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Kitces & Carl Ep 85: Building Your (Local) Brand With PR That Actually Works

May 5, 2022 07:06 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Traditionally, advisors have relied on client referrals and networking to attract potential clients, but with modern technology and an increase in publicity mediums available, advisors have many more options to build a brand to represent themselves. However, with more available methods to choose from, advisors are increasingly challenged to find the ones that are most effective. Choosing an effective public relations strategy can seem daunting and exhaustive to already busy advisors. Moreover, with so many metrics to consider, making sure there is a strong return on investment and leveraging any public relations efforts is even more difficult.

In our 85th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how financial advisors can utilize public relations to better brand themselves, how to decide which medium will have the best return on investment, and how to leverage public relations to increase the number of connections with potential clients.

As a starting point, it’s important to identify the intention behind utilizing public relations and to determine the effort the advisor wants to commit to. Writing an article for a local paper or receiving a one-time mention in a periodical may be suitable for those who simply want to offer social proof of their expertise to current and potential clients. Whereas running a local radio show or becoming a go-to financial expert on a high-profile medium may be better suited for those who want an ongoing presence and have the capacity for a higher level of commitment.

Identifying a specific intention will help advisors to better track the right metrics to assess the ROI of their public relations strategy. If an advisor’s intention is to attract more clients, using social media might be a good way to connect with a larger audience (and gain popularity), but will not necessarily increase the number of potential clients who will possibly do business with the advisor. Which means that it is important to spend time determining the right metrics to track, as this will support the advisor in identifying the right strategy to realize their primary goal.

Furthermore, while some advisors may be uncomfortable sharing their media coverage (for fear of sounding too boastful), it is important to recognize that telling clients about their efforts is the only way clients (current or potential) will find out about their appearances. Providing printouts or links to publications to current and prospective clients can be an easy way for advisors to relay their work to clients, which can serve to build their credibility and grow their referrals.

Ultimately, the key point is that while public relations can be used by advisors to build their brand, having a clear intention will help advisors leverage their branding efforts to realize their goals. Understanding the different strategies available and how results can be measured for each will allow the advisor to spend more time on the right actions that will yield better results for them and help them reach their goals!

Questions, Not Answers: Conversations For Advisors To Navigate Clients’ Anxiety Around Change

May 4, 2022 07:09 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

Financial advisory clients are bound to experience stressful conditions that can impact their finances at some point during their relationship with their advisor. From market downturns to geopolitical shocks, there are many potential external factors that might make a client nervous about their financial situation. What’s more, the stories individuals tell themselves can lead to decisions that negatively compound the initial impact of the event. For example, a market correction can create fear for investors (particularly those nearing – or even in – retirement), and when they create certain narratives (e.g., “I need to sell all of my stocks now before the market drops further”) they can find themselves in an even worse situation. For worried clients, advisors often serve as a sounding board for many of their stories, putting the advisor in a unique situation to help clients weather their emotional challenges and stay on course with their financial plans.

Advisors naturally strive to offer expert guidance to their clients, but sometimes addressing only the technical intricacies of a client’s plan is not always the most helpful response. For example, reminding a panicking client during a market downturn that they have a diversified portfolio or that corrections are a regular part of market cycles might not resonate with them to truly alleviate their anxiety.

Instead, addressing a client’s upsetting stressors by encouraging them to form new personal narratives can help them understand and implement new perspectives that make it easier for them to address challenging situations in different (and often more successful) ways. In this way, the client can become their own ‘expert’ through facilitation from their advisor. One way for advisors to start this conversation is by asking the client the question, “What would you tell your best friend if they asked you this question?”

This strategy can lead the client to expand their narrative (by serving as an ‘outside’ advisor to themselves) and to potentially accept new ideas that they may already know but have been resistant to acknowledge before. Because reminding a friend that having a well-diversified portfolio is a good way to manage market risk can be easier than reminding themselves of the same thing (as they watch their portfolio value fall during a downturn); at the same time, clients are likely to respond to a friend with more kindness and empathy (versus the negative self-talk they can present to themselves). Thus, going through this exercise can calm and empower the client by revealing a more compassionate and relatable response that they come up with for themselves! Additionally, the advisor is afforded valuable insight into productive ways in which the client might want to respond to the situation.

