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#FA Success Ep 355: Scaling Worksite Financial Planning As An Employee Benefit For The Average Worker, With Brad Arends

October 17, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 355th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Brad Arends. Brad is the Co-Founder & CEO of Intellicents, an independent RIA with 12 offices across the country and headquartered in Albert Lea, Minnesota, that oversees $6 billion in assets under management for more than 3,000 client households.

What's unique about Brad, though, is how he built a multi-billion-dollar advisory firm not by moving 'upmarket' to gather multi-millionaire clients, but instead leveraged his 401(k) retirement plan advisory firm to begin offering comprehensive financial planning to the employees of large companies as an added employee benefit, and in the process scaled his financial planning business around the mass affluent American worker.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how, after realizing that his 401(k) plan participants were not being advised after they retired (and were being poached by brokers and agents trying to sell them on high-commission annuities), Brad decided to expand his business into wealth management so that he could offer advice to his mass affluent clientele into their retirement years, how Brad struggled to transition his retirement plan advisors into wealth management advisors because of the different mindset it takes to service an ongoing financial planning relationship but was able to acquire-hire the advisors he needed by finding a firm that had already established a business model working with the clientele Brad wanted to serve, and how Brad ultimately evolved a multi-pronged model of retirement plan advice, group insurance benefits, and personal financial planning to reach the $3,500 of revenue per client that he needed to be able to really scale the business.

We also talk about how the approval of the Pension Protection Act and the backlash against revenue-sharing agreements amongst retirement plan recordkeepers led Brad to decide that a flat fee would be the best way to provide their initial advice offering, why, to avoid the fee compression as a 401(k) recordkeeper (and reinvesting in expensive technology to keep scaling), Brad decided to sell the recordkeeping offering that was 80% of his business at the time to create more bandwidth to offer personal wealth management for their clients instead (and use the profits of the sale to help fund the new initiative), and how Brad leveraged the data he already had access to from providing 401(k) advisement for companies to create personalized one-page financial plans for its plan participants to illustrate the value of financial planning and connect them more directly to the firm's advisors.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Brad shares how even though he experienced multiple false starts with his business transition, with multiple failed hires, he stayed committed and ultimately found it was better to acquire a firm to get the talent he was seeking than to just try to hire it directly, how Brad now wishes that he got into wealth management sooner and believes that younger, newer advisors would benefit from acquiring their CFP designation as it can help them broaden their career opportunities in wealth management, and why Brad feels that even though he has built a sustainable firm with great talent that can live on beyond his leadership, he has no intention of selling his business and plans to continue his journey of expanding his firm to provide more affordable financial planning for more mass affluent American workers.

So, whether you're interested in learning about how Brad structures fees for worksite financial planning, how, when Brad sold his recordkeeping business, he was able to ensure that the 120 employees he would have to let go found a new home with the new owners of the business, or how, by combining group insurance, 401(k) planning, and wealth management, Brad was able to dramatically increase his firm's revenue, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Brad Arends.

Accelerating Growth By Marketing How Your Advisory Firm Is Different (Instead Of Better)

October 16, 2023 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Marketing

Consumers have a wide range of options when it comes to choosing a provider of financial advice, from larger wirehouses and asset managers to smaller Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs). Given that larger firms tend to have more substantial marketing budgets to attract clients, smaller firms and their advisors have had to look for alternative ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. Which led many firms to market all the ways they were 'better' than other sources of financial advice by highlighting their status as fiduciaries, fee-only advisors, or by offering (more) comprehensive financial planning services beyond investment management, as just a few examples.

However, while these attributes remain valuable for clients (and are worth highlighting), their value to smaller advisory firms as differentiators has eroded over time as what may have once been unique characteristics for these firms are now either increasingly common or have become harder to parse for consumers. For instance, even though RIAs are bound by a more stringent fiduciary standard, consumers might be unaware of the nuanced differences between that obligation and the seemingly similar requirements of broker-dealers under Regulation Best Interest. Similarly, consumers may struggle to understand the difference between a “financial plan” and a “more comprehensive financial plan” if they’ve never been through the financial planning process in the first place.

In this environment, another option for smaller firms to compete is to focus on how they are different, instead of marketing how they might be better than their competitors. And by using their website and other marketing materials to position themselves as different, smaller firms can demonstrate to their ideal target clients why they are the right choice for their financial planning needs.

