There are a number of ways to source the super-rich (those with a net worth of $500 million or more). As I've said in previous columns, some approaches are more effective and consistent than others. For example, having a dual-impact brand and focusing on referrals, more so from influencers than clients, is the optimal way to go.

There are ways to motivate influencers to direct their wealthiest clients your way. Moreover, these methods are predicated not just on your ability to do a good job for the client, but also on your ability to add value to the influencer's practice.

If your objective is to work with the super-rich, you'll likely need to identify and work with a meaningful number of influencers, as very few of them have more than a single or a handful of super-rich clients. Or you could choose to be part of an elite professional network.

Elite professional networks are primarily composed of a combination of the usual suspects of legal, accounting and financial professionals. The members work cooperatively to source and share super-rich, or at the very least extremely wealthy, clients.

Members of the network usually fill multiple roles. There are typically four distinct, but interrelated, roles within every network: "rainmakers," client facilitators, meta-facilitators and specialists.
Let's examine each of these roles.

Rainmakers
The rainmakers are the heart of an elite professional network because they bring in the extremely wealthy clients. Any member of the network can try to be a rainmaker, but it's usually the same professionals who tend to bring in most of the extraordinarily wealthy clients.

Good rainmakers don't rely on just their personal and family connections. That can take you only so far. Professionals who rely on this method tend to run through their connections and are done, with little ability to restock their Rolodexes.

Rainmakers who consistently bring new clients to the network are usually thought leaders in their respective fields. Thought leaders are much more capable of generating new relationships-principally with influencers-that can maintain a steady flow of extremely wealthy clients.

As thought leaders, these rainmakers can distinguish themselves as icons among the super-rich and influencers, consequently making themselves the go-to professionals for their particular expertise. This enables them to regularly bring super-rich clients to their elite professional network.

Client Facilitators
The very nature of the elite professional network is predicated on sharing enormously wealthy clients with other members of the network. It's important to note that the sharing must be highly proactive. This means members should work to keep non-members away. The responsibility for this falls to the client facilitator.

The client facilitator is usually the lead professional who works directly with clients. The client facilitator can also be the rainmaker, but this is not always the case. When the expertise desired by the client is the province of a professional within the network other than the rainmaker, it's very likely that professional becomes the client facilitator.

The critical function of the client facilitator is to make sure the other members of the network are brought in when appropriate. To do this, the client facilitator must have more than a peripheral understanding of the network members' capabilities.

Meta-Facilitators
To ensure that all its members have an opportunity to work with a client, elite professional networks often get together to discuss the client-with all issues of confidentiality attended to. Members will discuss a client situation and where they believe the expertise of others in the network may apply. In these brainstorming sessions, it is the meta-facilitator who makes sure each member has a say.

Meta-facilitators keep the network humming. They generally mediate differences among members, keeping everyone aligned.

Meta-facilitators are often responsible for managing projects that involve the pooling of the network's resources. They work with everyone to ensure that no one feels slighted as they contribute their time, energy and money. This can be complicated when different experts feel they are better positioned to represent the project.

In some networks, money moves internally. Commissions or fees are shared among some-but rarely all-of the members. The meta-facilitator typically ensures all parties are paid without complications. Hence, he or she has to be aware of the pricing for all the services the network is providing to each client.

Specialists
Each professional in the network is a specialist, bringing a certain expertise, be it legal, investment management or insurance competencies, to the engagement. Rarely are competing specialists in the same network. This doesn't mean that members are licensed to provide various products, as this is a requirement for internal payments.

Members must conclude a specialist offers a top-flight technical capability before accepting him or her into the network. Each network member has to have total confidence that the other members will do their job expertly as well as be client-centered. If one of the professionals in the network falters, it reflects badly on the rest of the members and will likely result in the super-rich client disengaging at some level.

Value-Added Expertise
Aside from legal, accounting and financial professionals, every network has a number of other experts in their ranks or, more likely, on call. These other experts provide the network's members with value-added services that help differentiate them from competitors. An even bigger advantage of these value-added experts is that they can help source tremendously wealthy clients.

I was first introduced to elite professional networks years ago when a network contacted me to "fill in a gap" in their expertise. A billionaire prospect wanted to know how to set up a single-family office, including how to compensate its senior executives. I was the resource they provided to their prospect. While the billionaire always had the final say about whom to work with, by being able to intelligently address this matter, a number of the network's members ended up providing their services to the billionaire-and are still doing so today.

Being able to "fill in a gap" in this way can be very powerful in attracting and winning the business of super-rich clients. In this scenario, the members of the network actively use the various experts to enhance their marketing efforts.

Only a select number of experts can be used to attract the very wealthy and, in particular, the super-rich. Elite professional networks are adept at leveraging these authorities to create venues where they can interact with the super-rich.

Which value-added experts make the most sense to bring in is a function of the characteristics of the prospects. The greater the level of wealth being targeted, the more unique the value-added experts need to be. Furthermore, as with the rainmakers, the extent to which the value-added experts are leading authorities in their respective fields, the better able the elite professional network will be to cultivate the extraordinarily wealthy clients they're concentrating on.

In the next issue of Private Wealth, I'll address the way elite financial networks are formed and their future in the industry.