Ultimately, the key point is that by finding ways to change their own narrative stories, a client can expand how they see themselves and better understand that they can change their role in the story. In this way, they can become empowered and more capable of preventing a stressful situation from compounding negatively. And advisors can play an important role in this exercise by facilitating the conversation and listening actively, enabling the client to craft a new narrative and potential next steps!

#FA Success Ep 279: Expanding The Impact Of Sustainable Investing For Ultra-HNW Families, With Erika Karp

May 3, 2022 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 279th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Erika Karp. Erika is the Chief Impact Officer at Pathstone, an independent RIA based in Englewood, New Jersey that oversees $35 billion in assets under management for a few hundred ultra-high-net-worth households.

What's unique about Erika, though, is how she and her firm are incorporating sustainable investing by utilizing their own internal ESG analysis to align their ultra-high-net-worth clients’ sizable amount of capital with their own values.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Erika and her firm utilize environmental, social, and governance analysis to find the intersection between investments that are expected to be sustainable and produce a strong investment return, how Erika focuses on the factors of intentionality, additionality, and measurability to ensure the impact of their investments decisions align with her clients’ values and objectives, and how Erika and her firm use manager due diligence discussions and their own thematic research to better identify managers that better fit with, and then hold them accountable to, the firm’s investment standards.

We also talk about how Erika was inspired to begin her own firm after becoming frustrated with the relatively slow pace that her prior firm was (not quickly enough) recognizing the emerging shift towards sustainable investing, how Erika’s confidence in her abilities was juxtaposed with the intense pressures of putting up her own capital to launch and then having to quickly reach $25 million in AUM within 90 days to receive SEC approval on her Federal registration, and how Erika leveraged publishing her own proprietary ESG investing research through a monthly report and doing corporate consulting to create a revenue stream on the side while she was launching her own firm and getting her initial clients.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Erika shares how the realization that we all have to make decisions that are based on imperfect information known at the time helped her have fewer regrets in her own life, how Erika struggled with wanting to be known as a trusted advisor while also feeling the pressure of needing to sell herself and her services to acquire clients as she was building her firm, and why Erika believes it is important as an advisor to focus on the work that brings personal joy and to keep aspiring to do more of that work to develop a better career.

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Erika and her firm analyze and measure the ESG impact of their investments, how Erika was able to navigate the pressures of having to fully fund her own firm and get SEC approval in a short amount of time, or how Erika was able to reach a point where she could focus more on the aspects of her career that she loves, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Erika Karp.

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (May 2022)

May 2, 2022 07:05 am 4 Comments CATEGORY: Technology & Advisor FinTech

Welcome to the May 2022 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

This month's edition kicks off with the big news that Orion Advisor Services is acquiring Redtail CRM, increasingly positioning Orion as the ‘All-In-One’ solution to compete against Envestnet with its combination of financial planning (Advizr vs MoneyGuide), performance reporting (Orion vs Tamarac), and now CRM (Redtail vs Tamarac CRM), paired with its back-end TAMP solutions (Brinker and Orion’s model marketplace vs Envestnet’s PMC and its SMA platform). Though in the near term, it is more likely that Orion and Redtail will simply focus on trying to cross-sell their respective services to the users of the other, given what was ‘only’ a 20% - 30% overlap in existing advisors already using both (while still respecting the majority of each user base that may not be looking to switch and will remain with its current CRM or portfolio management solution).

From a broader industry perspective, though, the real significance of the Orion-Redtail deal may simply be a sign of the ongoing bullishness of growth for AdvisorTech more broadly, as Redtail’s valuation was likely buoyed by Wealthbox’s recent Series B, and Orion’s potential IPO valuation in the future may be boosted by rumors that a PE firm may take Envestnet private. In other words, the Orion-Redtail deal may not necessarily be one of a great unified vision of a single all-in-one solution for all advisors – though few would likely object to seeing greater integrations between the two – but simply a financial opportunity to attempt to make the whole worth more than the sum of the parts.