Because the largest firms typically cast a very wide net when it comes to attracting prospective clients (whether in terms of age, profession, planning needs, or other factors), serving a client base with a narrower set of characteristics can help a firm stand out. Which means that if an advisor can demonstrate that they recognize (and can help solve) their ideal client's unique pain points, such prospects are likely to feel a stronger connection to the smaller, more targeted firm, and to believe that that small firm will be better understood by their advisor compared to a more generalist large firm with a bigger marketing budget.

Another way advisors can demonstrate how they are different is by explaining how, exactly, they do financial planning, and what specific services they provide for their ideal clients as a way to communicate their value. Because when a firm has an ideal client type, they often are able to go deeper into their clients' specific needs, and can communicate exactly how the process works to address those needs. This lets prospective clients know what to expect (and helps them understand the value they will be receiving in exchange for their fees!). This service specificity can be a differentiator for firms with ideal client types, as a firm that works with a broader client base will likely need to be more generic in its marketing, given that the planning needs of its clients will be significantly broader.

Ultimately, the key point is that while it has gotten more difficult for financial planning firms to show how they are better based on traditional characteristics such as being a fiduciary or providing comprehensive planning services, firms can shift their focus to emphasize how they are different and can meet the specific needs of their ideal target client as a way to adjust their marketing efforts. Which helps these firms attract more clients, and continue to thrive amidst competition from larger counterparts!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (October 14-15)

October 13, 2023 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with a new study from Herbers & Company that provides insight into the financial planning services that consumers demand the most, and which services financial advisory firms offer the most often. The study also identified factors that separated firms experiencing the greatest organic growth from others, which include offering a comprehensive suite of services, having a higher 'close' rate with prospects, and, perhaps counterintuitively, a lack of satisfaction with their client experience.

Also in industry news this week:

A study from the FINRA Foundation has found that objectively knowledgeable investors tend to pay less in investment expenses, while those who perceive that they have expertise tend to pay more
A new report shows how pro bono financial planning can benefit not only financial advisors and their pro bono clients, but also advisory firms as well

From there, we have several articles on college planning:

How the FAFSA form and its timing have changed for this year and how advisors can support clients going through the financial aid process
How the lesser-known CSS Profile plays an important role in determining financial aid for many families, particularly those with students applying to private colleges
How the Private College 529 Plan allows families saving for college to 'lock in' today's tuition costs at a wide range of private colleges

We also have a number of articles on practice management:

How building a 'family' environment can allow financial advisory firms to promote employee wellbeing and retention
What firms can do during the candidate selection and onboarding processes to promote the mental health of new employees
How taking a step back to articulate a vision, and then allowing employees to work towards that vision using their unique skills, can allow a firm and its staff to thrive

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about research and happiness:

How teams of academics are working to uncover faulty research practices, which has resulted in the retractions of papers in a variety of fields that received significant media attention
A new study looks at whether previous research regarding what makes individuals happy was sufficiently rigorous
A thought experiment that can help advisors and their clients manage the tradeoff between saving and spending

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

A Guide To Conducting And Documenting An Annual Compliance Review Under New SEC Amendment

October 11, 2023 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Regulation & Compliance

In 2004, the SEC significantly strengthened the compliance responsibilities of investment advisers when Rule 206(4)-7 (also known as the "Compliance Rule") went into effect, requiring them to adopt and implement written compliance policies and procedures, review such policies and procedures annually, and designate a Chief Compliance Office to administer such policies and procedures. However, this "Compliance Rule" did not technically require that the annual compliance review of policies and procedures be conducted in writing, even though advisers were required to maintain records if they did document such reviews in writing!

To address this omission, the SEC has now formally adopted an amendment to the Compliance Rule requiring annual reviews to be documented in writing. Under the amended rule, advisers will be required to review and document in writing the adequacy of their compliance policies and procedures, the effectiveness of their implementation, whether compliance policies and procedures continue to work as designed, and whether changes are needed to ensure their continued effectiveness.

Notably, the exact formatting, length, level of detail, and overall content of annual reviews are not prescribed by the SEC. Rather, when the Compliance Rule originally went into effect in 2004, the adopting release described only 3 elements that should be considered in an annual review: 1) compliance matters in the previous year (e.g., when compliance policies and procedures did or did not function as intended), 2) changes in business activities (e.g., offering discretionary investment management for the first time instead of just financial planning), and 3) regulatory changes that might necessitate changing the firm's policies and procedures (e.g., the SEC's new marketing rule).

