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#FASuccess Ep 046: Training Financial Advisor Empathy And Communication Skills Through The CeFT Designation with Susan Bradley

November 14, 2017 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 46th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Susan Bradley. Susan is the founder of the Sudden Money Institute, which trains financial advisors in how to improve their empathy and communication skills when working with clients who experience so-called "Sudden Money" transitions – whether from a business liquidity event, a personal injury settlement, an inheritance, or the settlement proceeds of a divorce. Because as Susan puts it: "When life changes, money changes. And when the money changes, life changes." Which means as advisors, we need the training in how to help clients through those change transitions - which Sudden Money Institute teaches through a designation program called the CeFT (short for Certified Financial Transitionist).

In this episode, we talk in depth about what it really means to help clients through these kinds of financial transitions, why it requires a unique skillset to help people through what is not only a big financial change but typically the major life transition that inevitably accompanies it, the "Purpose, Method, and Outcome" framework that Sudden Money Institute uses to have productive conversations with clients, why it's ineffective to help people in transition to plan for their goals (because they usually don't even know what's possible after a major life transition!), and why it's important to give clients a "decision-free zone" after a major transition before they actually implement any new financial planning strategies.

We also talk about why it is that helping clients through financial transitions really requires more specialized training, the reason that Susan decided to create a formal advisor designation specifically to train advisors in a better and more consistent process, why the CeFT is positioned as a "post-CFP" designation - as you need 5 years of client-facing experience, and an advanced technical designation like the CFP or CPA/PFS, to even qualify for the CeFT training - and what it really takes to complete the year-long training program.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Susan shares her vision of the future value proposition for financial planners, which is all about developing in two directions at once by pursuing post-CFP training, including the technical competency skills that are necessary to actually give the best financial advice, and the empathy and communication skills necessary to really listen to clients and get comfortable being their thinking partner and their guide (and NOT just "the expert" that tells them what to do to achieve their stated goals).

So whether you’ve been looking for better ways to assist clients through financial transitions, thinking about pursuing post-CFP training in communication and empathy skills, or are interested in the evolution of more behavior-change-oriented financial advisor value propositions in the future, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

The 13 Best Conferences For Financial Advisors To Choose From In 2018

October 23, 2017 07:01 am 8 Comments CATEGORY: Conferences

Michael Gerber’s famous business book “The E-Myth” points out that most small business entrepreneurs struggle because they spend all of their time working in their business, and too little time working on the business itself. Any small business owner who has a unique and valuable personal skillset – from a pie-maker to a doctor to a financial advisor – is particularly prone to this challenge, as almost by definition what gets them paid is the work they do in the business. And accordingly, to the extent they take time off to go to a conference once or twice a year, they tend to go to events that help them improve their skills in the business (i.e., continuing education), particularly since most regulated professions have CE requirements anyway.

To break the cycle for financial advisors, I’m declaring 2018 as “the year of the practice management (or career development) conference” instead. Because the reality is that there is an ever-growing number of choices on how to fulfill your annual CE requirements online, from conferences that are live-streamed or recorded for subsequent purchase, to an abundance of webinars on demand, and even the Members Section of this blog (and CFP professionals only need to complete CE requirements every other year anyway!). But the opportunities for good practice management content that actually helps you work on the business more effectively, or career development content that helps you grow to the next level, are few and far between. And when it comes to working on the business, it’s especially important to actually physically leave the business and go to a conference, as you have to get beyond your own four office walls to get a fresh perspective on your business or career.

Unfortunately, though, going to a conference is a major investment – with conference registration fees that can run $1,000 or more, plus the cost of airfare and hotel accommodations – which means it’s especially important to pick the right conference to get value. In fact, given that in recent years I’ve been speaking annually at nearly 70 conferences myself, and have presented at virtually every major conference in our industry, from the various membership association events to custodian and broker-dealer and even media publication conferences, I’m often asked for recommendations of what I think are the “best” conferences for financial advisors based on what I’ve seen.

