Josh Benson is the vice president of strategic relations at Integrated Partners. He helps align Integrated Partner’s top advisors and provides exceptional solutions to their biggest challenges and pain points.
Russ Alan Prince: What is the biggest hurdle facing financial advisors right now?
Josh Benson: In a word: technology. Most advisors understand that they need technology, and most understand the basics of email and their CRM. But the problem is, most don’t understand how to put technology to work for them to make them more efficient ultimately. The result is an inefficient practice where an advisor spends too many hours on simple tasks and not enough hours with their clients.
Prince: Do you have a solution?
Benson: I always tell advisors to think about the simplest tasks, like calendar management. You might spend 30 minutes going back and forth over an email just to schedule an appointment when a simple tool like Calendly can eliminate five emails. And the truth is your clients love that efficiency too.
Prince: What’s the big opportunity you are helping advisors conquer?
Benson: I think advisors need to work smarter and not harder as they think about growth. At Integrated, that means helping advisors to move their practice up-market. That begins with a simple question: How can you work with one high-net-worth client instead of 10 mass affluent clients? Again, it is about being efficient.
Prince: How does a process like that begin?
Benson: It always begins with goal setting. As we head toward a new year, we look at setting simple goals to move advisors toward these better opportunities. Sometimes, that means just some simple staffing so that you, as the lead advisor, can focus up-market while a new junior advisor, or as we call them, your second chair, focuses on smaller clients.
Prince: What’s the biggest feedback you are hearing from advisors?
Benson: The Integrated community of advisors is all about sharing solutions. Our advisors want a tailored and customized solution. They love the flexibility to explore the best options and solutions so that, at the end of the day, their clients always come out on top. We know that there is no one-size-fits-all solution because every advisor’s practice is unique.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth and a strategist for family offices and the ultra-wealthy. He has co-authored 70 books in the field, including Making Smart Decisions: How Ultra-Wealthy Families Get Superior Wealth Planning Results.