Further, advisers have significant flexibility in deciding how to prepare the compliance review, which could be a long-form written report with supporting documentation, quarterly reviews aggregated into an annual report, or even simply a compilation of notes. Even despite this flexibility, the SEC's examination staff relies heavily on the annual review documentation to "understand an adviser's compliance program, determine whether the adviser is complying with the rule, and identify potential weaknesses in the compliance program", positioning the Compliance Rule (and the annual review requirement within it) as an unambiguously vital mechanism to help advisers identify opportunities for improvement and implement actions to create a well-functioning annual review process.

Ultimately, the key point is that the SEC has signaled the importance it places on investment advisers performing annual compliance reviews and producing written documentation to memorialize them. And while these compliance requirements might seem like a daunting task, advisers have a range of options to make the process less painful, from breaking it down into bite-sized chunks over the course of the year (and periodically testing their compliance program and documenting the results) to engaging outside counsel to help ensure the review process and associated documentation are completed in a comprehensive and accurate manner!

#FA Success Ep 354: Making Advisor Transitions Less Scary With Effective Transition Preparation And Support Services, With Grier Rubeling

October 10, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 354th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Grier Rubeling. Grier is the founder of Advisor Transition Services, a consulting firm based in Cary, North Carolina, that helps advisors switch from one broker-dealer or custodian platform to another, often when breaking away from a larger firm to start up their own.

What's unique about Grier, though, is her detail-oriented approach to helping firms make transitions quickly… which is an inherently complex leap to make legally, logistically, and emotionally, for which Grier built a slew of ultra-responsive Excel tools to show advisors live updates of exactly where they are for the entire time through the transition processes so they can get back to being able to bill for their services again as soon as possible.

In this episode, we discuss how Grier helps advisors navigate the complex world of leaving protocol vs. non-protocol firms and how transitions change depending on whether the advisor has a non-solicit agreement or not, how Grier advises advisors when communicating and setting expectations with clients through the process to help them retain as many clients as they can even as they navigate both the legal and practical constraints of what client information they can bring along or have to re-create, and how Grier organizes client data during a transition to not only gather it more efficiently, but also to apply it more easily across the many legal forms and applications to help advisors get through the transition – and back to billing as quickly as possible.

We also talk about how Grier's own entry into the realm of financial advisors was intrinsically tied to transitioning custodians, where she discovered she had a special knack for the systems and processes and making sense out of chaos, how Grier has learned to navigate the unique differences between transitions under Broker Protocol, non-Protocol transitions for employee advisors at large firms, and so-called "PNA" (or Protocol Not Applicable) transitions when advisors work for open platforms that allow them to leave without constraints (but they still have to navigate a slew of transfers as quickly as possible to reduce how long they're not getting paid while moving from one platform to another), and how 15 years of overseeing and actively working in these custodian and broker-dealer transitions, coupled with a determination to at least never make the same mistake twice, has set Grier up to be a unique expert in the world of advisor transitions.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Grier shares the challenges she went through in the hiring (and then firing) of her own first full-time employee (and then setting up a sustainable system with contractors that better meshed with the ebb and flow of her contract work), how Grier discovered that the biggest challenge for advisor transitions is not actually the process itself – which can be accomplished by executing with good tools and templates – but simply the fear of the unknown for advisors who have never been through the process (which has led her to share a number of her tools and templates directly out to advisors on her website), and the marketing success Grier found in branding her company Advisor Transition Services and just calling it exactly what it is… and then simply showing up as herself to lead it.

So whether you're interested in learning how Grier's work in operations set her up for transitional success, exactly who Grier uses to navigate complex advisory transitions, and what Grier would recommend to advisors starting this path, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Grier Rubeling.

Managing Outsourcing Of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) For A Financial Advisor

October 9, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Marketing

When deciding on a marketing strategy to pursue, one of the key factors for financial advisory firms to consider is efficiency. Different strategies have different Client Acquisition Costs (CACs), in terms of both hard-dollar marketing expenses and the cost of the advisor's time spent on the strategy, and an efficient market strategy is one that can effectively attract new clients while minimizing the amount spent to acquire them. According to the most recent Kitces Research on Advisor Marketing, one of the most efficient marketing strategies is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which involves taking a series of actions meant to get an advisor's website listed at the top of the rankings of a search engine like Google for specific search terms. And yet, despite costing only a fraction of the amount to acquire each client that other marketing methods like paid advertisements, podcasting, or social media do, fewer than a quarter of advisors reported using SEO as part of their marketing strategy – which is more than likely a function of the perceived cost and/or complexity of deploying SEO effectively that often leads advisors to avoid SEO in favor of more familiar (but potentially less efficient) marketing strategies.

