Progress is measured by the degree of differentiation within a society. —Herbert Read
This chapter outlines reasons why a client or prospect should do business with you (instead of anyone else). It will help you define your Unique Value Proposition. You have read about and been asked about your differentiation. You have thought about it, perhaps even written something down intending to define it, and perhaps awkwardly discussed it with clients, saying something to try to distinguish yourself and your services. The fact is, it is not easy to truly develop a clear and concise answer to the question, “Why should I do business with you instead of anyone else?” Perhaps only some clients or prospects have actually asked this question directly, but you need to work on the assumption that 100 percent of your clients and prospects have thought about this question and would love you to answer it without having to ask—just like many advisors want clients to know why they are different and better than anyone else, without having to state it.
Knowing, understanding and being able to crisply and clearly state your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP) will be of significant value for you as it will also bolster your own belief system and allow you to answer the question before it is asked. It’s better to be proactive in discussing your UVP before you are asked what it is. Get it out of the way early, so your clients or prospects can focus on the rest of what you want to address without them concentrating on the “Why you?” question.
In this chapter we will discuss five key points that, if you master them, will help you deliver as effective a UVP as we believe exists in the financial advisory business today. We will:
1. Explain that a Unique Value Proposition has two distinct parts, value and uniqueness, and we will define both parts.
2. Define the elements of your deliverables and their value.
3. Explain the Law of Fractional Advantage and its applicability to you.
4. Discuss the need for effective and persistent execution in the six core client-facing processes.
5. Detail 16 elements that in aggregate will define your differentiation.
Key point one is to recognize that your UVP has two distinct parts: value and uniqueness. Every advisor has the ability to deliver each of the values we will discuss. The depth and breadth of the values you deliver start to contribute to your uniqueness.
Value is in the eyes of the client, so you need to answer the basic question: “What’s in it for me?” (the client or prospect) or “What do you have to say that will improve my life?” It’s important that your client or prospect understands that your deliverables have an inherent value in terms of time and effort saved and wealth made and/or protected, as well as in the reduction of various toxic emotions like worry, stress, and anxiety.
The value of reducing toxic emotions is difficult to measure monetarily but important to consider. The value of time and effort saved and wealth made and/or protected can be subjective but is quantifiable.
Value should be discussed in context of our present-day industry. It may therefore be helpful to review where we have come from, and how client expectations have changed over the past decades. The landscape has changed significantly, triggered by product development, technological advances, new regulatory oversight, industry consolidation and the growth of fee-based businesses. Decades ago, clients separated banking from investing. Then brokerage firms began offering cash management services, then came the Glass-Steagall Act. Now many advisors working for large firms are connected with a bank (e.g., Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, UBS, and others). Clients might view their relationship with an advisor much more holistically today than they did decades ago when the advisor was a “broker” who helped identify investments and execute transactions. As the industry has become less transaction-based we have seen the growth of advice-based relationships, fee-based wrap pricing, and the use of technology to help manage and model portfolios as well as relationships.
The new administration may halt the implementation of Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Standard regulations. The effect could be less mandated compliance work; however, it will not stem the tide of movement toward fee-based relationships (and perhaps continuing movement toward fiduciary relationships). Clients and advisors are continuing to grow more comfortable with these fee-based relationships. During one of the sessions on technology at a recent industry conference, the speaker asked the crowd of about 200, “How many of you would say that investment selection and performance is the primary driver of adding value to your clients?” Only two hands went up. While this was not a scientific survey, it appears to us that advisors do not see performance as their primary value to clients in today’s financial world. The point of the question was to challenge the audience to focus on what clients really want and value, as it relates to the investment of capital and personnel, and aligning the advisor’s value accordingly. Data points us in the general direction of Planning, Trust, Guidance, Communication, Education, and Personalization. It is in the absence of these and other client-driven value criteria that the business becomes commoditized and focused on trading, execution, costs, and performance.
Another trend we have witnessed over the past decades is the maturing of the discount, robo, and do-it yourself investing businesses. Charles Schwab has grown dramatically since the 1990s because clients could not see value and decided to take matters into their own hands. This is akin to patients who don’t like their dentist deciding to do their own dental work. It may be cheaper, but it will likely be more painful.
This movement has spawned and grown many other discount models where the client can save money without a dedicated professional. Large Wall Street firms have also created their own “call centers” for smaller relationships. These centers essentially remove dedicated advisors and replace them with a group of people who can field incoming calls. The primary driver in this model is efficiency and profits. A call center can generate profits of over 50 percent, compared to an advisorcentric model that can generate profit margins of 5–20 percent. These two developments led to the creation of the robo industry. Essentially robo advice is geared to clients who do not see the value of the advisor as being critical. Add robust technology to the initial Schwab model and the call center model and some clients can do their own planning and investing electronically. Schwab of course has also evolved and now provides “full service” through Schwab Private Client service and the Schwab Advisor Network. In fact, Betterment, which offers a robo model, is planning on adding “Human Touch” offerings with Betterment Plus and Betterment Premium with access to a team of Certified Financial Planners (CFPs) and licensed financial experts who monitor accounts and give financial planning advice throughout the year.