From there, the latest highlights also feature a number of other interesting advisor technology announcements, including:

Advyzon launches its “Quantum Rebalancer” to shore up its hold on small-to-mid-sized investment-centric firms that want to use Advyzon for ‘everything’ (excluding financial planning)
RightCapital launches a new ‘One-Page Financial Plan’ Snapshot feature that highlights the gap in financial planning solutions for clients after their initial plan is done

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including:

Vanguard launches a new partnership with American Express to pay the same 25bps promoter fees that have become common in the independent RIA channel as well (and highlighting the ongoing extraordinary cost of lead generation)
SimplyEasier launches a new fee-for-service billing solution as more advisors continue to explore non-AUM business models
Schwab gears up for the launch of its new Personalized Indexing solution at a 40bps cost that may actually offset most or all of the tax-loss harvesting benefits it purports to generate?

In the meantime, we’ve also launched a beta version of our new Kitces AdvisorTech Directory to make it even easier for financial advisors to look through the available advisor technology options to choose what’s right for them!

And be certain to read to the end, where we have provided an update to our popular “Financial AdvisorTech Solutions Map” as well!

*And for #AdvisorTech companies who want to submit their tech announcements for consideration in future issues, please submit to [email protected]!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Apr 30-May 1)

April 29, 2022 02:02 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 the Investment Advisers Association has become the latest industry organization to push back against the SEC’s guidance limiting the use of the term “fiduciary” on Form CRS, joining a growing number of voices attesting that RIAs should be able to highlight the differences between the standards of care required of them with respect to their entire advisor-client relationship, versus Reg BI’s standard of care for broker-dealers that is limited to just the moment the broker makes the recommendation (rather than the structure of the broker-dealer itself).

Also in industry news this week:

In response to the SEC’s proposed regulations for RIAs to address cybersecurity threats, industry advocates have focused on the proposed requirement to report incidents to the SEC within 48 hours, a rule that could impede advisors’ ability to respond to threats adequately while also rushing to meet the reporting deadline, while highlighting that smaller RIAs just don’t have the resources to respond in the same way that large firms do.
The FPA’s Virtual Externship program is open for enrollment for its third year, offering experiential training at scale for newer advisors (and exposure to a diverse range of firms and planning techniques) to give those with classroom knowledge opportunities to see how different advisors “do” financial planning

From there, we have several articles on how advisors are approaching the decision to retire (or not):

At a time when the ‘Great Resignation’ is making headlines, why many advisors are choosing to continue working well into their 70s and 80s
The steps advisory firm owners can take to prevent ‘seller’s remorse’ when they sell their firms by vetting more than just the price of the offers
How one firm navigated an internal succession and the lessons learned from guiding clients through the transition

We also have a number of articles on taxes:

How advisors can add value by reviewing clients’ tax returns (and gain insights about the client’s behavior and values that might not have been revealed in earlier conversations)
How owners of highly appreciated artwork have taken advantage of a tax-planning strategy of donating ‘fractional’ shares of art, allowing them to keep the art for a part of the year while enjoying the tax deduction for the donated share
Why moving to a state with lower income tax rates can actually result in higher costs of living because of factors like property taxes and housing costs (and why financial aspects, including taxes, should make up only part of the reason for moving – or not – to another state)

We wrap up with three final articles, all about personal development:

Why the most important and often hardest step to achieving a goal, whether it is running a marathon or starting an advisory firm, is just getting started, as habits are far easier to maintain than to begin
How a lifetime of recreational exercise could pay dividends for our health as we age
Why ditching your smartphone at key moments during the day can promote personal and professional fulfillment

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

8 Inflation Conversations For Financial Advisors To Have With Clients

April 27, 2022 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

With inflation reaching its highest levels since the early 1980s, the topic of rising prices has been on the minds of many financial advisors and their clients. And though many hoped that the spike in inflation that began in autumn of 2021 would pass within a few months (once holiday season demand cooled and COVID-related supply chain issues worked themselves out), it has instead persisted for longer than many originally predicted.

