Process. That's a word we hear a lot about lately. It's as if the entire profession has awakened to the truth that if you have a process for the work you do, it will make you more efficient and result in better client service.

It sounds so fundamental it's a wonder we find this truth so enlightening.  Perhaps it's so meaningful because so many advisors come into this industry as technicians with little experience in running a practice.

That's why advisors share their processes. This has been going on for a long time, as can readily be seen in the technology arena. An advisor creates proprietary software, uses and refines it in his own operation, and eventually offers it for sale to other advisors. Think Junxure and ProTracker CRMs, for example. But this phenomenon isn't just confined to technology. It also takes place in the context of business systems or (here's that word again) in processes.  Sharing of processes takes the form of advisor networks, where an advisor invites other advisors to learn his processes and, hence, be more efficient.

Some advisor networks are practically household names, such as the Garrett Planning Network (mostly hourly planners serving middle-market clients) and the Alliance of Cambridge Advisors Inc. (fee-only advisors serving middle-income and high-net-worth clients). In each case, the advisors joining these networks are familiar with the processes of the founder-Sheryl Garrett and Bert Whitehead, respectively, in the cases above-and want to duplicate them within their own firms.

But you've probably never heard of other advisor networks because either they're new or they've operated under the radar for a number of years. For this article, we selected one new network and two more-established networks to illustrate the different ways you can join a community of advisors and jump-start your practice.

The Sestina Network Of Fee-Only Financial Planning Professionals
John Sestina of Columbus, Ohio has more than 40 years experience in our industry and was a co-founder of NAPFA. The Sestina Network of Fee-Only

Financial Planning Professionals (www.sestina.com/us/uPlanners.asp) stresses the fee-only side of planning.

Beginning in 1993, Sestina experimented with ways of getting out the word about fee-only planning and training new industry participants in his methods. Those experiments have evolved into a systematic process whereby Sestina has turned out roughly 50 full-fledged successful planners since inception.

Today, Sestina's training initially consists of a 90-day internship program. "It doesn't matter where the advisor is located because virtual, or remote, operations is part of the plan," Sestina says. "We show them our system, our software, and they sit in on client meetings to fully learn our process. At the end of 90 days, they can decide to: 1) Leave; 2) Operate using our systems virtually, if they're out of state; or 3) If in Columbus, they can actually locate themselves in my office space and get trained directly on-site."

Sestina charges just for the cost of services the advisor-trainee uses; there's no separate fee for the training. "If the planner is out of state, they pay to use our back office," he says. "If they're local, they also pay rent for the office space they occupy."

After 90 days, participants get ongoing training and Sestina meets once a week with them for a year. He doesn't feed them referrals, though. "This isn't part of the plan," Sestina says. "They must learn to get clients on their own and to be able to service them."

During the first year, a local planner can bring their prospects to Sestina and have him conduct the initial meeting to learn how to land the client. "I do the presentation and answer questions, and if they decide to be a client, then they're a client of the network advisor," he says. "Eventually, through this process, the advisor learns to conduct the prospect meeting on his or her own."

Sestina's purpose isn't to build an empire. Rather, he says, he simply wants to turn out qualified, fee-only advisors. "People grow and go out on their own. Rick Epple [Epple Financial Advisors LLC in Wayzata, Minn.] was with me three years.  When he came in, he had a lot to learn about building a client base. Six months ago, he was ready to do it all himself, so we cut him loose and now he's on his own with a great practice."

After trying various approaches, Sestina settled on his current system, which includes daughter Allison and her team providing back-office services. "Now things run like an assembly line," he says.

A few have stayed with Sestina in his own office. Certified financial planner Mark Coffey, for one, has been with Sestina for about 10 years. "He's still in the office and doing well," says Sestina. Under Sestina's training, Coffey- a former attorney-is now a successful advisor and a past president of the Columbus Estate Planning Council who specializes in multi-generational planning.

The other advantage of the Sestina Network is its built-in succession planning. "Since everyone uses the same back-office system, when an advisor dies or wants to retire, his clients can be transitioned seamlessly to another planner within the network," he says.

Sestina's goal is to help build the profession. "I've had to teach people to do financial planning the way I think it should be done," he says. "Sooner or later the media will see an affiliation with the Sestina Network like the Good Housekeeping seal-a system that turns out reputable, comprehensive fee-only financial planners."

Fox Financial Planning Network
Before Deborah Fox founded the Fox Financial Planning Network (www.foxfinancialplanningnetwork.com) in 2008, there was Fox College Funding (www.foxcollegefunding.com), her systematic approach to teaching advisors the ins and outs of college funding opportunities for high-net-worth clients.
"I had no intention of creating an advisor network," says Fox, who has her own advisory practice in San Diego. "But did it on request from other financial advisors."