Accordingly, in 2012 I started to craft my own annual list of “best-in-class” top conferences for financial advisors, based on my own travels and experience, and divvied up into categories that would make it easier for advisors to select what matches their own needs at their current business or career stage.

And now, I’m excited to present my newest list of “Top Financial Advisor Conferences” for 2018, all with a focus on practice management and career development. Of course, given that we’re all at different stages of our businesses, some events are much better suited to certain types of advisors, and accordingly I’ve tried to delineate which are the best depending on your size of business, industry channel, and/or career stage.

So I hope you find this year’s 2018 financial conferences list to be helpful as a guide in planning your own conference budget and schedule for next year. And I hope you make the investment – because the truth is that you just need one major takeaway to materially change the trajectory of your business or career in the coming years! Also, 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 (especially since a few early-2018 events have their Early Bird deadlines closing soon)!

#FASuccess Ep 042: Building Group Financial Wellness Classes To Expand The Reach Of Financial Advice with Carol Craigie

October 17, 2017 07:01 am 2 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the forty-second episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Carol Craigie. Carol is the co-founder of Fiscal Fitness Clubs of America, a financial wellness company that aims to expand the reach of financial planning advice using a combination of online education and Group Classes.

What's fascinating about Carol's business, though, is that while the idea of providing financial advice in a group format may seem alien to the traditional financial services industry, the reality is that it's already established as an effective model amongst psychologists, and is used for a wide range of successful counseling programs, including Weight Watchers and AA. And not coincidentally, Carol's training before she joined the financial services industry herself? She has a degree in Psychology, and a Master's in Counseling.

In this episode, we talk in depth about how financial planning advice can be delivered in a group format. We explore the highly structured way that Fiscal Fitness Clubs takes clients through its process, starting with a series of 8 "Taking Control" classes, and followed by an ongoing series of Monthly Action Classes. The process is built entirely around focusing on cash flow first, and tackling the underlying issues that cause money stress, with the idea of breaking up financial self-improvement into a series of small bite-sized tasks that can be accomplished every month... and then using the group format as a way to create peer-to-peer accountability, including the fact that everyone gets a "money buddy" when they first start.

From there, we also talk about the business model of doing financial planning and financial wellness in a group format, the experimentation that Fiscal Fitness Clubs is doing with various price levels and group sizes, and how financial advisors can actually get paid upwards of $100 per hour to facilitate these financial wellness groups... which suggests that financial advisors could actually make a very solid income, serving a group of consumers that the industry has long claimed "can't possibly" be economically feasible to serve as a financial advisor!

And be certain to listen to the end, when Carol shares her own journey from having served as the National Director of Financial Planning for both a wirehouse and a private bank before making this substantial pivot into financial wellness, and her perspective about what it will take for financial advisors to really succeed in an increasingly technology-driven future.

So whether you've ever been curious about the idea of delivering financial planning in a group format, or want a glimpse of how a financial wellness program can deliver financial advice value to the masses, or simply want some ideas and inspiration about the value of financial planning, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

#FASuccess Ep 031: How To Properly Vet New Financial Advisors By Hiring For Attitude And Not Skills with Caleb Brown

August 1, 2017 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the thirty-first episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Caleb Brown. Caleb is the founder of New Planner Recruiting, a recruiting firm that, as the name implies, focuses specifically on hiring newer associate-level financial planners.

What's unique about Caleb's recruiting process, though, is the way that he vets prospective financial planners to determine whether they're likely to be successful in the advisory business in the future, with a strong focus not just on their technical skills, but the initiative and effort that they put into the process of trying to get hired through his recruiting business in the first place. Because the reality is that you can provide education on the book knowledge of financial planning, and train a lot of financial planning skills, but it's almost impossible to teach someone to have that go-getter kind of attitude that it really takes to succeed as a financial advisor.

In this episode, Caleb talks at length about what issues you should consider in the hiring process for a prospective new advisor, the role of using various types of personal and other assessment tools to evaluate potential hires, what you should - and shouldn't - expect your new hire to do and bring to the table to make your advisory business more successful, and what the going rate salary is that you have to pay as an advisory firm to get quality talent.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Caleb talks about his tips on how to work through the inevitable difficult times that arise as an entrepreneur, and how an executive coach has helped him to keep his focus.

