The other thing Barry wants is to be able to get his firm's numbers based on Schwab's benchmarking data. "They could make available each quarter or year a report on new dollar growth and some year-end compliance info, like accounts by state, by net worth, etc. We're lucky to get Schwab data downloaded into Salesforce, but we still have to build out all the reports to make it usable."
Barry says he would also love to have a practice management consultant help him develop a forward-looking model that addresses where his firm is going and how he's going to track progress toward that goal. "There's a great deal of interest among planners in doing those things necessary to build a fundamentally sound business, but how do you find time to pull it all together and get it done?"
Cheryl Holland presides over Abacus Planning Group Inc. in Columbia, S.C., where 18 employees manage about $620 million in assets for 150 clients including women, physicians and families with closely held businesses.
"We have a very good relationship manager at Schwab," says Holland. "If you have one that understands your firm, they can bring so many options to the table." For example, says Holland, Schwab is getting ready to do training around the country on referrals and business development. They also do a pretty good job with white papers, she says.
Holland has had Schwab come in twice to do a back-office review of her firm's technology. "Schwab has a technology scorecard allowing us to look at technology solutions versus phone and paper solutions and how we score on adopted technologies versus scores of other advisors. We can pull this information off Schwab's Web site quarterly."
What would you like to see, we asked Holland? "I'd love to see electronic signatures ... small things like that, and help on business development since helping us helps them grow too." Holland says she'd also like to have more insight into leadership and management skills and strategic planning. "As we get bigger, people are less willing to share. I can't just call up a $2 billion firm and ask to spend a day with them, and consultants are expensive." Holland says she'd also like help with mergers and acquisitions.
Spencer Segal, CEO and founder of ActiFi in Minneapolis, a software and solutions company that creates scalable business execution and practice management programs for the financial services industry, discusses what the major custodians should be doing to provide practice management assistance to their advisors.
"It's a three-part equation," says Segal. "The first step is diagnostic-understanding what advisors need. The second is really understanding what the advisor is motivated to do. What I've learned is that advisors' capacity to work on their businesses is limited because working in the business consumes most of their time. And third is follow-up and ensuring execution and accountability.
"A majority of custodial practice management offerings are what I'd call 'drive-by consulting,' meaning a consultant comes in, puts together a plan or white paper or PowerPoint that says, 'Here's what you need to do,' yet there's no systematic follow-up to see if the plan was executed.
"Generally speaking, custodians have done a good job of bringing awareness and knowledge to most aspects of practice management," says Segal. But the single greatest opportunity is on the execution side of it. "The issue is the ability to create that shared accountability and ensuring execution."