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Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Sept 24-25)

September 23, 2022 02:01 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 SEC has issued a risk alert putting advisors on notice that examiners will be conducting a number of reviews to evaluate how firms are complying with the Commission’s new marketing rule, which it will begin to enforce starting November 4. While the new rule allows financial advisors to proactively use testimonials (from clients), endorsements (from non-clients), and highlight their own ratings on various third-party websites, the SEC’s warning suggests that advisory firms will want to take care to abide by the compliance requirements linked to the new rule.

Also in industry news this week:

How advisors can serve clients of the millennial generation who have seen their income and wealth grow as they have gotten older
A survey shows that more RIAs are outsourcing investment management, and that those who do are largely happy with the decision

From there, we have several articles on insurance and investment planning:

Why the chair of the Senate Finance Committee has taken an interest in the private placement life insurance market
A new designation is available for advisors looking to serve clients with nonqualified deferred compensation plans
How DPL Financial Partners’ growth is a sign of advisor interest in fee-based annuities

We also have a number of articles on advisor marketing:

The latest trends in advisor marketing, from the continued dominance of client referrals to the return of in-person gatherings
How advisors can pull off an event that can increase client loyalty and attract new prospects
Why some firms are thinking twice about taking advantage of the SEC’s new marketing rule right away

We wrap up with three final articles, all about business ownership:

Why business owners with strong technical skills limit their profitability by spending too much time working in their business rather than on it
The advantages and disadvantages of ‘renting’ versus ‘owning’ your career
Why focus and intense curiosity are common traits among some of the most successful business leaders

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 95: Building Your Advisor Marketing Content By Packaging Your Client Wisdom

September 22, 2022 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Kitces Carl Ep Building Your Advisor Marketing Content By Packaging Your Client Wisdom

As the world becomes increasingly digital, the barrier to get one’s ideas out and in front of others becomes lower and lower. In the financial sector, in particular, this has led to an open floodgate of financial tips and advice. Many financial advisors have found that sharing their own expertise and marketing their intellectual property are great ways to establish themselves as dependable, trustworthy sources. But with so much content available and from so many sources, it can be challenging for advisors to decide how to start their own process of sharing information and what to share with their target audience.

In our 95^th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss why advisors may be their own worst enemy when it comes to content creation, why having a system to notice and track ideas is more important than choosing only the best ideas to share, and how commitment (and a good systematic process) may actually be the key to creating good content consistently.

When it comes to creating content, advisors often face mental roadblocks that keep them from making progress. Examples including expert’s curse (i.e., underestimating how much knowledge and expertise one actually has), familiarity bias (i.e., overestimating the extent that certain topics are understood), and imposter’s syndrome (i.e., experiencing a lack of confidence despite the years of training and work) are all commonly experienced obstacles skewing the judgment that many advisors have about their own ideas and expertise, often leaving them feeling that their (really good) ideas are not unique or interesting enough.

However, the best way to overcome these roadblocks is often to focus less on the critical process of choosing only the best ideas to share, and instead to focus more on developing a consistent process to capture, store, and organize all ideas – even if those ideas consist of just simple phrases or sentences. Because when it comes to content creation, the more important goal is not so much about finding ‘good’ ideas to share (as advisors have plenty of those, even though they may not always acknowledge that they do), but more about creating habits to help them develop their style and confidence, and to engage with their audience on a consistent basis. Which means that having a reliable system to record their ideas to serve as an ‘intellectual property flywheel’ can serve as a valuable source for potential content for whatever the advisor’s preferred content strategy is – whether it be to release a weekly blog post, monthly podcast, book, or something else entirely.

Ultimately, the key point for advisors to create good content is more about developing a sensible process to capture, store, and organize their ideas… and then having the courage to create sharable content based on those ideas regardless of whether they think the ideas are good enough! As the advisor who commits themselves to create again and again will find that their creativity, digital voice, and audience will grow and improve with time. Taking the first step to establish a process that allows advisors to systematically capture all of their ideas, though, is what opens the door for them to eventually make their best, most creative work!

Why Checklist-Style Financial Planning Works: What Advisors Can Learn From Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps

September 21, 2022 07:05 am 3 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Psychology

There are many financial advisors who take issue with the financial advice offered by popular personal finance personalities such as Dave Ramsey. Some disagree on technical details like the plausibility (or purported lack thereof) of his assumptions for future investment returns, while others criticize broader elements of his approach (like his reliance on rules of thumb and a one-size-fits-all approach to building wealth). Whatever the reason, many advisors dismiss Ramsey’s guidance without considering why the advice is so popular in the first place.

But Dave Ramsey's huge following in the general public – and the number of people who testify that his methods have helped them make progress towards their financial goals – suggests that there is clearly something in his approach that resonates with many people. So for advisors, it may be worth exploring whether there is anything to be learned from Ramsey's approach to financial advice – even if they may disagree on the details, advisors may find in Ramsey's advice a new and perhaps better way to communicate with (and motivate) clients.