So whether you’ve been struggling with finding good financial planning talent for your firm and are looking for ideas on how to better identify and screen potential hires, or you’re a prospective financial planner looking for insight about what it takes to get your foot in the door with a good financial planning firm, I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

#FASuccess Ep 024: How Mindset Drives Success And The 7 Freedoms Of Limitless Advisers with Stephanie Bogan

June 13, 2017 07:01 am 15 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the twenty-fourth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

This week’s guest is Stephanie Bogan. Stephanie is a practice management consultant for financial advisors, who founded her own very successful consulting firm, Quantivus, at the age of just 24, and ultimately sold it a decade later for 7 figures to Genworth Financial, back in 2008.

What's fascinating about Stephanie, though, is the consulting work she's been doing since then. Because - as with many entrepreneurs who have successfully built and sold a business, Stephanie soon realized that what she'd built and sold hadn't really brought her the life satisfaction that she had hoped. And that in turn led her into a journey into the neuroscience of success, life satisfaction, and what helps us find purpose and meaning in our own businesses.

In this episode, Stephanie talks about the journey she went through in building her consulting practice - as a young 24-year-old woman trying to give practice management advice to advisors with multi-million-dollar firms that were more than twice her age, the mindset she had to create for herself to stay optimistic through the challenges, and key practice management areas that she consulting on with advisors, including Business Strategy and Planning, Human Capital, Operations, and Marketing & Growth.

We also talk at length about how our mindset as a financial advisor and business owner can both drive our success, and often limit it without even realizing there's a problem, leading to problems like the "Stress of Success", why most time management problems are really an "inability to say 'no'" problem, and what Stephanie calls the "7 freedoms of being a limitless adviser", to free yourself from a mindset of limiting beliefs that may be holding you back.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Stephanie talks about how she helped one advisory firm overcome the all-too-common problem of saying "yes" to too many accommodation clients, and not being able to draw the line between "investment-only" clients and full financial planning clients, but creating a simple one-page visual that broke the firm's services into 3 categories, set prices for each, and let the CLIENTS choose which tier they wanted.

So whether you’re simply looking for practice management advice and ideas from one of the industry’s leading experts, or perhaps need some help getting over a mental mindset of limiting beliefs that may be limiting your own success (without even realizing it, until now!?), I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Advisor’s Guide To The Best Online Meeting Scheduling Tools

May 22, 2017 07:01 am 25 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Playing phone tag and e-mailing back and forth to find the best meeting time for you and your existing or prospective clients eats into otherwise productive time, and can be frustrating for both parties. By implementing a meeting scheduling software solution in your practice, you can reduce some of the headache by automatically giving the client a list of available times drawn from your calendar, and allowing them to pick (and immediately book) a time that works best for both of you!

In this guest post, Dan Kellermeyer, President of New Heights Solutions, LLC, a practice management and technology consulting firm for financial advisors, provides an overview of the leading online scheduling tools for financial advisors, including Calendly, ScheduleOnce, Acuity Scheduling, TimeTrade, Bookafy, and YouCanBook.Me.

Along with highlighting the features of each of the tools, Dan shares his insight on the relevant factors to consider when looking for the right solution for your individual practice – from unique features and available integrations, to ease-of-use for the client, the company’s customer support, and of course, pricing.

And so, whether you’re looking to add a little more efficiency to your practice by cutting down on the hassle of back-and-forth meeting scheduling, improving your “digital experience” for clients, or are already using online scheduling software but looking to switch to an alternative, then hopefully you’ll find this guest post helpful!

#FASuccess Ep 011: How Launching An Advisory Business Can Be Safer Than Working In One with Alan Moore

March 14, 2017 07:00 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the eleventh episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

My guest this week is Alan Moore. Alan and I co-founded the XY Planning Network in 2014, but the reason I invited him to the podcast has little to do with XYPN itself, and everything to do with his own fascinating path as a financial advisor, business owner, and successful entrepreneur.

