Once again the TD Ameritrade conference was jammed full of great content. Advisors got a chance to hear a realistic world view from Michael Hayden, an intelligence expert and the former director of the CIA and NSA, a inspirational story from Dara Torres, a legendary Olympic swimmer, and funny political commentary from both Paul Begala with CNN and Tucker Carlson with FOX News.
Along with these speakers, there were many great sessions. Here are insights from over a dozen other experts:
Put A Succession Plan In Place
Anita Venkiteswaran, VP at Focus Financial Partners, LLC, hosted a panel discussion that covered the Focus “successions” offering. Two keys points she made are that a robust succession plan should be in place so you know the clients will be taken care of and it also should be set up with someone that can pay for it. Although a succession plan is critical, she believes 80 to 85 percent of advisors do not really have adequate succession plans. That is even with regulators requiring a written plan in case of death or disability.
One of the panelists, Jim Betzig, CEO of Beirne Wealth Consulting, detailed his experiences. He said that the industry is not seeing a lot of younger advisors coming into it. The approach should just be for the succession of the principals, but it should also benefit the junior advisors. He explained that his organization takes a multi-generation approach that has been a win-win. For example, one younger female advisor has almost tripled her revenue.
Betzig cautioned those that think they can put a succession plan in overnight. Tackling some unrealistic expectations that a lot of advisors have that they believe they can wait and put a plan in place right when they need to, he asked, “Do you have someone already, as you cannot train that person in just a year or two?” He pointed out that a big part of recruiting the right person is around culture. In doing so he said advisors might have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince or princess.
Robert Glovsky, another panelist and vice chair and principal at The Colony Group, warned, “If you do nothing, you end up with a wasting annuity.” He brought about some laughs when he advised, “The business is worth more when you’re alive. My take away – Don’t wait until you pass away.”
Improve Efficiencies To Grow
Alyssa McNamara Reed, a certified financial planner at McNamara Financial Services, Inc. spoke on a panel about leveraging workflows in your CRM to increase assets under management. By sharing her firm’s experiences, she validated that it makes sense to create some workflows for the most common tasks for both clients and prospects.
Jon Patullo, managing director of technology solutions at TD Ameritrade Institutional, says the custodian recognizes the importance of creating workflows with Veo Open Access, and now Veo One, that can drive significant efficiencies for advisors. TD Ameritrade makes more than 20 workflows available to advisors and to the 103 vendors integrated with the Veo platform, giving advisors a starting point from which they can customize and implement as they see fit.
“With Veo One, we’re delivering a personalized experience by providing key workflows tailored according to the functions each user performs in the advisor’s office, so they can do jobs as efficiently as possible,” Patullo said. “Whether advisors are opening accounts, trading securities or on-boarding clients, Veo One is achieving new heights in workflow integration.”
Consider External Partners
Matt Judge, a director at TD Ameritrade Institutional spoke about the benefits and disadvantages of outsourcing things like IT operations, performance reporting and marketing support. On one hand outsourcing can be detrimental if the fees are too high or if a vendor has a lack of flexibility. On the other hand it can free up capacity, gain efficiencies and even save costs.
“Be honest. What talent do you really have? Understand the inventory or skills you have,” challenged Judge. He then asked, what are the client needs? What is the staff capacity? Do you enjoy doing the task? He added, “Life is short. Do you really want to do IT support? Or do you want to outsource it and spend time with your clients?”
When it comes to choosing a partner, consider expertise, as you want to hire the best at what they do. “Price is always important. Look at apples to apples to know what it would cost to do it in-house,” said Judge. Also, make sure the partner’s philosophy is matched up with your firm.
Remember, the decision to outsource is not a one-time decision. Evaluating partners and considering new ways to get assistance should be an ongoing process.
Benefit From Doing Good In The Community
In a session led by two managers at TD Ameritrade, Jennifer Hammond and Tara Valentino-Maher, they shared lots of great reasons why being philanthropic is a good idea. Two of those benefits come in the form of driving engagement with employees and helping with your reputation.
Valentino-Maher pointed out it can even help with recruiting the next generation. She said, “A lot of research is showing that millennials want to work for a company that is giving back.”
How can you improve its community involvement? Consider implementing a matching program, allowing for volunteer time, give from the company, participate in board service, sponsor events and get involved in community projects.