One core element of Ramsey's teachings is his "Baby Steps" process for building wealth, which lays out a seven-step sequence for everyone to follow: 1) build a $1,000 starter emergency fund; 2) pay off all (non-mortgage debt); 3) save a 3- to 6-month emergency fund; 4) save 15% of income for retirement; 5) save for children's education; 6) pay off the mortgage early; and finally, 7) build wealth and give.

Though many potentially valid criticisms of this process tend to concern technical details (e.g., the ideal size for an emergency fund, how much income should really be saved for retirement, etc.), what makes Ramsey's Baby Steps so popular among the general public is that they are easy to implement and are geared towards getting the individual to take action with as little friction as possible (in contrast to more advanced steps that would require additional research or analyses to complete). In other words, instead of focusing on a complex, customized plan based on a person's unique circumstances that might make for an ideal financial plan on paper, the Baby Steps are geared toward laying out a clear and inviting path for action – which might be more attractive (and effective) from a non-expert's perspective.

For advisors, the takeaway here is not about whether the Baby Steps offer the best advice for those who follow them, but that there could be merit in providing clients with a clear and cohesive set of steps (similar to a checklist) that helps them orient themselves in terms of where they currently stand in the process and what actions lie ahead. Additionally, a checklist-based framework may even help advisors be more efficient in their planning since it can be a way to systematize the planning process into a set of repeatable steps across many clients (particularly if the advisor serves a specific niche where the steps for building wealth might really be similar across the advisor's whole client base)!

The key point is that a checklist-style approach to financial planning can provide clients with a better understanding not only of what actions they should be taking immediately but also of the goals they are working towards in the long run. Focusing on action-oriented next steps rather than on the technical details behind them can help clients reconcile some of the knowledge gaps that might keep them from making progress toward their goals.

#FA Success Ep 299: Finding The Motivation To Grow Again With Authenticity And Client Significance, With Tim Regan

September 20, 2022 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 299th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Tim Regan. Tim is the founder of PrairieView Wealth Partners, a hybrid advisory firm based in Orland Park, Illinois, that oversees $100 million in assets under management for 190 client households.

What's unique about Tim, though, is how he leverages the independence he gained by transitioning from an insurance agency model to becoming a hybrid with Thrivent Advisor Network to focus his firm on faith-based planning and restructure his own back office by shifting it into a separate company that also partners with other financial advisory firms to offer them middle and back-office support as well.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how, after realizing his firm was too big to be a solo and too small to be big, Tim decided to split his firm into two businesses where PrairieView Wealth Partners remains a financial advisory firm that focuses on the front office aspects and Focus Forward focuses on middle and back-office support so that he could create capacity for his advisory firm to focus more on the client experience, why Tim was inspired to offer middle and back-office support through Focus Forward to other advisory firms (separated by what Tim refers to as an “iron curtain”) in the $75 to $250 million AUM range that were also struggling with having the support and capacity they needed to grow and scale past the founder, and why, since Focus Forward was already knowledgeable in the day-to-day operations of the firms that they support, Tim decided to incorporate continuity agreements with his advisory firm so that advisors can have the peace of mind that if something were to happen to them, PrairieView could ensure their practices would continue their legacies.

We also talk about why, after two decades as a captive agent for Thrivent Financial, Tim decided instead to join their RIA platform, Thrivent Advisor Network, so that he could have more independence to offer his clients a wider range of solutions than just what was available through Thrivent, how Tim got comfortable concentrating on faith-based planning in today’s environment, because as Tim puts it, his faith is simply an authentic part of him and he wants to work with clients who similarly believe in the importance of aligning their faith and values with their money to live up to their God-given potential, and why even though Tim outsourced his middle and back office services he keeps his marketing support in a full-time, in-house role… with a strong focus on not just external marketing so that their story can be told the way they see fit but also internal marketing to work on enhancing their existing client experience (and get more clients talking about them to potential referrals).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Tim shares how, despite being a goal-setting type of person, he ironically struggled with actually achieving the significant growth goals he set for himself (as once they were achieved, the motivation to grow was gone) and instead ultimately decided to focus his energy on what he calls “goals that have significance, rather than goals that are only significant at a single point in time”, why Tim believes hiring the right people early is always a good idea (even if there is a fear of spending money) as when the time comes for needed support it’s already too late to have the time it takes to find those right people, and why Tim believes in the importance of daily affirmations as a way to set ‘mini-goals’ that help him focus on being a better husband and father, to pray, and to make time to take care of himself, too.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about why Tim split his firm so that he can offer back-office support to other advisory firms that are similar in size, how and why Tim implements faith-based planning to his clients, or why Tim also offers continuity planning for the advisory firms that his business supports, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Tim Regan.