There are silos in the wealth management business. One is an advisor-based relationship; the other is a discounted, self-reliant silo, but even those silos are broadening. Advisors may realize that investment choices, fees, and performance are components of client satisfaction, but not the key drivers. In order to get a personal, dynamic, value-based offering, you must get answers to two key questions. The first is, “What do you do?” and the second is, “Who do you do it for?” The answers to these questions will create a “clarity of value.” As you think more about these questions, consider two other industries: automobiles and hotels. Within the auto industry it is interesting to compare Mercedes-Benz to Kia. There are stark differences in price, warranties, service, image, and custom options. These companies target different consumers and provide different levels of service. They have different “What you do” and different “Who you do it for” value propositions, and this is reflected in their pricing.
Similarly, the hotel industry has many providers who define their “What” and “Who” very differently. For comparison’s sake, consider the difference between the Ritz-Carlton and Holiday Inn. At a Ritz hotel you would find more staff, better dining options, larger fitness centers, well-appointed lobbies, personalization, and so on. At a Holiday Inn, a traveler would find the basics covered: a warm bed, hot shower, and free breakfast. These two companies are successful because they can articulate their “What” and “Who” and attract the consumer who fits their model best.
When examining and developing your own differentiation and value proposition, you can determine your pricing and the overall “feel” and culture and services you choose to provide. It is then critical to align your definition of what you offer with the people you are delivering your services to. If your team decides to provide disciplined research, investment due diligence, financial planning coordinated with tax professionals, regular meetings and communication including in-depth quarterly reviews along with a holistic set of other services, this will lead to one type of client. This practice may decide to have fewer, larger clients and price its business more like a premium brand such as Mercedes or Ritz. Another team may choose to let technology help them create models, have more clients with somewhat lower assets, have fewer meetings with clients, and provide more basic planning work and fewer services; these decisions would lead to another type of client.
It’s critical to clearly identify your “What” and “Who” to find the best clients for you to service with the model you choose and to run your business effectively and efficiently. Before you can define your value, you must decide on “Who” your client is, and your target market, and “What” you do based on the wants and needs of your clients. Value can also be delivered by helping your clients change their behaviors to better meet their life and financial goals. Your value proposition can be enhanced by your team’s ability to help change or “correct” client behavior by developing traits, habits, and approaches that generally lead to better outcomes: better savings and spending habits, better planning, less emotional investing, longer-term focus, and being better organized.1 If you believe in these traits, habits, and approaches or others and are convinced they are in your client’s best interest, it is important to also talk about them during your discussion of expectations, service, and pricing.
At your annual checkup, your doctor may suggest you exercise more, eat healthier, use less salt, drink more water, and get more sleep. Who can argue with any of those recommendations? If we do all of these things we will be healthier and feel better and have a life outcome that will be better than if we had no advice. Doctors try to change our behavior, entirely for our own benefit, just like you are finding behaviors in your clients that will lead them to the possibility of better outcomes. Unfortunately, doctors do not usually have the time or business model to follow up, but you have that opportunity at least for your best clients.
It’s also critical to know that while clients and prospects may understand your value, yours may not be unique. Some advisors may be more empathic than others, some may be better able to communicate their value, and some may sell their deliverables and themselves better than others. Most advisors will state they are focused on the client and have the expertise, experience, education, integrity, professionalism, and performance standards to help their clients succeed. These traits are not unique; they are barely the price of admission for a quality advisor or wealth manager. Who would say less? Many FAs live up to this promise, some better than others. The point is, you have to make the sale (i.e., acquire the prospect) before you have a chance to prove it. Talking the talk is easier than walking the talk.
The more value you deliver contrasted to your competitors, the more distinctive you will be. Value, as stated, is in the eyes of the client, so start by asking:
• What are your client deliverables? Are you offering a holistic financial plan? Not all financial plans are equal:
• What elements of your financial plans do your clients value or not value, and why?
• What elements are included in your financial plans? Are you offering primarily a future cash flow projection, or do you also address savings and spending habits and projections?
• How deeply do you address client wants versus needs?
• What breadth of wealth management solutions do you address?
• Why do you include or not include certain elements in your financial plans?
• Do your deliverables vary by client, depending on their wants and needs and their value to the business?
• Who do you deliver financial plans to and who does not receive a plan?
• What elements of your financial plans do your clients value or not value, and why?
• Have you explained the value you intend to deliver with each element of your financial plan? Does the client buy into your intent?