However, advisors don't need to become an expert in SEO themselves or hire an in-house expert to do it for them, as there are a host of outsourced SEO providers who have the technical expertise needed to effectively leverage SEO. And when deciding between providers – which have a wide range of skills and reputability – having a basic understanding of fundamental on-page and off-page SEO principles and the type of work that SEO providers typically do can be useful for advisors to find the right SEO provider to work with. Furthermore, knowing how to gauge the effectiveness of the provider's past work (as well as their performance for the advisor over time) by assessing keyword ranking reports, consulting with existing clients of the SEO provider, and asking about the provider's experience in the financial services industry can help advisors pinpoint providers who will provide the best and most cost-effective strategies to make the best use of the firm's marketing dollars.

Notably, the point of an SEO strategy is to drive users to an advisory firm's website so that those visitors can eventually be converted into paying clients. But to do so, it's necessary for the website itself to be designed to drive conversion. Importantly, the focus of most outsourced SEO providers is not on client conversion, but rather simply on getting them to the advisor's website. In other words, if the website isn't properly set up beforehand to convert visitors into clients (e.g., by including calls to action, tools to contact the advisor and schedule meetings, or newsletter signup forms), there's a good chance that any money spent on SEO will go to waste if there's nothing encouraging visitors to take steps towards becoming a client!

Ultimately, the key point is that despite its reputation as a black box, there are concrete ways to measure the success of an SEO strategy, and hiring a third-party SEO provider doesn't need to be a guessing game. By creating a process to identify the key data, monitor and discuss progress regularly with the SEO provider, and test different SEO techniques for their effectiveness (e.g., by using paid ads) before committing to a bigger and more expensive strategy, advisors can better capture the potential of SEO as a gateway to connect with a broader audience, amplify brand presence, and drive unprecedented business growth!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (October 7-8)

October 6, 2023 02:00 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 a recent survey found that clients across several countries who work with a CFP professional have better outcomes on a range of measures compared to those working with other advisors or no advisor at all, suggesting that the potential benefits of gaining CFP certification can accrue not only to the advisor themselves, but also to their clients.

Also in industry news this week:

A new advisor benchmarking study indicates that high-growth firms are excelling in 3 areas: client acquisition, "relationship alpha", and strategic scale
A recent survey indicates that while advisors increasingly are leveraging home office investment models to save time and scale more efficiently, they often customize them to meet their clients' unique needs

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

Why "unretiring" does not necessarily have to mean going back to work full-time or in one's former industry
The motivations for individuals who have reached 'traditional' retirement age to keep working and how advisors can support clients who are considering this decision
How volunteering offers a range of mental and physical benefits to retirees and where they can find opportunities in their community

We also have a number of articles on client communication:

Best practices for advisors in handling tricky client communication scenarios
How advisors can add value to clients by helping them overcome "choice overload"
The benefits of proactively informing clients about changes to an advisor's business and how advisors can structure and deliver these messages

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about defining wealth:

How defining wealth in terms of what an individual "can do" rather than as an arbitrary number can help clients better understand the "why" of their financial decisions
How wealth can be thought of as one's ability to control their time
How thinkers over the centuries have defined "enough" and what their conclusions mean for individuals today

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 122: Helping Clients Make Decisions That DON’T Make (Financial) Sense

October 5, 2023 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

For many financial advisors, financial planning advice traditionally focuses on optimization: tax-efficient, continually rebalanced portfolios are often designed to maximize a client's wealth throughout retirement. Such optimization can serve as the backbone of an advisor's value proposition, providing a bottom-line analysis that communicates why those (not insubstantial) fees are worthwhile at the end of the day. However, this approach can become complicated when clients want to make a decision that isn't about maximizing their wealth, but instead about finding the capacity for more emotional fulfillment in their lives (e.g., taking a sabbatical, using a reverse mortgage to fund a dream goal, transitioning their work/life balance). And when these clients ask their advisor for permission to make such a decision, the financial advisors might find themselves in a tricky position, where the 'right' answer that clients want the advisor to come up with may not make sense in a spreadsheet designed to optimize returns.