As she coached other advisors on college funding, Fox says she began to realize the shortfalls in advisors' practices.  "When the markets fell in fall 2008, I thought we were less impacted than our peers, partially because of our fee structure [of] annual retainers plus an AUM fee. We survived pretty well and decided the market environment would be receptive to our advisor network.

"There are many challenges in trying to figure out how to provide a higher level of service to one's entire client base," she says. "But we know that when an advisor has a deeper relationship with her clients, she will have a lower attrition rate".

Fox teaches advisors how to add a financial planning component to their business so clients aren't so focused on performance all the time.
"I only work four days a week with the support of my systems," says Fox, adding she has identified lots of advisors who'd love to offer more comprehensive services but can't make time to develop the expertise and a step-by-step process.

That's where the Fox Network comes into play. "We have a step-by-step process advisors can drop into their practice and begin to be more efficient," she says.

Unlike advisors attracted to the Sestina Network, Fox's group are often more experienced advisors who simply lack the systems to be efficient and profitable.

What happens when you join the Fox Network?  "I teach each of the eight sessions live over the Internet," says Fox. "I go through my documents and process with them. In between sessions they get individual coaching to help implement the lessons in their particular practices."

The sessions are broken down by topic. The first step is sales training that teaches advisors the difference between traditional and consultative selling. They next learn the philosophy of her network in terms of how services should be delivered to clients and, most important, how to delegate and look at their workflow to decide who in the office will handle the tasks that they, themselves, shouldn't be doing.

Another lesson covers her "script" of how that first prospect meeting should go.  "We discuss the questions they'll ask at the meeting, technical recommendations, and the workflow needed to accomplish it all," says Fox, adding there are about 150 workflow points from start to finish of financial planning for a client. "If the advisor is using Redtail's CRM, they can copy what we have exactly. Otherwise, they can program their workflow points into whatever CRM they're using."

Part of Fox's training includes technical areas that many advisors are already familiar with but might not have enough depth in. After six months, says Fox, the advisors have everything they need in place. Hopefully, they've been implementing her advice along the way.

The Fox Network has two price plans-participate in the live training with online videos for $6,900, or buy a recorded version for $4,595.

Hanson McClain Retirement Network
If you haven't heard of the Hanson McClain Retirement Network (www.hmrn.com), which has been around since 1998, perhaps that's because it's somewhat more specialized than either the Sestina or Fox networks. The Hanson McClain Retirement Network is a nationwide network of financial advisors specializing in retirement planning that provides marketing and practice management tools for advisors who want to work with retirees from the telecommunications and utilities industries.

Hanson McClain, an advisory firm with three offices in the Sacramento area, began to work with Pac Bell personnel in 1991 and developed a program that brought a stream of qualified clients through the door. "We built our business off of that," says Scott Hanson, a senior partner and founding principal at the firm.

In doing so, Hanson McClain developed a model for other advisors to follow. "Part of what makes our model unique, says Hanson, "is that we first become experts at specific companies' retirement plans. So, if we're working with Florida Gas & Power, we become experts at that employer's pension plans, learning all the options their employees have at retirement time."

Hanson says what differentiates their offering from competitors at larger institutions is that his firm gets involved with the client three to five years prior to retirement. "We help them make financial choices today so they'll be better prepared for retirement tomorrow. Then we capture their rollover dollars."

Training with the Hanson McClain network takes the form of a partnership, Hanson says. Training starts with a one-day seminar, followed by a nine-week business plan to get advisors off the ground. The firm formulates the best approach for each partner and customizes the plan from there. Some get weekly calls and some might get onsite visits.

"With 40 employees, we have relationship managers who travel across the U.S. and work with partners in their offices," Hanson says. "We help our partners market through our relationships with trade unions and other gate-keepers, and we put on marketing events for partners. As their practices grow, we help them in every area they need help."

Examples can include choosing a CRM, hiring employees, or legal issues they're dealing with. "We're not successful unless our partners are successful," Hanson says.

Partners pay nothing up front. "We invest time and resources on the front end, and we get paid through a revenue share of 20%, which applies to clients they work for who came through our connections," Hanson says. "If they form new relationships with employers we don't serve, then they keep all of that income."In essence, what advisor networks do for the industry is to train advisors in the one thing they don't get from CFP and other credentialing programs: Business savvy and processes. If this is what you're lacking, think about joining an advisor network.