

Also in the news this week is some buzz that state regulators are taking a closer look at the rise of 'alternative' advisor business models like monthly subscription fees and scrutinizing whether clients are really receiving services commensurate with the ongoing fees that they're paying... and in the process are discovering that the potential of "fees for no service" may be a problem in the currently popular AUM model as well.

From there, we have several articles on advisor compensation and career tracks:

The latest Schwab Advisor Compensation study, which finds there's a rapidly emerging 'war for talent' that is causing compensation for experienced advisors to spike
More and more large advisory firms are beginning to develop internal career paths, as it becomes increasingly appealing for firms to attract and develop young talent themselves
How equity is becoming more common as a component of advisor compensation, but usually still with some level of buy-in attached

We've also included a number of articles focused on improving a firm's client experience, including:

Tips from the "Book Of Wow" on how to create not just good client service but "Wow" client experience moments
How it's the first four points of contact with an advisory firm that set the tone for the entire relationship
The importance of taking a hard look at a firm's initial onboarding experience to help set and manage expectations
A discussion of what really is the "ideal" number of clients for a financial advisor to have (and really be able to serve effectively)

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of what it takes to really create value for clients:

How medicine shows us that some of the best and most impactful advice is really just about helping people actually implement the simple habits that truly matter
Why having difficult conversations is becoming a key skill for financial advisors to hone
Why there's so much value in not just paying for expertise itself but having a relationship with an expert on an ongoing basis... which helps to explain why, despite all the naysayers, the AUM model continues to rise and advisory fees have remained so resilient in the face of the ongoing threat of fee compression?

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

#FASuccess Ep 217: Creating Value For Next-Generation Clients By Focusing On Actions Over Projections, With Sophia Bera

February 23, 2021 07:08 am 5 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 217th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Sophia Bera. Sophia is the founder of Gen Y Planning, an RIA based in Austin, Texas that serves just under 100 young professionals in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.

What’s unique about Sophia, though, is that she was one of the first financial planners to launch a “location-independent” firm, specifically to serve Millennial clients using an up-front plus monthly retainer model that now averages $400 to $500 per month for each of her new clients… yet uses a one-page financial plan and an Action Checklist – not comprehensive financial planning software – to deliver ongoing financial planning value to her next-generation clientele.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Sophia and her fully virtual team help Millennial clients navigate the plethora of changes and decisions they face as they establish their careers and their families. How Sophia structures her initial client meetings around goal and value discovery and then putting together her one-page action checklist before establishing an ongoing meeting schedule, why net worth reporting (and not portfolio reporting) is at the heart of her planning process, and why she eschews more mainstream financial planning with its long-term retirement projections in favor of solutions that focus on shorter-term goals instead.

We also talk about how working with next-generation clients can entail a higher turnover rate than managing portfolios for retirees, why Sophia is less worried about retaining a stable book of clients than she is about having the capacity to work with people who need her help the most, the way that Sophia is starting to offer established clients new options around how they can structure their ongoing planning relationship as their needs change, and how Sophia’s own life experiences drive home just how much the quick-fire pace of life changes make a financial planning relationship so valuable for those still in their 30s.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Sophia discusses the deliberate steps she and her team took to prepare ahead of her maternity leave (to the point where her out-of-office responder made it explicitly clear that she wasn’t responding to emails at all for four months), how she spent the first month after returning from her maternity leave focused on the business rather than meeting with clients, and how she’s been able to intentionally build her firm and structure her schedule to make a good living while still having time to focus on the things that are important to her outside of her business as well.

So if you're interested in learning about Sophia's experience with retention rates within a subscription-based fee model, how she's structuring her fees for longer-term clients, and how she incorporates a one-page action plan as a client deliverable, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Feb 20-21)

February 19, 2021 02:57 pm 5 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 Biden administration will not be halting the new Department of Labor fiduciary rule, which controversially will begin to allow ERISA fiduciaries and those advising on IRA rollovers to receive commissions as long as they otherwise meet "Impartial Conduct Standards"... but that the DoL may still be looking to implement future "improvements" to the rule and its conflict-of-interest exemptions that may tighten the permitted level of conflicted advice in the future.

