The new year is a good time for reflections and resolutions. For advisors, it’s also a chance to think about the lessons they’ve learned in their careers.
A variety of seasoned financial pros shared with Financial Advisor what they wish they had known earlier in their careers. Their answers were diverse—and enlightening.
Avoid Cookie-Cutter Approaches
“You can’t have a cookie-cutter approach with clients,” said Bob Peterson, a senior wealth advisor at Crescent Grove Advisors in Lake Forest, Ill.
When he entered the profession, he said, he had no shortage of technical training about investments, taxes, estate planning, and related subjects. But what he didn’t realize was that advisors “should really take more time to get to know their clients’ wants, needs, and wishes,” he said. “The sooner you understand each of your clients, the better off you and your clients will be.”
For Darla Kashian at RBC Wealth Management in Minneapolis, understanding clients often entails more than dollars and cents, she said. “It’s not just about the investments,” she explained. “Obviously, we are prudent, but the issues families face are greater than their specific investments.”
For instance, she said, it’s important to address issues such as planning for special-needs children, incorporating individual health concerns or substance abuse problems, and personal obligations to siblings and other loved ones.
“These are the big issues we deal with every day in our practice,” she said, adding, “Building trust is crucial to having these conversations.”
It’s A Relationship Business
DeHaven Becker of Harmony Private Wealth at Steward Partners Global Advisory in Fort Collins, Colo., put it this way: “This is a relationship business. Being smart, competent, responsive, service-oriented, and credentialed are the minimum table stakes to do this for a living. [But] I also become friends with my clients.”
That means knowing his clients’ family dynamics and their private concerns. In return, he said, clients frequently ask him questions that have nothing to do with their investments. “They know I have their back,” he observed. “They’re not just a number to me.”
Run Your Business Like A Business
Chris Marsico at Rossby Financial, a RIA platform in Saxonburg, Pa., wishes he had realized earlier that advisors are also business owners. “All too often, we advisors act like we’re just salespeople and not what we truly are, a business,” he said.
That, he added, can prohibit future growth. Advisors who don’t change their mindset from “salesperson” to “business owner,” he elaborated, are typically unable to grow their businesses the way they want to.
Advisory practices that do best, said Ken Van Leeuwen of Van Leeuwen & Co. in Princeton, N.J., tend to be those that expertise or otherwise serve a need that’s unmet elsewhere. “Finding an area within financial planning that is underserved and where you can establish yourself as an expert is a strategy that can be very successful,” he said.
Van Leeuwen’s firm focuses on corporate executives of public companies, he explained. But whatever the specialty, he said, clients are “happy to pay for your services when they know you are providing real, tangible value.”
Mentorship
For other advisors, having a good mentor early on would have meant the world.
“As a woman who started in the advisory business in the late 1980s, I did not have a mentor and had very few peers,” said Lori Van Dusen, CEO of LVW Advisors in Pittsford, N.Y. “It was an extremely lonely journey, and I made some mistakes by not having sounding boards.”
Looking back, she said, she would counsel her younger self to look outside the industry, if necessary, to meet experienced women leaders who “could have given me some sage advice.”
Work-Life Balance
Still other financial pros insist that you can only serve clients well if you take good care of yourself.
“You cannot pour from an empty cup,” said Laraine Dickerson of Canvas Advisors in Englewood, Colo.
Dickerson clarified that she has a lot of responsibilities—her business, her family, and her community all take time and energy. “I used to put myself and my care last,” she related. Now, she said, she has learned she can only give her best effort to others when she’s first looked after of herself.
“Though it may sound simplistic, making sure I am getting enough sleep, not skipping meals, and taking enough downtime to relax are pivotal to my performance,” she said.
Stay Flexible
Of course, a financial advisor has to be ready for practically anything. “Financial planning is an ongoing process,” noted Mark Van Drunen at MAI Capital Management in Cleveland.
Still, he asserted, preparation is the key to unlocking possibilities. Even if a client’s situation or financial markets themselves change, it’s important to remain nimble within the overall plan. “The plan evolves,” he said. “But planning turns the uncertainty into opportunity.”
Reading Behavioral Signals
Some advisors shared the importance of reading behavioral signals in their clients. For instance, Erin Wood at Carson Group in Omaha, Neb., once had a prospective client who wanted to get on track for retirement. “She was contributing a huge amount of her salary to charitable donations,” Wood recalled, “and was saving nearly nothing.”
At the time, Wood was at a loss as to how to help. But if the woman came in today, she said, Wood would recognize that the perspective client was struggling with “money avoidance” issues and needed emotional as well as financial support. “I wish I could go back in time and help her,” she lamented.
These skills may take time to master. “The first few years in the profession are very difficult,” said Jamie Letcher of Summit Financial Advisors in Madison, Wisc. But he wishes he had known how rewarding it would turn out to be.
“If you work hard and persevere, your day will come,” he said.