In our 122nd episode of Kitces and Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss navigating the 2 balance sheets of a client: 1) the literal financial spreadsheet and 2) the 'emotional' balance sheet of their lives, and upholding one's duty as a fiduciary and advicer when these 2 balance sheets come into conflict.

While advisors often create financial plans for their clients that ensure a full and secure retirement, they also want to support their clients' desire to pursue meaningful goals and enriching life experiences – which can sometimes require straying from the client's originally designed financial plan. To navigate a sensible balance between these 2 important objectives, advisors can start by helping clients prioritize their goals and identifying their most meaningful objectives. Then, by assessing the bottom-line impact of reaching their goal on their financial plan (e.g., the potential changes to their saving, spending, and planned retirement dates), advisors can help clients discern whether they can really afford those goals.

Advisors may also find it helpful to encourage clients to consider the impact on their own human capital – which includes not just their wealth, but also their time, energy, and attention. Using a human capital framework can offer clients a broader perspective to understand the actual resources they need to live the life they aspire to and how their overall financial wellness fits into that picture. Which can help clients narrow down what really matters to them most. Because, at the end of the day, living a fulfilling life – whether that means a 6-month sabbatical or the pottery studio in the backyard – might be what actually enables (and motivates!) clients to work longer, thus indirectly maximizing their overall wealth!

Ultimately, the key point is that while advisors work incredibly hard to deliver value by watching out for their clients' financial wellbeing, they also have unique opportunities to add tremendous value by also supporting their clients' emotional needs by helping them evaluate and act on spending decisions that can turn long-held dreams into reality!

3rd Quarter Economic And Market Outlook: Understanding Risks And Opportunities In The Web Of Inflation, Interest Rates, Valuations, And More

October 4, 2023 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

People often talk about "the economy" as a single entity whose parts move in unison, with a small number of key indicators (such as GDP, the unemployment rate, and inflation) moving reliably in relation to each other. In reality, though, the economy is a complex web of interdependent factors where events often make sense only in hindsight – and sometimes, not at all. This has perhaps never been more true in many financial advisors' careers than at the current moment where, depending on which numbers you look at, the economy could be either growing steadily, leveling off, or already in a recession. And when conditions are this uncertain, it often makes sense to dive deeper into the factors driving the economy to better understand the risks – and opportunities – that clients may face.

At a high level, we're currently seeing a 'tale of 2 economies': While the market for services has expanded steadily since the beginning of the year (with both employment and the price of services growing in kind), the U.S. manufacturing sector, by the measures of employment and service prices, has been in a recession for nearly 12 months. And even though numerous signs are pointing to the looming possibility of a more widespread economic downturn – including the reduction of household savings, reduced lending, and the resumption of student loan payments for many borrowers – the job market remains strong. Furthermore, inflation, though down from its peak in early 2022, remains above the Federal Reserve's long-term target of 2% despite the bank's attempts to tamp it down.

What's driving many of the economic conditions today are higher interest rates resulting from the Fed's efforts to fight inflation. But while these high rates might be enough to tip the country into a recession if we were in 'normal' times, there has been so much liquidity in the economy – both as a residual effect of the economic stimulus programs of the COVID-19 pandemic and the more recent Inflation Reduction Act and legislation subsidizing green energy and semiconductor manufacturing – that it's possible the Fed may need to hike rates even further (and keep them high for longer than expected) to achieve its inflationary goals.

The expectations for the future economic outlook also appear in the valuations of equities, which tend to reflect how markets anticipate that corporate earnings will grow in the future. Yet again, the numbers tell a different story depending on where you look: While growth stocks (particularly for large companies) are trading at historically high valuations, value stocks are trading as if we were already in a serious recession. And even though U.S. equities have been able to weather a wide variety of economic conditions over the last 30 years (thanks to broader trends of both declining interest rates and corporate tax rates), it's reasonable to wonder whether that era is coming to a close given the Fed's raising interest rates to fight inflation and the Federal government's need to raise tax revenue to address its ballooning budget deficit. There's also the question of whether long-term equity returns could be significantly lower than we've experienced during the post-WWII era without the boost of lower interest and tax rates.

