Search results for: "FP+Careers"

Welcome back to the 215th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Shawn Tydlaska. Shawn is the founder of Ballast Point Financial Planning, an independent RIA based in the San Francisco Bay Area that services over 100 high-income young professionals. What's unique about Shawn though is the way he's built his advisory firm with a blended model of a minimum of $5,000 annual retainer fee paid monthly, plus an additional fee of 10 basis points of net worth above 2 million to adjust his pricing upwards for his affluent and most complex clients.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Shawn structures his services to charge a $5000-plus annual retainer fee for young professional clients who may have portfolios simply outsourced to Betterment, why the households balance sheet, cash flow, and credit score forms the basis of his planning process with clients, the annual service calendar he built on a rotating two-year cycle to actually show clients what he'll be doing for them on an ongoing basis, and the results-thus-far tracking system that Shawn put in place to actually calculate that he was generating more than $437 a month of average value for his ongoing clients and giving him the confidence to raise his advisory fee minimums.

We also talked about how Shawn has managed to build so quickly to 117 ongoing clients in under 5 years, the find-an-advisor websites that Shawn got himself listed on to get some initial clients early on, how clients who took it upon themselves to leave Shawn's reviews on Yelp ended up driving significant growth for the firm, and why Shawn recently decided to take out $150,000 SBA loan to accelerate hiring more team members even as the pandemic did cause an uptick in his client attrition.

And be certain to listen to the end where Shawn shares the challenge of working with younger clients who graduate from using his services once they build their own financial foundation, why the retainer fee model with younger clients can achieve 90%-plus retention rates but may still struggle to reach the retention rate of the AUM model, and why Shawn is looking to add in-house tax preparation for his top clients as a way to further deepen the relationship and stickiness of his top clients.

So whether you’re interested in learning more about how Shawn uses his results-thus-far tracking to show the actual value he provides to clients, what his client service calendar looks like, or how he uses tax planning to increase his client retention rates, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Read More...

Welcome back to the 213th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Dave Yeske. Dave is the co-founder of Yeske Buie, an independent RIA based in San Francisco that oversees 740 million of assets under management for more than 300 affluent clients. What's unique about Dave, though, is the way he has blended together academic financial planning research with the practice of financial planning, culminating in a policy-based financial planning approach that frames financial planning, not in terms of the recommendations he makes for specific client situations, but the policies he set with clients to help them confidently handle any number of future scenarios that might arise.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Dave applies his policy-based financial planning approach at Yeske Buie, the monthly reports they generate for retired clients to help them see whether they're in their safe spending policy guidelines, the quarterly tax reports they create to coordinate with their clients' outside accountants. The Money Quotient questionnaires they use on an annual basis to be certain that they're covering all the bases with their clients, and how using a policy-based approach to financial planning can help reduce client stress during turbulent markets.

We also talked about how Yeske Buie structures its own approach to financial planning with clients, why the firm has chosen to take a team-based approach for all clients it serves, the reason Yeske Buie chooses to charge a single consolidated assets under management fee despite the fact that in Dave's own words, 75% of what they do for clients is around the financial planning and not the investment management.

And why after hearing of the impending death of the AUM model for nearly his entire 30-year career, Dave now thinks it's more important to be nimble and adapt to changes in financial planning services and business models over time, rather than just trying to predict what the future may hold. And be certain to listen to the end, where Dave shares why he has such a passion for academic research despite being a self-admitted late bloomer in his own journey through college.

The reason that Dave got so involved in the Financial Planning Association and how volunteering back to the profession has advanced his own career, and how even financial planners who teach their clients about long-term compounding seem to under-appreciate the way that compounding works in our own advisory businesses, as Dave reflects on how painfully slow and difficult was for the first six years of his business, but how dramatically the growth began to accelerate in the years that followed and has continued ever since.

So whether you’re interested in learning more about why Dave pursued getting his doctorate while running his own firm, how he may have created the first-ever online client portal, or why he is trying to become 'dispensable' in his firm, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Read More...

Welcome back to the 210th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Sten Morgan. Sten is the founder of Legacy Investment Planning, a hybrid advisory firm near Nashville, Tennessee that generates more than $2 million in revenue per year, serving 220 affluent clients. What's unique about Sten, though, is the way he's built his advisory firm by making himself and his planning ideas into his product, charging first and foremost for his advice, and the unique way he's figured out how to quantify the value of his advice strategies that he's bringing to the table for clients.

In this episode, we talk in depth about Sten’s ‘the advisor is the product’ philosophy. Why every prospect meeting starts off with a whiteboarding session where Sten tries to highlight new planning ideas for clients right away instead of holding back until he's been hired before sharing his best ideas. The mental strategy that Sten uses to quantify the near-term positive economic benefits that his advice will bring to get clients comfortable with his advice fees, and why Sten charges a full-rate financial planning fee with monthly retainer fees of hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month and then discounts his AUM fee for those who subsequently implement with him.