Also in the news this week are a number of other notable industry headlines, including:

The DoL's new fiduciary rule taking effect means brokers and RIAs will now face additional DoL scrutiny on rollovers from IRAs (and not just when advising on ERISA employer retirement plans) and may need to prepare new policies and procedures to document (and maintain documentation of) their rollover recommendations
A new study on the 'Pulse of the [RIA] Industry' finds that despite the 2020 turmoil, the average RIA grew substantially last year, and the average firm is now projecting a 10% hiring binge in 2021 with ongoing growth

From there, we have several articles on social media marketing:

Key tips on how financial advisors can build their own online personal brand via various social media platforms
How TikTok is rapidly becoming a new platform for financial advisors to market themselves (through short-form 'edutainment' videos)
Why Instagram is proving to be an effective social media marketing channel (particularly for advisors pursuing next-generation upwardly mobile clients)

We've also included a number of retirement-related articles, including:

How fixed annuities can improve net after-tax returns over traditional fixed-income alternatives simply by taking advantage of the tax deferral benefits and avoiding tax drag
Why single premium long-term care insurance may be coming back in vogue (both to avoid the risk of future premium increases, and to 'take money off the table' in the face of high market valuations and low yields)
A look at how to adapt the future of Social Security to support more private savings (and how other countries are dealing with their own social insurance programs)

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of what it takes to build and maintain trust:

How low trust (both between individuals and with industries) can outright increase the cost of doing business and the end cost of products and services (including financial planning) to consumers
How 'humanizing' robo-advisors (by literally giving them a name) actually decreases our trust when looking for help on complex tasks
A deep dive into how the military has managed to maintain its institutional trust while virtually every other major institution has faced declining trust in recent decades (and the lessons it implies for how to get societal trust back on track)

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Feb 13-14)

February 12, 2021 02:56 pm 2 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the announcement that the Investments & Wealth Institute (IWI) is launching a new online advisor networking/community platform called "The Hive", to be available to both IWI members and those beyond, as the organization seeks to expand its footprint beyond its roots of CIMA and CPWA certificants into a more FPA-style "open tent" association for financial advisors.

Also in the news this week are a number of other notable industry headlines, including:

The latest Cerulli Associates data showing the largest broker-dealers are getting even bigger, with the top-25 broker-dealers now accounting for nearly 72% of brokers and a whopping 90% of all IBD assets (up from just 58% and 83%, respectively, a decade ago)
A new study of TAMPs showing that investment outsourcing continues to rise, though while TAMPs started in the independent broker-dealer channel, it's now RIAs leading their growth

From there, we have several articles on investment management:

The ongoing rise of direct indexing is now gaining enough traction that index providers are scrambling to figure out how to license their indices to the emerging direct indexing platforms
The complexity and opacity of alternative investments isn't doing much to slow their growth, but is spawning rapid growth in the CAIA designation for advisors who want to learn more about how to properly exercise due diligence regarding alternative investments
A Morningstar analysis on whether Bitcoin is really a good idea to hold (or "HODL"!) in a client's portfolio given its dramatic volatility

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

How using the word "if" turns prospect pitches into awkward leading questions and why using open-ended questions is better
Why it may be better to make your advisor marketing less rational and more emotionally driven
Rethinking the business development process to better highlight how the advisor brings expertise to the table to identify less-than-obvious problems and provide less-than-obvious solutions

We wrap up with three final articles, all around the theme of being more flexible to a changing world and making mistakes:

The difficulties of planning for your long-term future amidst a world with such uncertainty, and how a "micro-planning" approach can help
Given that every successful person has a lot of mistakes to share, perhaps it's time for us to get less fearful of making mistakes and more focused on simply learning from them?
Why it's a good idea to deliberately put yourself in situations where something may go wrong... because in the end, it's far easier to "practice failure" in a controlled environment than to risk it in the moments that matter most

Enjoy the 'light' reading!