Valentino-Maher showed a Venn diagram. She advised the attendees to look for where employee interest, company priorities and community needs all overlap. That is the corporate social responsibility sweet spot.
Katrina Booker, managing director of communications and public affairs at TD Ameritrade, added that you want to overlay your personal values with your company’s. It helps to find the common goals.
Hammond recommended surveying employees to find the motivation. She said, “Have a conversation internally. Align with (with your associates about) what you are going to do moving forward.” Ask yourself: what are the needs in the community?
TD Ameritrade had “a bike build” activity in which many of the attendees put together one hundred bikes for kids in need in the Orlando, Florida area, of which 20 elementary kids showed up onsite to pick out their newly built bikes. There were many happy faces, not just on the children, but from all those that were involved.
Know Where To Focus Your Efforts
In a panel moderated by Tricia Kasner, the managing director at Barron's, she asked, “Who are you seeing as the client of the future?
Ric Edelman, chairman and CEO of Edelman Financial Services, LLC, answered, “The delegator.” His believe that through technology it is going to get easier and easier for people to do the things they have hired advisors to do in the past. Just look at what has taken place around taxes. Regarding the delegators, he added, “They do not want to do it themselves. They need to have these things taken care of. They will be turning to trusted advisors to do it on their behalf.”
For his firm he is not so concerned about focusing on just women. He believes the great attention on this approach is a bit of a smoke screen created by our industry. He said, “80 to 85 percent of our clients are married.” Even later in life when women become single because of death or divorce, they still have children that are involved.
Darlene Murphy, president of Wellesley Investment Advisors, Inc., agreed. Regarding working with couples, she said, “We still have clients where they are in the old-school mode, but more and more our clients are coming to us as equals with the financial decisions made in the family.”
When it comes to communicating with clients, she believes that whatever the age, it depends on what they want. For example, an 80-year old might want to text. And in times like these, she admits clients are communicating more frequently.
For Randy Conner, president of Churchill Management Group, he is focusing on building relationships – especially with the markets out of control. He said, “We are really focused on having them believe these periods are normal.” He wants his clients to stay to the plan, as opposed to abandoning it.
Fascinate People
“You have to have a point of difference. Otherwise you become a commodity,” said Sally Hogshead, founder and CEO of Fascinate, Inc. For people to pay more, you have to be highly differentiated. To do this, she said, “You don’t have to change who you are. You just have to become more of who you are.” She cautioned the attendees that otherwise they are at risk of being forgotten or ignored.
To create a fascination advantage, one has to tap into the personal brand and then over deliver on it.
Have A Niche
For many advisors, they struggle over the decision of whether to focus on one group of prospects or to try and work with a wider group. Lindsay Troxell, a senior business solutions relationship consultant at TD Ameritrade Institutional thinks advisors should shoot fish in a barrel instead of casting a wide net.
She explained that the demographics explain who to focus on, while the psychographics answer why they choose you and why they seek your services.
Before choosing a target market, an advisor should test it for viability. Troxell believes that those steps should include things like knowing the size of the market and the competition. She recommended interviewing centers of influence (COIs) to learn about a niche’s needs.
If you focus on more than one niche, she advises looking for some similarities. Try to streamline the service offering. You want to make sure there is some common thread.
Get Introduced
“A referral is a passive way to get a lead,” said Jay Wampler, a senior business solutions relationship consultant at TD Ameritrade Institutional. Instead, he would like to see advisors get strategic introductions. To do this, advisors should identify their top connectors and advocates and work to get physical introductions. “The top 20 to 25 people that can drive your business to you,” he said.
Wampler advised attendees to know their natural networking style and mentioned these four categories: driver, expressive, amiable and analytical.
He also said to make sure clients know you are interested in new clients.
He had some 2-2-2-2 advice. He suggested, “Join two organizations. Join meetings twice. Meet two new people. Follow up with them twice.”
Lead Your Business In The Best Way
One simple but powerful message from Fred Tomczyk, president and CEO of TD Ameritrade, in maybe his last LINC conference: “Don’t be afraid of being bold.”
Mike Byrnes is a national speaker and owner of Byrnes Consulting, LLC. His firm provides consulting services to help advisors become even more successful. Need help with business planning, marketing strategy, business development, client service and management effectiveness? Read more at ByrnesConsulting.com and follow @ByrnesConsultin.