One study said that clients are more willing to consolidate their assets with a team, and that teams retained their most affluent clients longer and had clients with more assets. Financial advisors had higher productivity working on a team: assets grew at an 11 percent higher rate than those managed by sole practitioners and revenue was 17 percent higher.
Mullen selected 10 top producing teams from the hundreds he worked with and interviewed, to use as case studies. The teams’ revenue ranged from $2 million to $18 million.
Before teams could be assembled, a vision and a business plan had to be created from following the 10 best practices of a financial advisor team: establishing a vision; roles and responsibilities; performance measurements; compensation; communication; hiring; the product (offering), marketing, processes and leadership.
Mullen wrote that teams have specific merits: financial advisors function better when they are accountable to someone, more ideas are swapped in groups, the pooling of resources helps team growth, clients’ confidence is increased because teams have a transparent succession plan, they provide better service and offer more depth of expertise. Clients also favored the increased communication a team offers.
The right professional team reminds Mullen of a successful marriage: a union of shared values, both professional and personal. Teams have various structures: the vertical team is typically built around a single financial advisor who wants to build a team for support and delegation of duties; a horizontal team works for advisors who want collaboration; feedback, brainstorming and shared decision making. The holistic team merges vertical and horizontal structures. Teams that bring in family members or allow potential team members a tryout also are discussed.
Mullen advised that the formation of a new team be announced to clients formally, and that an open house be held to introduce clients to the team.
He provided extensive lists of tasks and challenges that teams face, such as establishing a budget for investing back in the practice, fiduciary pricing and performance reviews.
Mullen devoted a chapter to assigning roles and responsibilities in the product, service, marketing and human resources divisions. Team members range from partners and relationship managers to registered client associates and administrative assistants. He urged advisors to delegate $30 per hour activities so they may focus on the $500 per hour Big Three Activities.
Chapters on performance reviews; compensation, hiring, the offering; marketing, process development and leadership are detailed and informative, too, as are the successful teams’ case studies.
A best practice checklist ties up the chapters neatly. Mullen has covered the waterfront of successful team building; his book is essential reading.
The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor Team, by David J. Mullen Jr. HarperCollins Leadership. 292 pages. $34.99.
Eleanor O’Sullivan is an award-winning journalist who writes for Financial Advisor.