What is the average age/gender/financial demos/social composition/geographical location of your client base?
Our clients are widely spread throughout the U.S., and include some U.S. citizens living abroad. Our strongest concentration of clients is in the areas around our home office, primarily MD, DE, PA and VA, and we also have a concentration in FL of clients seeking warmer climates and friendlier tax situations. While we have many high-net-worth clients, most are in the category of mass afluent. We also have concentrations of small business owners, state and federal employees, and concentrations within some local large employers like McCormick.
What financial technology tools/services do you currently use in your practice?
After learning about Envestnet | Tamarac and exploring the offerings with Drew Tignanelli, our President, the decision was made to embark on a new partnership. In 2012, we onboarded three Tamarac solutions—Advisor CRM, Advisor Portal & Rebalancer, and Reporting & Trading (since renamed Tamarac CRM®, Tamarac Reporting®, and Tamarac Trading®)—and we’ve never looked back. As Envestnet | Tamarac has continued to expand its offerings, we have grown right alongside them by implementing some of those new solutions, including the use of MoneyGuide and Yodlee.
Do you feel the fintech tools/services you use give you any sort of competitive advantage over other advisors and/or do they help you retain clients or win new business more easily? If so, how?
As a result of our partnership with Tamarac, we’ve been able to grow our business in a way we could never have before. One of the major reasons we’ve gone from serving 300 to 1,000 households over the past seven years is because the platform allows us to do so much more at scale with high levels of accuracy. Tamarac’s advanced technology provides us with real operational efficiencies, which equips us with the tools to deliver a better client experience and a higher level of overall service. The connection between portfolio data, CRM data, and the ability to create a seamless process using that unified data set allows us to react flexibly when certain planning opportunities present themselves or when we wish to test new ideas.
How have your clients reacted to the fintech that your firm uses?
Since partnering with Tamarac several years ago, client feedback has been very positive. With the Tamarac Client Portal, Financial Consulate has found an incredibly powerful tool and our clients have been appreciative of its benefits. I also believe it has elevated us to the position of a larger firm.
While we’re still a small firm, the ability to use a custom-branded app helps us demonstrate the added value we provide. When our clients are familiar with our brand and philosophies, they’re more likely to trust our services and refer us to others. The firm takes full advantage of the Client Portal’s customization features, such as embedding monthly videos to promote our commitment to ongoing investor education. Clients can find everything they need on the Client Portal—from uploading tax documents to accessing custom reports and aspects of their MoneyGuide Plan.
When it comes to managing client relationships, the Tamarac CRM solution helps the Financial Consulate team provide differentiated client experiences. Because Tamarac CRM integrates with a broad range of data sources, it can deliver key analytics without the need for manual intervention. The ability for financial advisors to perform advanced analytics has been a game-changer for us.