Search results for: "FP+Careers"

The “Imposter Syndrome,” which affects professionals across industries and at every stage of their careers, is relatively common and refers to the tendency many have to doubt their own abilities and accomplishments, and results in the fear of being “found out” as a fraud (even if the reality is that they really are a bona fide expert!).

A lesser-known challenge that many professionals – particularly those in fields where their interactions with clients can result in life-altering consequences – run up against after they’ve got some education and experience under their belts is the realization that, despite what they’ve already learned, there’s an ocean of knowledge and expertise between where they are where they feel they need to be to best serve their clients. Which similarly can result in a decrease in confidence even as their actual skill to serve clients is objectively increasing.

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1 PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we discuss this phenomenon, called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, how it manifests itself (particularly for financial advisors with a few years of experience as they earn their CFP certification), and specific steps advisors can take to ameliorate feelings of inadequacy and (re)gain the confidence needed to serve clients effectively.

The first, and probably most important, step in dealing with the Dunning-Kruger effect is to realize that, simply by gaining some financial planning knowledge – much less earning CFP certification – you really are already far ahead of the knowledge curve relative to virtually every client or prospect you’ll ever meet, with more than enough expertise to add real value to clients.

Second is understanding that there’s nothing wrong with double-checking your work anyway – just to be safe – or even asking for a second opinion from more experienced advisors. Similarly, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with telling a client that you need more time to research a complex topic before providing an answer, just to be certain you really have considered all the issues.

From there, the best way to overcome the Dunning-Kruger effect is simply furthering your education by obtaining additional certifications and become a truly confident expert, establish a niche or mini-specialization that makes it easier to achieve mastery by narrowing the required scope of expertise in the first place, and focus on succeeding with clients who have less-complex financial circumstances before moving up the proverbial food chain of more affluent clients. Of course, it’s also helpful to simply stay flexible with the advice you give to clients in the first place… managing expectations to make it clear that the future can and will change, and that decisions don’t need to be viewed as irrevocable in the first place (because most aren’t!).

The bottom line, though, is simply to understand that you aren’t as ignorant as you may feel with the realization that there is so much to learn and consider in giving advice to clients, and that by taking steps to further your skills and knowledge, you can actively deal with the Dunning-Kruger effect and be the confident professional your clients are looking for.

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Finding a good way to differentiate yourself amid a sea of people who call themselves financial advisors has never been easy task, but it’s become all the more difficult in recent years as the ranks of advisors who offer “comprehensive financial planning” continue to grow. The problem is only compounded for newer advisors trying to find a way, not to get new clients, but just to get noticed within their firms (and get opportunities for client face time) as they launch their own careers.

In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we discuss why niches and mini-specializations are a great way for advisors to differentiate themselves, the differences between the two, and cover specific and actionable ways to market yourself and grow your exposure in your mini-specialization of choice.

At the start of their careers, most advisors are generalists – having just completed the comprehensive CFP certification educational curriculum – and haven’t yet had the time, opportunity, and experience to develop a specific target niche audience. However, one way that newer advisors can start to differentiate their expertise is simply to dive deep into a particular subject area and make themselves more referable and top-of-mind by becoming the go-to expert for that topic in their firm or within their community – a form of “mini” specialization.

Because the reality is that early on, in particular, you don’t need to be an expert on everything to succeed. You just need to become really good at only one thing and be known for doing it well… and that can happen in a relatively short period of time!

Of course, just because you become an expert on something with a (mini-)specialization doesn’t mean that the masses will automatically beat a path to your door. You still have to get the word out, and that’s where a good inbound marketing strategy comes into play, from building a website that showcases your expertise, to starting a growing an email list and a social media presence to get the word out about your expertise, and creating “lead magnets” like ebooks (or even self-publishing a real book) to establish your “authority”, which you can then leverage further to teach and speak on the topic.

Ultimately, by going through the mini-specialization process, you’ll learn more about the things that matter most to your target clientele, and where they spend their time gathering such information, which makes the process of getting new clients even more efficient over time. But at the most basic level, developing a mini-specialization is the most straightforward path to being more than just another advisor who offers “comprehensive financial planning and investment management to affluent individuals and families”, and can be the key to making you the one that lead advisors choose to bring into their client meetings to gain more real-world experience!

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As the average age of a financial advisor remains 50-something and rising, along with it is a rising need to not only attract and develop the next generation of financial advisors, but actually begin to transition clients to them. However, while it’s difficult enough for advisory firms to simply recruit next-generation talent at the early stages of their careers, it can seem even more challenging to transition existing clients to them. Nonetheless, advisory firms are going to have to tackle these transitions if they want to continue to grow and, ultimately, to retain clients as their founders and experienced advisors retire.

Yet while there’s been a lot of discussion from the senior advisor’s perspective about how best to manage this process of transitioning clients, remarkably little has been written from the viewpoint of the up-and-coming advisor about how best to prepare and position themselves for a successful transition. Accordingly, in this guest post, Jack Rabuck from West Coast Financial recounts his career path so far, from starting out as an entry-level analyst fresh out of college, to becoming the de facto point of contact for newer clients, and then gradually growing into a lead advisor role with 65 existing clients and $165M of AUM in just five years by the age of 27… and the steps he took to ensure the transition would be successful.

Because the reality is that there is a lot that paraplanners and associate advisors can do to better prepare themselves for success, by trying to gain more of their own knowledge, exposure, and experience. From actively seeking out opportunities to sit in on meetings with as many different advisors as possible, to paying close attention to how they actually manage meetings themselves, becoming an expert in highly specific topic (effectively creating a micro-specialization for themselves), focusing on learning as much as possible, and being brutally honest with oneself about areas for needed improvement… the more the new advisor positions themselves for success, the more duties and responsibilities that can be taken on in a relatively short period of time.

Of course, there will often still be challenges, and Jack shares some of his own challenges experienced and the key lessons learned along the way, that any advisor can seek to apply to advance their own career!

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