What (Really) Makes Advisors More Productive And The Third Kitces Research Study On Advisor Productivity

September 19, 2022 07:01 am 1 Comment CATEGORY: Nerd's Eye View

2022 marks the 50^th anniversary of the enrollment of students into the first Certified Financial Planner (CFP) course, and in the years since then, financial planning (and the process of creating a financial plan) has changed extensively. Early on, the ‘financial plan’ was primarily used as a way to demonstrate a prospective client’s ‘gaps’ and needs for products such as mutual funds or life insurance (which the advisor would then be ready to sell to the client). Eventually, as client relationships grew to be more ongoing and less transactional, financial planning grew to encompass other areas of clients’ financial lives, such as taxes and estate planning. Today, the financial plan itself is increasingly becoming not just a ‘value-add’ supporting other services like portfolio management, but rather the whole purpose of (and primary value proposition for) the client relationship to begin with.

In 2018, we released the first Kitces Research study on “How Financial Advisors Actually Do Financial Planning”, which examined how financial planners today are actually executing their financial planning processes, delivering their financial plans, what technology tools they are using, and how they price their services. In 2020, we conducted a second survey to further explore the changing trends in financial planning brought about by improvements in advisor technology, shifts to the advisor business model, and changes in the regulatory environment.

Our 2018 and 2020 studies revealed some surprising insights into how advisors spend their time – namely that for the ‘typical’ financial planner, only about 20% of their working time is actually spent meeting with clients, while over twice that amount (45%) is spent on behind-the-scenes tasks like preparing for client meetings, running financial planning analyses, and managing investments (with the remaining 35% being split between business development and other management/administrative tasks). What’s notable, however, is that the most ‘productive’ (i.e., top-earning) advisors, on average, spent ‘only’ about 10% more of their time on client meetings compared with the least-productive advisors while reducing their back-office work in turn. In other words, by leveraging back-office support, the most-productive advisors added roughly 4 hours per week – totaling around 200 hours per year – on the high-value task of meeting with clients… and nearly doubled their income in the process!

A lot has changed since 2020, though. Most notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, many advisory firms embraced technology, allowing them to work and meet with clients remotely. Likewise, other developments – such as the implementation of the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest rule and the CFP Board’s updated Financial Planning Practice Standards – have necessitated changes to many advisors’ financial planning processes. And, as always, technology continues to evolve to provide opportunities to streamline the ways advisors provide value (and deepen the value they do provide).

Accordingly, we’re excited to announce the third Kitces Research study, which will once again examine the process that financial advisors go through to create and deliver a financial plan. Following on the themes of the 2018 and 2020 studies, this research will seek to uncover more insights about what distinguishes the most productive advisors from the rest, what factors (such as how they spend their time, what tools they use to support their process, and how they price their services) drive that productivity, and most importantly, what actions other financial advisors can take to improve their own productivity (and consequently, their income and well-being!).

So whether you’re frustrated that your financial planning software doesn’t do what you need it to in order to demonstrate its value, or are simply looking for ideas to refine your financial planning process to be more time-efficient or cost-effective (or valuable and able to command a higher price!), I hope you’ll take a few minutes to participate in this year’s Financial Planning Process survey and help the world better understand what real financial planners actually do!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (Sept 17-18)

September 16, 2022 02:03 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” - this week’s edition kicks off with a report from Future Proof, dubbed the “world’s largest wealth festival”, held this week on(!) Huntington Beach, California. In addition to being held outdoors, the event stood out from ‘standard’ industry conferences in other ways, from the wide scope of its content to the diverse makeup of its attendees.

Also in industry news this week:

How the SEC appears poised to issue new or amended rules regarding its Custody Rule and 12b-1 fees by the end of the year, and what advisors can do to prepare their firms
A new report suggests that smaller firms have seen lower employee attrition rates than larger ones during the pandemic, and the steps firms can take to maintain a stronger company culture to attract and retain staff

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

A survey indicates that while pre-retirees largely understand the benefits of delaying Social Security benefits, only 11% plan to wait until age 70 to claim them, suggesting that advisors can play an important role in influencing clients’ retirement income decision making
Recent research shows that spending often declines throughout retirement, not because retirees have less income or fewer assets, but rather due to changes in health and preferences, offering advisors an additional data point to help project client expenses in retirement
With Medicare’s open enrollment period approaching in less than a month, advisors can add significant value to their clients by assessing whether changing their coverage could save them money

We also have a number of articles on spending and cashflow:

With an increasing number of retirees holding mortgages, advisors can add value by helping clients explore the financial and emotional considerations that go into the decision of keeping a mortgage or paying it off early
While some clients coming off a summer vacation might be tempted to buy a vacation home, advisors can help them consider the full range of consequences of doing so, from unexpected expenses to the potential for family conflict
How the travel industry has added to the growing number of subscription services, offering everything from discounted flights to access to luxury accommodations

We wrap up with three final articles, all about parenting and family dynamics:

The importance of friends for middle schoolers, and why ‘peer presence’ might be a more important dynamic than ‘peer pressure’ for parents to consider
How some parents helped develop an entrepreneurial mindset in their children, often by taking a step back
Why a growing number of family foundations are choosing a time-limited, rather than perpetual, approach in order to donate money faster

Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!