In the early days of this inflationary spike, the most common (and perhaps the best) advice for clients may have been to simply “wait it out”, since a brief rise in prices – uncomfortable as it may have been – was unlikely to have enough of an impact on long-term planning to warrant any drastic changes. But even though we are still a long way from the kind of inflation that plagued the economy in the 1970s and 1980s (when inflation averaged over 9% for a 9-year stretch), the continued rise in prices may have many advisors (and their clients) wondering if there is more that they can do to better position themselves for a prolonged bout with inflation.

One place to start may be to better understand how inflation is personally affecting each client. The headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) number that we see constantly represents an average inflation rate for the entire U.S. economy, but in reality, different households experience inflation in different ways depending on their lifestyle and where they live. Advisors can help clients calculate their own ‘personal’ inflation rate (and a downloadable template is included to make it easier to do so).

Another immediate way that advisors can help ease the impact of inflation for clients is to create a cash management strategy (i.e., a system for knowing how much cash to keep on hand and where to keep it) to avoid them having more cash on hand than is necessary (since, with interest rates on bank accounts so low, the excess cash is almost guaranteed to lose value to inflation even if inflation does fall back to pre-2021 levels).

Advisors can also address different ways clients can protect their savings for retirement and other long-term goals against inflation. The conversation could start with the one asset that is likely already in most clients’ portfolios: U.S. stocks, which have a lengthy track record of outperforming inflation over long time horizons. Additionally, advisors can discuss the role of TIPS in a portfolio (and answer some common questions such as whether it is risky to buy TIPS when inflation is at a multi-decade high, and whether it is better to buy TIPS directly or within a mutual fund or ETF). And because clients may have questions about other types of assets that are often associated with hedging inflation risk – such as gold, commodities, REITS, and, most recently, cryptocurrencies – advisors can help by discussing the actual track records of these assets to help clients make a more informed choice about how to strengthen their portfolios against persistent inflation.

There are other practical areas to give useful advice, such as tax planning (where clients might experience “bracket creep”, and therefore higher taxes, due to their income rising faster than the inflation rate used by the IRS) and property insurance (where, with construction materials and labor costs among the fastest-rising prices across the country, homeowners may find their existing insurance coverage is no longer sufficient to ensure the replacement value of their property).

Finally, advisors can ‘zoom out’ to the long view of clients’ financial projections for retirement, and address clients’ concerns about whether the plan’s existing inflation assumptions (which may predate the current inflation spike) are still realistic – and discuss how, when looking at the market’s expectations for future inflation in the form of the TIPS breakeven rate, investors still seem to be betting on a return to ‘normal’ inflation numbers after a short-lived increase. (Which bodes even better for clients’ plans given that investors have historically overestimated their inflation predictions!)

Ultimately, even though the goal of many advisors at the moment may be to encourage clients to continue to stay the course and avoid making rash decisions, there are still concrete ways that advisors can help clients better position themselves to withstand the current spike of inflation and improve their situation for the long term without drastically altering their existing plans. And even if this inflationary environment proves to be short-lived, the work advisors with their clients now can help them be better prepared for future unexpected increases in inflation – which, though we can’t control when they may happen, we can plan to help ensure they don’t get in the way of our clients’ ability to reach their goals.

#FA Success Ep 278: Separating Marketing From Sales To More Efficiently Scale Sustainable Growth, With Derek Gregoire

April 26, 2022 07:04 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 278th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Derek Gregoire. Derek is a co-owner of SHP Financial, an independent RIA based in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that oversees nearly $1.2 billion of total assets for over 1,200 clients.

What’s unique about Derek, though, is how he and his firm have centralized the execution of multiple marketing strategies to increase the amount of prospective client leads the firm provides to its advisors, so they in turn can concentrate more on developing client relationships (and not need to worry about chasing prospects).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Derek has built a combination of radio programming, short interview-style television ads, seminars, and digital marketing to bring in prospects, how Derek and his firm have developed a simplified three-meeting sales process that aims to avoid overwhelming prospects with choices and just focuses on whether they would like to work together, and how Derek’s decision to centralize marketing has ultimately freed up the budget to maintain a larger service staff to ensure a personal, high-touch experience for his clients.

