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Transcript

The Power of Personal Growth,Value Adds and Freedom in Your Practice · The Perfect RIA

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  Amber Kuhn: Hello TPR nation. This is Amber Kuhn. Thank you
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  for joining me on today's Follow up Friday, where I'll be
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  recapping this week's episode highlights and action items. On
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  Monday, Matt was joined by Aaron Palmer, an advisor from
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  Washington to talk about value adds, as well as a personal
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  experience that changed his life. Matt And Aaron pointed out
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  that advisors think value adds need to be super elaborate. We
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  have so many available options that are fundamentals and they
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  make a big difference for your clients. Aaron said during his
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  review this year, he did an unclaimed property search for
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  every client by going to unclaimed.org going to their
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  state, and then entering the client's name, their spouse and
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  their children's names to find as much property as we could to
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  help them claim it. He's completely virtual, and he'd do
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  this while meeting with his clients and doing a screen
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  share. From there, he'd either help the clients claim it right
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  there, or follow up with a letter on this what to do next
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  and what they could expect. Aaron had a client who ended up
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  finding about $10,000 from an old IRA. But for most clients,
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  this is typically a smaller amount, but it only takes a few
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  minutes, and it demonstrates to clients that you're thinking
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  about more than just money that you manage, and they feel like
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  they're being taken care of. This is a value add that any
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  advisor could do. Aaron then shared his personal story of how
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  he's been sober for 12 years after an experience he had on
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  the trip, which he said changed his life. During the trip, he
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  met a mother and her son who was battling cancer, who were on
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  vacation because of a Wish granted by the Make a Wish
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  Foundation. Aaron said that conversation inspired him to
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  change his life through this, and with a presentation he did
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  for the foundation, he shared how by making that wish for that
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  little boy, it went further than anyone could have imagined, and
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  how it saved his own life. Matt and Aaron spent some time
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  talking about addiction in the industry, whether it's
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  alcoholism or having addiction to working, and the impact it
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  has for Aaron and with the experience he went through, he
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  realized that after getting sober, his life truly took off.
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  He pointed out that so many people struggle with this by
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  keeping up with the good habits that he's learned. He's been
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  able to stay sober for Aaron to be able to open up about his
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  struggles and his experience. He said it was through both time
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  and his faith that he got the confidence to do this and share
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  it with so many people. Matt And Aaron pointed out that with this
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  or any other thing in your life, you don't always need to
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  reinvent the path, whether that's trying to get server or
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  in your business, once you find someone doing something that's
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  working, you need to follow that path. Aaron then went into how
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  he runs his practice surge, how he did a fee increase, and how
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  he's so intentional with his schedule, he Matt dug a little
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  deeper into working with his team and what they focus on year
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  to year, whether it's updating beneficiaries or going through
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  who they haven't heard from in a while. Another value add he
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  mentioned is printing off a detailed balance sheet that
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  lists all accounts, mailing that to the client with instructions
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  to then tuck that into their will. He also pointed out how
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  anything he sends to his clients is in a bright orange envelope.
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  He makes his clients aware of this so they know that when they
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  get that it's something important. Things like these are
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  simple, but they work and they make a difference. Let's get
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  into action items. Consider raising your fees or
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  implementing search if you haven't yet, and look at simple
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  value adds that you can do, such as unclaimed property or the
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  network statement, and giving clients instructions for them to
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  tuck that into their well, Aaron recommends reading the book,
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  who, not how, and if you feel an inkling of procrastination,
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  that's something you need to delegate. On Thursday, Jamie was
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  talking about the second stage of an advisor's career path,
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  freedom. Now if you missed last week's episode, Jamie was
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  talking about the growth stage. So this week, she wanted to talk
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  about what happens when you've grown your practice and you
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  either get to a point where you're complacent or you're
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  burnt out, and what does that mean for you, your family and
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  your clients? That's when you enter that freedom stage. Once
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  you get to this point, you can start being discerning about
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  your clients. You don't have to take everyone who walks in. So
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  in Jamie's office, when they're going through their client list,
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  they have a test for whether the advisor or the team is dreading
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  meeting with a particular client. And this isn't just
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  because you're about to have a hard conversation. It's that
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  person every time that is taking up all your mental energy, even
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  before you meet with them, instead of you focusing on the
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  majority of the people who you want to meet with, they become
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  your problem client. And Jamie said, You're setting yourself up
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  for regulatory failure. Your problem client is going to be a
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  red flag and send in a complaint. This is the client
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  you need to graduate. Another thing that comes up when you're
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  transitioning into the freedom stage is advisors struggling
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  with that shopkeeper mentality, meaning you assume that things
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  aren't or can't happen without your involvement. Advisors end
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  up with guilt about nothing in the office, but with freedom,
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  it's all about making sure you have documented systems,
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  policies and processes in place. Jamie said that's a stepping
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  stone between growth and freedom. Now, if you don't have
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  these in place, you need to take everything you know or know how
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  to do and document it so someone else can handle this. And if you
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  need a place to start, she recommended starting with a
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  communication policy, because you don't want your team looking
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  at you as the easy button. And if you're dealing with the guilt
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  physically in the office, Jamie said you can still have check in
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  meetings. You can still see the call volume coming in. You can
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  still have a pulse on what's happening when you're out of the
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  office and when things come up. Take the time to do a guided
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  discovery with your team to see if you're dealing with a process
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  problem or a people problem. Make sure that everyone
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  understands that they're part of everything that's happening in
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  your practice. This is how you get to the freedom level,
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  because at this point you need to be focusing on financial
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  plans, business development, or meeting with clients, not just
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  him the office. Jamie wrapped up by talking about the need to
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  take action, and with the freedom stage, you'll never get
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  to that point, let alone the enterprise stage if you aren't
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  taking action. That wraps up this week's recap. So TPR
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  Nation, if you're looking for more resources, or if you have a
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  question, be sure to email us at lifestyle@theperfectria.com.
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  Thank you for joining me, and please share this or any of our
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  episodes with another advisor or team member who you think might
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  benefit from listening. And be sure to subscribe to The Perfect
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  RIA Podcast so you don't miss an episode and happy planning.