A common service model for many financial advisory firms is to schedule annual client meetings throughout the year where the advisor meets with each client in the month they started working with the firm, and conducts a comprehensive review of all planning topics for the client. Which means that on any given workday, advisors might find themselves reviewing one client’s portfolio and another’s estate plan in the morning, and having a meeting with a third client later in the afternoon. However, by creating a systematic annual process to monitor and update client plans based on seasons, not only can advisors save time and work more efficiently, but they can also communicate the value of ongoing financial planning services to prospects and clients more effectively.

One way to implement a seasonal model is to group client meetings (and the requisite meeting prep) by topic, and then to thematically organize seasons throughout the calendar year. With this approach, the advisor can focus on particular planning areas (e.g., tax and estate planning) for all of their clients in each given time period, with designated seasons for meeting prep and separate seasons for client meetings. Which means there would be ample time to prepare for meetings that would cover only one set of planning topics – e.g., advisors would discuss tax and estate planning with clients in the fall and prepare for those meetings in advance over the summer, while discussing retirement and investments in the spring and preparing for those meetings in the winter.

This approach allows advisors to focus more deeply on each topic they discuss with clients and, because of the systematic nature of the schedule, can also save time while improving both efficiency and efficacy. Furthermore, advisors can adjust the annual calendar to accommodate their team members’ work-life balance needs. For example, with summers designated as meeting prep seasons, team members with children can have more workweek flexibility (given the lack of client meetings) and enjoy more days off while their kids are on summer vacation.

Importantly, implementing any new client meeting system also requires communicating to clients how the system works and setting clear expectations with them upfront. This may be done through a Client Engagement Standards document, which can ensure clients understand the process and their obligations to provide the advisor with the requested information. And by making sure that clients have this level of clarity, advisors and clients alike can have confidence that no part of their plan will slip through the cracks.

Ultimately, the key point is that by establishing a seasonal cadence of when and how clients’ financial plans are updated and monitored, advisors can improve efficiency while easily demonstrating to their clients the full range of work involved in monitoring and updating their plans. So for advisors who feel overwhelmed with the range of responsibilities they have in a given week, implementing a systematic annual planning process based on seasons can not only provide more structure to their processes, but also provide a better experience – not only for their clients, but also for their work teams – in the process!

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In the not-so-distant past, the typical career path toward becoming a financial advisor was to build up a book of business on one’s own, often by either tapping into one’s own personal networks or cold-calling prospective clients in bulk to generate enough business to gain a foothold. But the obvious flaw with this ‘eat-what-you-kill’ model was that newer advisors overwhelmingly succeeded or failed – not by virtue of the quality of advice they gave to their clients, but by how effectively they could sell the financial products for which they were usually compensated via commission.

In more recent years, however, the rise of the fiduciary advice model (in which the quality of advice provided to the client really does matter to the firm’s success) has allowed a new career path to emerge: that of the associate advisor, who generally takes on financial planning tasks, like data gathering and analysis, to support the lead advisor so that they can focus more on managing the client relationship and bringing in new business. And as the associate gains experience and trust among existing clients, they can gradually take over some of the lead roles themselves, to be supported by new associate advisors of their own – thus allowing the firm to transition its clients from the founder to the next generation of advisors.

But for many experienced advisors (and particularly those whose careers evolved through the older eat-what-you-kill model), integrating an associate advisor into an existing practice can come with its own challenges. For example, seeing eye-to-eye on the expected responsibilities of the associate advisor’s role, as well as the role’s future possibilities and its meaning to the associate advisor’s career trajectory, may not come naturally, especially when the senior and associate advisor are each from distinctly different generations – which can result in dissatisfaction from both parties if they aren’t both clear and in agreement on the role’s purpose and where it is headed.

In this guest post, Penny Phillips, president and co-founder of Journey Strategic Wealth, uses her expertise in helping advisors address some of the common challenges in introducing new associate advisors into their firms and how senior advisors can scale their time and productivity to successfully integrate associate advisors into their advisory practices.

One of the most important components of bringing on an associate advisor is being clear about the purpose and requirements of the role during the hiring phase. And because associate advisors are often hired in the early stages of their careers, it should also be clear how they will be taught and supported by the firm to succeed in the role. This can be achieved by establishing a framework of Objectives central to the associate advisor role, as well as clearly identifiable Key Results that will help team members recognize whether they are achieving the desired results.

Furthermore, this Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework can also be extended to the associate advisor’s career development to define and work toward key skills that bring them closer to what they want to achieve. And as the senior advisor’s own role evolves with the addition of an associate, they may want to develop their own set of OKRs to ensure they are progressing towards their goals for themselves and their practice!

Ultimately, the key point is that finding and developing an associate advisor will take time and effort – for both the senior advisor and the associate advisor. However, a successful partnership between senior and associate advisors has the potential to last many years and can allow the practice to scale up in ways that aren’t possible for a solo advisor. Taking care to start the process on the right foot can therefore pay dividends for both parties in the long term!

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