 | IN THIS
ISSUE |
|
|
|
|
FEATURE STORY
|
Why It Takes a Wealth-Management
Team
By Matt Oechsli
Based on 7 years of research on how the affluent make purchasing
decisions, what they want in a financial advisor, and the secret to
getting affluent referrals and introductions, we are now offering this
two-day action packed workshop. The following dates have been
scheduled:
Myrtle Beach, SC - April 27th & 28th, 2007
Los Angeles, CA - June 15th & 16th, 2007
To register, or for more information go to: Rainmaker Weekend
or Call (800) 883-6582
Dallas: "Does it really require a team to survive in the 21st
century?" asked Marty following a talk I presented on our latest
affluent research.
By now, you should know that our sweet spot at the Oechsli Institute
is the affluent. All of our research is geared towards better
understanding the affluent so we can help you better attract, service
and retain loyal affluent clients. And before I could respond, Marty
answered his own question: "I know, I need to form a team."
It takes a team to meet the needs of today's affluent. Which is why
so much attention is being directed at the idea of building a successful
21st Century Wealth Management Team. This is nothing more than
striving to provide both the products and services the affluent want and
need. It's no coincidence that, in today's vernacular, this has become
know as "comprehensive wealth management."
Everyone recognizes that the affluent no longer want someone to
simply "manage" their investments or "make them money." Sure, they might
talk big, but our research tells us quite clearly that the affluent want
to protect what they have (boring risk-tolerant returns) and minimize
their tax bite. Here is where everything tends to get rather complex for
a solo advisor who's been handling only investments. Why? You might ask.
Because meeting the needs of the affluent requires change. And we all
know that change can be very difficult.
The affluent are looking for someone to oversee the multidimensional
aspects of their family's financial affairs. Whether this is you, their
former insurance agent, their CPA, the person handling their firm's
401(k), a financial planner, their personal banker or their attorney, it
doesn't matter because they don't have a clue where to find this person.
This is your big advantage -- if you make the necessary changes
in your practice to be what the affluent want.
Back to Top ^
Successful. Entrepreneurial. Determined.
Just the type of professional we're looking for.
Investors Capital specializes in helping successful advisors take their
business to the next level.
With a robust line-up of transition packages, fee-based programs and
more, we have the resources, experience and commitment to make your
vision a reality.
Call (866) 599-7757 email joinicc@investorscapital.com
or Click
Here.
|
Really, none of this is very complicated. All that is required is for
you to work with them (each individual family) on a personal level,
address the needs that are unique to them, work with them to develop a
set of priorities and then oversee the execution of these priorities
with your team of experts.
Consider the following wealth-management services …
- To meet current financial obligations to creditors.
- To reduce debt that cannot be paid off in the current month.
- To eliminate debt within ___ months.
- To maintain or upgrade their lifestyle.
- To provide for their financial security, never being reliant on
others.
- To have an ongoing understanding of their net worth.
- To budget what they have coming in and how they use it.
- To minimize the amount of taxes they pay and pay those taxes on
time.
- To insure against serious financial loss due to medical bills and/or
not being able to work.
- To insure against serious financial loss from having to replace or
repair damage to their home, other real estate, vehicles and other large
tangible property investments.
- To pay for the present education of adult family members and the
future education of children and/or grandchildren.
- To retire by the age ___.
- To retire with at least ___% of their current level of income for at
least ___ years.
- To have a detailed plan of how and to whom their property, valuables
and money will be distributed upon their death(s).
- To have a charitable giving plan that is consistent with their
values and compatible with the rest of their financial needs, goals and
priorities.
- To organize, coordinate and update all financial documents.
Back to Top ^
ACT! by Sage + FAct for Financial Professionals
Contact and Compliance Management solution designed for Financial
Advisors and their teams. With custom features, tabs and fields
requested specifically by financial professionals. ACT! + FAct
incorporates the best practices of top producers to help you better
serve your clients and grow your business. Take
a FREE test drive.
|
No advisor in their right mind would ever think that he or she could
deliver all the above alone. Not to mention, delivering a customized
version of the above to every family in their current book of business.
Hardly! It takes a team. By the way, you might have noticed that this
list is in language your clients understand, not in the technical terms
you commonly use. Our research continues to tell us that your affluent
clients want to be communicated to in a language they understand.
Not only is the above list quite long, it's incomplete; there is
always more. Regardless, the idea is to be able to have someone sit down
with each client and personally walk through the process. Your team of
experts and service professionals then becomes an indispensable
"partner" for each of your affluent families.
All of this takes time and effort. But done properly, this team
approach will enable you to fully monetize the relationship with each of
your families. This is truly a powerful "win-win." With a little
fine-tuning, every team can do this. By expanding their
wealth-management services, forming strategic alliances with the right
experts and working to continually improve their service model, every
advisor can do this as well. However, this requires an investment of
time, energy and dollars into your business.
Hiring a flunky junior advisor because your manager is picking up
part of the cost is a fool's mission. You never want anyone other than a
first-class professional delivering any aspect of your wealth-management
services to your affluent families. In fact, some of the best
wealth-management practices only have one financial advisor. The other
players are knowledge working support personnel.
Back to Top ^
Strategies For Building Your High Net Worth Practice
A new monthly teleconference series presented by Registered
Rep., Trusts & Estates and Cannon Financial Institute
Featured lecturers include Ted Ridlehuber,
President,
Cannon
Financial Institute and Phil Buchanan, Executive VP, Cannon
Financial
Institute.
Next Session: Tuesday February 20,
2007 (Program Code -- CWM 12359).
Topic: The Protection
And Preservation Of Wealth Using Insurance
To register click
here or call 1-800-775-7654.
For a complete listing of course topics and dates click
here.
|
I recognize this does not always fit the standard definition the
industry has assigned to teams. But that shouldn't be your concern. Your
concern must be continually enhancing your ability to attract,
service and develop loyal affluent clients.
Using our broader definition of a wealth-management team, our 2007
research provides us statistically significant evidence that
high-performance wealth-management teams are clearly superior in their
efforts to attract, service and develop loyal affluent clients. However,
our research also told us that only 17% of the teams surveyed were
performing at this high level.
Yes, there is work to be done. Here is a quick way to start:
- Analyze your affluent families; wealth-management services currently
in use, level of personal service and potential to further monetize the
relationship.
- Assess your level of expertise: banking, taxes, investments, estate
work, financial planning, insurance and the delivery of Ritz-Carlton
service.
- Determine the families that need expanded wealth-management
services.
- Determine the expertise you need to add and the professional you
either want to form a strategic alliance with or join your team.
This is a good exercise to review on an annual basis. We are in a
very fluid environment with changes happening much faster than any one
person can keep up with. You never want to take your affluent families
for granted.
If you would like a free overview of the wealth-management
team stages of development from our 2007 High Performance Wealth
Management Team research, go to Team Stages. Also, if you brought
in 10 or more $1 million-plus clients over the past year and want to
participate in one of our current research projects, visit 2007 Rainmaker Best
Practices.
Once again, we want to thank all of you who have emailed comments and
questions to us. We will continue to do our best to answer each one. If
you have any topic or special requests, please contact Rich Santos,
publisher of Registered Rep. and Trust & Estates
magazines, at rsantos@prismb2b.com.
Back to Top ^
|
|
|