We also talk about how Derek and his partners realized after getting close to burnout that it takes more than just advisors to scale and grow a successful advisory firm, why at one point Derek and his partners decided they had to spend a whole year doing less to get the firm back on track for long-term growth, and how Derek learned first-hand why having a good internal culture at his firm is what really helps advisors develop better and deeper client relationships.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Derek shares his philosophy of concentrating on the smaller details now to help with the bigger picture later, why Derek believes it is so important to be authentic and to have confidence in oneself (especially early in an advisory career), and how Derek’s long-term goal is not simply to have success but to achieve significance by pouring into others.

So whether you’re interested in learning about how Derek utilizes marketing funnels across a wide variety of mediums to drive prospects to action, how Derek’s firm culture changed for the better when he pivoted from employees who came for the paycheck to those who believed in the vision, or why he believes authenticity is the most important trait a young advisor can have, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Derek Gregoire.

7 Lessons Learned After Building A Fee-Only Financial Planning Firm From Scratch

April 25, 2022 07:05 am 10 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Launching an RIA firm can be a rewarding experience for advisors who desire the independence, flexibility, and control of owning an advisory practice. At the same time, the process of establishing a new business can be daunting, especially when the firm is ‘truly’ starting from scratch with zero clients, revenue, or infrastructure. These challenges, along with the sheer number of priorities that must be addressed (e.g., choosing fee structures, identifying target client profiles, and developing marketing and lead generation strategies) – and the fear and uncertainty of making the ‘wrong’ decision – can keep many potential new firm owners from making the leap to starting their own practice.

In this guest post, Jake Northrup, CFP, CFA, CSLP, founder of Experience Your Wealth, LLC, relays some of the lessons he learned himself during the first three years of building his own fee-only RIA firm from scratch, to help advisors who are thinking about launching their own firms understand how they can navigate the early pitfalls of owning an advisory practice.

Many of the key business decisions in an RIA’s early startup phase revolve around marketing and selling the firm’s services. For Jake, having limited business experience prior to launching his firm made these elements especially daunting as he sought to attract his first few clients. But significantly investing early on in marketing (notably, creating a custom-designed website to clearly communicate his firm’s values and story) and sales training made it much easier for Jake to find and ‘hire’ the kinds of clients he wanted to work with most. Likewise, many individual firm owners will be stronger in certain areas than others, so finding and investing time and resources in areas that may need extra attention early on can be crucial to achieving a sustainable business.

But launching an RIA is not only a business decision, it is also a personal decision that can reshape many aspects of an advisor’s life. While offering the potential rewards of choosing where and when to work – and, with virtual planning becoming a more popular option, giving firm owners flexibility over where to live, regardless of where their clients are located – starting an RIA also comes with potentially significant risks. This is especially true given that firm owners must often tap into their own personal savings to keep it running, at least until the firm generates enough revenue to cover both its own business expenses and the owner’s personal expenses. For aspiring firm owners, then, understanding why launching an RIA from scratch is worth the risks to them – whether that be on account of their personal values, lifestyle preferences, or hard-wired personality characteristics that make them especially suited for running an advisory firm – is a crucial step in creating a practice that supports the ideal life that the owner wants.

Ultimately, what’s important to remember for aspiring advisory firm owners is that virtually everything about the firm – from its fee structure to its target niche and even to the owner’s long-term vision – can change. For Jake, what started in 2019 as a vision for a solo advisory practice quickly expanded to include an associate advisor, and since then has integrated a plan to build out a five-person team… all because his vision for the firm evolved based on wanting to spend more time on high-value advisory activities (and less time on other tasks that could more easily be outsourced). And while it’s important for new firm owners to plan out how the business will look and operate in its first few years, perhaps even more vital is to build in flexibility to account for how the firm’s vision will change over that time, especially since the flexibility to make firm decisions itself is often one of the main reasons advisors choose to start their own practice in the first place!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Apr 23-24)

April 22, 2022 02:14 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 the CFP Board increased its annual recertification fee by $100 (along with an additional surcharge of up to $19/year for CE credits). Representing the first annual fee increase since 2017, the additional funds will be put toward a range of initiatives, including public awareness, talent retention, diversity, and enforcement. But given the non-trivial nature of the increase, CFP certificants are likely to expect real outcomes from these initiatives!