The key point is that, with so much uncertainty in the economic outlook, it becomes all the more important to recognize and manage the risks inherent in the current environment, perhaps by shifting more assets into shorter-term, less-volatile assets like short-term Treasury bills or even cash (which, thanks to higher interest rates, are yielding significantly more than they did up until recently) or diversifying into assets that are less correlated with other parts of the portfolio (such as reinsurance or secured private debt). Since ultimately, while neither advisors nor their clients may be able to control the more considerable forces that shape economic conditions today, they can recognize and (at least to some extent) control which risks they're exposed to and manage those risks to stay protected and on track for the long term!

#FA Success Ep 353: Driving Growth By Setting A Clear Vision Of What You Do Best In Your Business(es), With Brett Danko

October 3, 2023 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 353rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Brett Danko. Brett is the Founder of Brett Danko Educational Center, a CFP Board Education and Exam Prep provider, and the CEO and Managing Partner for Main Street Financial Solutions, an independent RIA based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, that oversees almost $2 billion in assets under management for nearly 1,700 client households.

What's unique about Brett, though, is how he has leveraged his passion for teaching to build one of the most popular CFP exam prep programs in the country, while also growing his own RIA to $2 billion in AUM… by focusing on just his unique financial planning strengths, and learning to delegate the rest by hiring a President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, who focus on the day-to-day management of the firm itself.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Brett teaches industry professionals seeking their Certified Financial Planner certification by providing comprehensive fast-track courses that span just 7 months and end with a live virtual or in-person exam prep review, how Brett iterated on and evolved his exam prep programs with a recognition that as he puts it, there is no “CFP cum laude”, and consequently keeps the focus very directly on what it takes to pass the exam (because you have a lifetime as a practitioner to keep improving and deepening your knowledge afterwards anyway), and why Brett jokingly refuses to acknowledge when his students humor the thought of failing because he believes that planning for failure is just giving yourself permission to fail and that an important part of passing the CFP Board exam (and achieving goals in life) is believing in one’s self and visualizing success.

We also talk about why Brett personally only offers financial planning on an hourly basis and leaves asset management to the other advisors of his RIA (so that he can have the flexibility to teach his courses while still gaining experience and knowledge as a practicing advisor), why Brett structures his firm as almost a platform for advisors, where, even though the advisors are technically W-2 employees and the firm pays for their staff, overhead, and technology, they own their own clients, and design their own fee schedules and portfolio models so that they can focus more on serving their clients to the best of their ability, and how Brett manages his time and obligations as a Founder of two businesses that each have their own management teams (his advisory firm Main Street Financial Solutions, and the Brett Danko Education Center) by recognizing that he’s a “macro” person and has to surround himself with “micro” people who are good at all the micro-details to make sure everything actually gets done.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Brett shares what it took to get comfortable with delegating so much responsibility for his businesses to key team members, how, after losing a job in his early 30s, Brett suffered from severe depression, but through therapy, found the confidence he needed to reinvigorate his passions and ultimately decided to outline a ‘manifesto’ of goals he wanted to achieve which included launching the advisory firm and educational courses that he spent the past 20 years building, and why Brett suggests that advisors in their 20s should seek out mentors not just to learn but also to help them recognize in themselves their strengths and their weaknesses because it's that self-awareness that makes it easier to find the work and kind of firm you’ll truly enjoy for the rest of your career as an advisor.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Brett structures his CFP exam prep courses and his fast-track programs, how Brett differentiates his programs from other CFP educational programs, or why Brett believes strongly in developing firm culture to grow a successful business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Brett Danko.

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#FA Success Ep 355: Scaling Worksite Financial Planning As An Employee Benefit For The Average Worker, With Brad Arends

Accelerating Growth By Marketing How Your Advisory Firm Is Different (Instead Of Better)

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (October 14-15)

Want CE Credit for reading articles like this?

A Guide To Conducting And Documenting An Annual Compliance Review Under New SEC Amendment

#FA Success Ep 354: Making Advisor Transitions Less Scary With Effective Transition Preparation And Support Services, With Grier Rubeling

Managing Outsourcing Of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) For A Financial Advisor

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (October 7-8)

Kitces & Carl Ep 122: Helping Clients Make Decisions That DON’T Make (Financial) Sense

Want CE Credit for reading articles like this?

3rd Quarter Economic And Market Outlook: Understanding Risks And Opportunities In The Web Of Inflation, Interest Rates, Valuations, And More

#FA Success Ep 353: Driving Growth By Setting A Clear Vision Of What You Do Best In Your Business(es), With Brett Danko

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Want CE Credit for reading articles like this?

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Questions?