The other high-demand program is RainMaker. I’m confident that most every financial advisor has been told, at one time or another, about the power of centers of influence. These are usually—but not exclusively—non-competing professionals that have high-net-worth clients who can potentially refer their clients to a financial advisor. Working with these centers of influence is the most effective way for financial advisors to meaningfully expand the ranks of their affluent clients. It’s been empirically proven that centers of influence are better referral sources than even the most loyal high-net-worth clients. However, these referrals are only possible if financial advisors can establish viable relationships with the appropriate centers of influence.

Regarding RainMaker, it is an industry truism that most advisors are going after many of the same clients served by attorneys and CPAs. But it is also true that most advisors lack a systematic approach to creating a steady stream of new high-net-worth clients. Like Wealth Mapping, RainMaker has been proven effective over more than a decade.

The foundation of RainMaker is for financial advisors to—in many ways—work with the centers of influence as though they were high-net-worth clients. For example, no capable financial advisor would approach a wealthy individual with a plan consisting of 60% equity and 40% fixed. The financial advisor would get to know the affluent prospect and create a portfolio based on a number of factors. However, a large percentage of financial advisors fail to diagnose the centers of influence they’re seeking to do business with prior to making a proposal. In short, everyone is selling themselves, rather than marketing to the center of influence’s needs and goals. RainMaker is predicated on financial advisors approaching centers of influence in the same way they strive to approach their high-net-worth clients.

What’s also unique to RainMaker are some of the fundamental underpinnings of the program. For example, financial advisors select the centers of influence they choose to work with, not the other way around. RainMaker is absolutely not based on financial advisors trading clients with centers of influence. This is usually mathematically impossible and has been generally proven to be ineffectual. Also, it takes very few centers of influence for a financial advisor to build a very substantial high-net-worth practice.

Prince: Have you developed any new programs recently?

Van Bortel: Relay Race is a new program designed to address the enormous intergenerational transfer of wealth that is under way. The baby boom generation is going to be transferring trillions of dollars to its heirs over the next decade. Many financial advisors—especially those with high-net-worth clients—are at risk of losing assets to manage when the next generation inherits. This has nothing to do with the ability of these financial advisors to manage the monies, and everything to do with intergenerational factors.