Also in industry news this week:

Portfolio management giant Orion announced this week that it is acquiring leading advisor CRM provider Redtail in a deal that will bring Redtail’s large base of advisors into Orion’s orbit
Some industry observers think RIA valuations might have peaked, perhaps signaling a slowdown in M&A activity and increased viability of internal succession plans

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

Why the creator of the ‘4% Rule’ says retirees might want to reduce their spending given the current market and inflation environment
An analysis shows why the reduced benefits associated with annuity contracts with lower-fee Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit riders could make them inferior to their higher-fee predecessors (and why delaying Social Security could trump both in creating guaranteed retirement income)
Why it is important for advisors working with clients nearing and in retirement to go beyond retirement income and consider their clients’ social connections, health status, and plans for the various stages of retirement

We also have a number of articles on managing cash flow:

Why spending money on building friendships can pay dividends for one’s health and happiness
With statistics showing a significant number of individuals have engaged in financial deception with their partner or spouse, advisors can consider how to handle the financial and emotional impacts of these transgressions
Why clients in the wealth accumulation phase of their lives would be best served by finding ways to increase their income and putting money into the stock market as soon as it is available

We wrap up with three final articles, all about currencies and inflation:

Why cryptocurrencies might not have the inflation-prevention benefits touted by some of their proponents
Why a cryptocurrency skeptic argues that cryptocurrencies are primarily speculative assets rather than useful currencies and are unlikely to change the way we buy goods and services
How the ‘Cantillon Effect’ helps explain who wins and who loses from fiscal and monetary stimulus

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 84: How Do You Introduce Yourself If Not As A ‘Financial Advisor’

April 21, 2022 07:07 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Financial advisors have often been trained to perfect their ‘elevator pitch’ as a way of generating business development opportunities, and leveraging any social situation (even casual ones like a barbeque or a cocktail party) to prospect for clients. This approach created a long-standing negative reputation that financial advisors are only in the business to sell their ‘advice’ that purely serves their interests (and not necessarily those of their clients), ultimately ending with pushing their firm’s commission-based products on a consumer who may not even want or need the product. In more recent years, though, the term ‘financial advisor’ has progressed to refer to those professionals who are in the business to provide financial guidance and advice – not just sales products – and who are held to a higher fiduciary standard. Though there have been significant strides in changing what being a financial advisor means, this lingering sales-centric reputation has often made it difficult for financial advisors to introduce themselves (especially in more casual settings) as there can be an expectation that the elevator pitch is impending.

In our 84th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how lingering negative connotations of the label ‘financial advisor’ can impact introductions in social settings, how to change approaches to introductions and the relationships that follow, and when it is okay to shift the focus from prospecting for clients to simply talking to other people.

As a starting point, it’s important to understand that not all social settings are appropriate to prospect for clients. Once they introduce themselves, many financial advisors may feel pressured to immediately talk about how they can help the person with their finances. Even though many financial advisors genuinely want to do what is best for their clients and hold themselves to higher standards in the ever-changing financial advisory industry (and their own standards), those who may not be as familiar with the financial advisory world may have a difficult time discerning when they can trust the advisor, especially in light of negative media exposure (e.g., Bernie Madoff) that has tainted the reputation of the financial advisory industry. While an advisor may want to connect with others and have a genuine conversation about the good they do for their clients, the people with whom they are getting to know can feel biased by their negative impressions of financial advisors and may not want to engage in the conversation.

Ultimately, the key point is that there is no magic phrase or term to relieve the pressure an advisor may feel is necessary to defend what they do when introducing themselves as a financial advisor. Experimenting with different terms and descriptions, along with getting more specific as to what one does as an advisor (and clarifying who they serve), can connect the listener to more of the positive things and steer them away from the negative misconceptions about what a financial advisor does. For some, the stigma that surrounds the label ‘financial advisor’ won’t be dissolved any time soon, but by engaging in real conversations, advisors can attempt to at least change the perspective of those they interact with by simply focusing on creating better relationships (regardless of whether the goal is to prospect for clients)!