We also talk about Sten's own journey through the advisory business; why he started out in a major life insurance firm but ultimately left because it focused too much on the value proposition of the company's products instead of his own value. How trying to become more advice-centric at an investment-centric firm led to him being unexpectedly terminated and suddenly forced to hang his own shingle, and the way he was able to get his new practice going quickly by diving headfirst into a new niche with doctors at the local hospital.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Sten shares the mindset changes that were ultimately critical for him to turn an initially struggling advisory career into a successful one, how Sten tries to accelerate his success by constantly seeking out those who have already traveled the journey ahead of him to help him shortcut his own, and why Sten thinks it's best not to start with your ‘why’ and finding your purpose, but instead starting with your ‘who’ – who you're building your career for because staying focused on them so you never let them down can be the ultimate motivator through the inevitable challenges that may arise.

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Sten built a successful advisory firm by putting his advice at the forefront of his product, how he leveraged a local niche of doctors to get his practice going, or why proactivity is key to keeping renewal rates high, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Read More...

Welcome back to the 208th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Debbie Freeman. Debbie is a partner with Peak Financial Advisors, an independent RIA based in Denver, Colorado, that oversees 175 million of assets under management for 105 client families. What's unique about Debbie, though, is the way her firm does not only offer tax planning for their clients but also in-house tax preparation, a service for which they charge separately but view as an essential component to both add value for clients and better retain them with the firm.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Debbie and her firm actually handle operating a tax-preparation business within their wealth-management firm, the cumulative amount of staffing hours it takes to collect and input data, prepare the return, review the return, and file the return. How the seasonality of tax preparation, with April 15th and October 15th deadlines, forces the firm to engage in meeting surges during the off months for their non-tax-planning regular review meetings with clients, why Peak Financial has decided to keep its tax preparation in-house and not work externally with other CPAs, and how the real return on tax preparation for clients may not just be the additional 5% of revenue it generates but the additional 5% increase in retention rates it provides for Peak's core advisory business.

We also talk about Debbie's own journey through the financial-services industry, how she started out at a Big Four accounting firm but quickly realized that she didn't enjoy traditional accounting work, the way she proactively reached out about a potential opening at a local advisory firm to find her first planning job, the stresses that Debbie faced in her early career in trying to prove her worth to the firm, when she wasn't in a revenue-generation role, and the change in mindset that came after Debbie took her first maternity leave that, ultimately, helped her contribute to her becoming a partner in the firm. And be certain to listen to the end where Debbie shares how different the mentality really is when you go from an employee to an owner of an advisory firm, how seemingly black-and-white planning strategies for clients take on shades of gray, as we get more experienced in our careers and better appreciate the human nuances, and the way challenges in our personal lives, and sometimes personal tragedies, can alter our career trajectories in ways that turn out positive.

So whether you’re interested in learning about why Debbie decided to transition from accounting to financial planning, how she uses meeting surges to manage client meetings around her busy tax season, or how tax preparation makes an advisory firm more "sticky" for clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Read More...

Welcome back to the 207th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Lindsay Elwood-Goetz. Lindsay is the founder of Elwood & Goetz, an independent RIA based in Athens, Georgia that oversees nearly $365 million in assets under management for 375 affluent clients. What's unique about Lindsay, though, is the way she launched her advisory firm within a year of graduating from the Texas Tech Financial Planning Program as an undergrad, and has been able to steadily build over the past 15 years to a successful multi-advisor firm.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Lindsay first launched her advisory firm. The pain of only getting two or three new clients in her entire first year of launching in a new city where she had no prior connections while relying on a spouse's stable income to make ends meet. How the firm generated early opportunities by building a relationship with an estate planning attorney as a center of influence, who was ultimately able to refer some initial clients. And the way Lindsay was able to leverage being fee-only into not only a value proposition for clients but also as a niche to differentiate herself from other advisory firms in her local market.

We also talk about the way Elwood & Goetz has been able to build over the years with a heavy reliance on referrals, the proactive gift-giving that Lindsay has built into the culture of the firm to truly distinguish its depth of connection with clients, the client reference program that Lindsay developed to help support word-of-mouth discussion of her services among clients and prospects, and how Lindsay is focused on the details of the experience of coming to their office as a way to show their attention to detail. Because as Lindsay puts it, when clients can see how much you're focused on the details of even how their drinks are presented or the office space is conducted, they'll be more confident in your taking care of the details in their financial plan too.

And be certain to listen till the end, where Lindsay shares how the firm evolved from an individual advisor to a team structure, accelerated after Lindsay became a mother and experienced firsthand the squeeze of trying to be a lead advisor and a new parent at the same time, how the firm is built with a heavy focus on hiring young talent that grows from interns to full-time advisors, and why, even as someone who launched her own firm as a twenty-something, Lindsay still emphasizes the importance of "paying your dues and taking the time to get some experience in your early years."

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Lindsay creates an "experience" for clients who visit their office, how she differentiates her firm's service with her attention to detail, or how she shows her appreciation to her clients through personalized gifts, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

Read More...