Because Alan started out his career as most of us are taught from the days we’re young – to go out and try to find a stable job with a steady income, and move up the ladder over time. Except Alan realized barely 6 months into his first job that it wasn’t going to be the right fit. Only to change to another job… from which he got fired in another 6 months. And so, realizing that perhaps being an employee just wasn’t the right fit, Alan decided to launch his own advisory firm. From scratch. At age 25.

These early experiences led Alan to the counter-intuitive conclusion that perhaps the traditional view of trying to find a job with a steady income is wrong, and that it can actually be more stable (at least in the long run) to build a business from scratch. Because as a business owner, even your best client firing you might only cost you a 2% to 5% of revenue… which is a lot “safer” than relying on a single boss who can take away 100% of your income in a heartbeat by firing you!

In this podcast episode, we talk about Alan’s journey from financial planning college student, to getting involved as a volunteer with NAPFA and its young-advisor group Genesis, to his path from employee to (young) entrepreneur of his own advisory firm, how he later launched a second business (XY Planning Network) as well, and how and why he ultimately made the decision that he couldn’t keep both a B2B and B2C business and would have to wind one down to fully focus on the other.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Alan talks about the rut he got into that almost led him to leave his rapidly-growing business entirely after a particularly bad month, and what it took to turn everything around and re-energize him in the business again.

So if you’re thinking about making the switch from employee to entrepreneur, or perhaps are an advisory firm business owner wondering how to better keep your young entrepreneurial employees, I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

#FASuccess Ep 009: Carolyn McClanahan On Using A Complexity-Based Retainer Model To Deliver Holistic Financial Planning

February 28, 2017 07:02 am 11 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the ninth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

This week, I’m excited to host Dr. Carolyn McClanahan, of Life Planning Partners. Carolyn is an emergency medicine physician turned comprehensive financial planner in Jacksonville, Florida, where she maintains a practice serving 80 clients and nearly $1 million of stable recurring revenue from financial planning retainer fees.

What makes Carolyn’s firm especially unique is the way she has applied the principles of a professional medical practice, into her advisory practice. Each of Carolyn and her three advisors all communicate and support clients directly – akin to a doctor with nurses and other support staff who all interact with patients directly – with each working in their respective area of expertise. And their holistic services are covered by a single “complexity-based” retainer fee, including both financial planning and asset management services.

In this podcast episode, Carolyn shares her journey from wanting to be an actuary, to becoming a physical therapist, and then an ER physician, and finally transitioning into financial planning. She also discusses why her plan is never to grow beyond 100 client families, the hard lessons she has learned about hiring, and the parallels she sees between professional medicine and the emerging professionalization of financial planning.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Carolyn talks about exactly how she prices and adjusts her complexity-based retainer fee for each client, and the “client engagement standards” document that she requires every client to sign to ensure she only works with considerate, responsive, and all-around “good” clients!

So whether you’ve been thinking about adopting some kind of retainer fee structure, or simply want insight on a unique kind of holistic financial planning lifestyle practice, I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Feb 25-26)

February 24, 2017 02:43 pm 5 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a recap of the recent Technology Tools for Today (T3) Advisor technology conference, which includes many notable announcements, from a new Orion rebalancing software solution, to major new Riskalyze features, and the news that eMoney Advisor will be integrating into Schwab OpenView Gateway, putting to rest the ongoing concerns about whether eMoney Advisor would remain open and cross-custodian after Fidelity acquired it two years ago.

From there, we have several more articles on advisor technology, including: a deeper look at the latest Riskalyze features, from the new Premier solution, to its new Autopilot Partner Store (a former of TAMP supermarket delivered through rebalancing software); how Wealthbox CRM got $6M in venture capital to scale up its CRM solution for financial advisors (which is already ranked 4th in market share amongst independent RIAs); a review of EverPlans, a software solution that advisors can provide to clients to help them organize their estate plan (or give to prospects as a way to reach them to potentially do business together); a look at how the IBM Watson artificial intelligence solution is going to be used by H&R Block this tax season to facilitate tax planning strategies and advice; and a review of some robo-advisor "competition" to financial advisors, including E*Trade Adaptive Portfolio and Fidelity Go.

There are also a couple of marketing-related practice management articles this week, from a look at which types of financial advisor niches are currently most popular (hint: those that focus on baby boomers and their retirement dollars) and which might become more popular in the future, when it makes sense to hire an outside marketing expert, and an interesting question you can ask prospective clients in an approach meeting to engage them and better understand what their needs are and how you can help.

We wrap up with three interesting articles: the first is a review of the recent family memoir of Frances Stroh (of Stroh beer), which details how the family's $9 billion fortune wasted away in a catastrophic failure of internal family succession planning (even after having already survived to the third generation from the original founder in the 1850s); the second is a look at check-cashing and payday lending services, which have a reputation for being expensive or downright predatory, but a new analysis finds that in reality the services may be succeeding because they're actually superior on cost, transparency, and service, to traditional banking (at least for those they seek to serve); and the last article is a look at one personal finance blogger's "financial philosophy core tenets", which is notable not just for the tenets themselves (which are quite good!), but as an example of an exercise that financial advisors might consider going through to create and share with their own clients and prospects!

Enjoy the "light" reading!

#FASuccess Ep 005: Mark Tibergien On The Rise Of The Professionally Managed Financial Advisory Firm

January 31, 2017 07:00 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back for the fifth episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

One of the things I'm enjoying the most about this podcast is that it gives me an opportunity to reach out to people I've admired for their expertise throughout my career, and invite them to be a guest and share their insights with all of you.

And today's guest is a perfect example: Mark Tibergien. Most people today know Mark as the CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions, a major – albeit slightly less known – RIA custodian that competes with Schwab, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade, particularly for larger RIAs that focus on serving an ultra-high-net-worth clientele.

But I first became familiar with Mark's work in his prior role – as a Principal for Moss Adams, where for almost 15 years, he led their practice management consulting group for advisors, and pioneered the first financial advisor benchmarking studies going back to the 1990s. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Mark is the godfather of financial advisor benchmarking and practice management consulting!

In this podcast episode, you'll hear Mark tell his own story of how he landed in financial services after starting out as a journalist, and share his collective 30 years of knowledge on practice management, as we cover everything from the four stages of an advisory practice – which Mark calls the "wonder, blunder, thunder, and plunder" phases – to the walls that advisory firm owners will hit as the business grows, and why standardization of the firm doesn't commoditize its value but actually makes it feasible to better offer the client a customized experience! And be certain to listen to the end, where Mark shares his own perspective on where he sees the financial advisory profession going in the coming years, and where the challenges and opportunities are.

So whether you're an experienced financial advisor and business owner trying to figure out how to take your firm to the next level and get over a wall, or are newer to the business and trying to figure out your own career/business trajectory, I hope you enjoy this latest episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!

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#FASuccess Ep 046: Training Financial Advisor Empathy And Communication Skills Through The CeFT Designation with Susan Bradley

The 13 Best Conferences For Financial Advisors To Choose From In 2018

#FASuccess Ep 042: Building Group Financial Wellness Classes To Expand The Reach Of Financial Advice with Carol Craigie

#FASuccess Ep 031: How To Properly Vet New Financial Advisors By Hiring For Attitude And Not Skills with Caleb Brown

#FASuccess Ep 024: How Mindset Drives Success And The 7 Freedoms Of Limitless Advisers with Stephanie Bogan

Advisor’s Guide To The Best Online Meeting Scheduling Tools

#FASuccess Ep 011: How Launching An Advisory Business Can Be Safer Than Working In One with Alan Moore

#FASuccess Ep 009: Carolyn McClanahan On Using A Complexity-Based Retainer Model To Deliver Holistic Financial Planning

Weekend Reading for Financial Planners (Feb 25-26)

#FASuccess Ep 005: Mark Tibergien On The Rise Of The Professionally Managed Financial Advisory Firm

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