Key point two is defining the components of your deliverables and their value. Most of your clients and prospects will question, vocally or in their minds, what value you provide for the 1 percent to 1.5 percent you charge. There are myriad responses to a simple Google search of “What is the value of a financial advisor?” or “Is it worth hiring a financial advisor?” Given the many, many thousands of articles and discussions revolving around the value that FAs deliver to their clients, one can conclude that firms and clients are concerned about their value and fees.
This has been a constant source of discourse in the media and within virtually all financial services firms offering investment solutions. It is a reasonable hypothesis that costs/fees and value have been an industry concern for at least forty years, ever since the rise of the discount brokerage in the 1970s2 and 1980s. And, with the rise of robo-advisors, this discourse continues.
So, one goal of this chapter is to discuss the value that “full service” financial advisors or wealth managers can, and should, provide to their clients to earn their fees. After discussing value in general, we will discuss differentiating yourself based on the value you bring to your clients.
Few other professions are as focused on or concerned with the value they deliver to their clients. One can take a positive perspective by saying wealth management is a caring profession that wants to be sure the fees are warranted for the services delivered. One can also take a negative view by saying alternatives are needed because the cost of human-based financial advice is too high. These negative views have resulted in investors seeking the alternatives we discussed for investing and growing their assets using less costly do-it-yourself approaches, with or without “robo-advisors.” An interesting and relevant statement can be found in a white paper on “Pricing Integrity,” where it says that “at the core of pricing inconsistency we find that advisors are not fundamentally convinced that they provide significant value to their clients” (emphasis added).3 This is an aha statement. We had better be clear and convinced of the value “full service” financial advisors and wealth managers deliver to their clients.
If there is any question or concern on the part of advisors about the value of their deliverables to the client, it is an imperative to overcome it. A couple of the most important rules in sales are to believe in your offerings and never sell yourself short! You must deeply believe in the value of your full-service offerings and advice. Let’s discuss the value you can deliver to clients.
William Bernstein, the financial theorist and neurologist, was asked, “What essential services can and does a good FA provide?” He responded, “The three most important things are, in order, discipline, discipline, and discipline: the ability to maintain a strategy no matter what CNBC and USA Today are blathering about.”4 Bernstein’s comments are supported by research into an individual’s ability, or lack thereof, to “follow through.” In the book Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model for Finishing Whatever You Start, the authors state that “we don’t have a problem knowing what we should do. The problem is that we just don’t do it!”5 Our observations find this to be true. Even more critical is that David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz, in “The Neuroscience of Leadership,” state this is so “even when new habits can mean the difference between life and death.”6 Discipline is about consistent actions and follow through. Consistent action and follow through is of value and what wealth managers need to provide to their clients. We’ll see more specifically what we mean by the discipline of consistent actions and follow through when we discuss service plans.
Bernstein also stated that after discipline, a good FA needs to provide “the humility to know that you cannot predict market movements and the historical awareness to know that economic forecasts are usually contrary indicators,”7 and that “wealth is not a dollar amount, but rather a ratio measured in years.”8 In other words, it depends on how many years’ living expenses you have saved. It is of significant value for advisors to put markets and wealth into a life perspective. We know clients have a tendency to look at their portfolio at different points in time and select its value at a peak and measure increases and decreases, which are your successes and failures, from that point until they establish a new peak and use that as a benchmark.
Figure 1-1 | Sample five-day S&P market change.
Figure 1-2 | Sample five-year S&P market change.
One of the jobs of a financial advisor in goal-based wealth management is to share perspective (i.e., discipline and focus on “how many years’ living expenses” your wealth will support you going forward, whether in retirement or for other life goals). Your portfolio’s value and growth since inception can be a good point if you have had the clients for a number of years. A Standard and Poor’s (S&P) chart for five days doesn’t show perspective nearly as well as a chart over 5, 10, or 20 years. See Figures 1-1 and 1-2.
William Bernstein is a realist whose philosophy fits the needs of most of your clients. He goes on to say that “if you think that your happiness is tied up in the things you own, then you are both sadly misinformed about human neuropsychology and doomed to be unhappy.”9
Convincing your client about the realities of markets, portfolios, and even life alphas and portfolio betas in the context of life goals is incredibly meaningful and valuable. Your clients may not think in these ways themselves and consider these values. That’s part of what you can bring to the table. You need in part to be a money psychologist. As an aside, it’s interesting to note there is even a Financial Therapy Association (www.financialtherapyassociation.org) and a Journal of Financial Therapy. An article at IWillTeachYoutoBeRich.com10 says:
Your friends are idiots. Their personal finances are a mess, they’re delusional about their spending, and most of them don’t even max out their 401(k). The problem is: you’re probably just like them.
The author goes on to explain that our makeup as humans often gives us “reasons” to delay doing things that are likely good for us like modifying our diet or exercising. This human behavior also causes us to wait to plan our finances, our wills, our large purchases, etc., at times with dire consequences.
It’s clear clients need your help on many financial issues, technical and nontechnical, and you need to be aware of both the right and left sides of their brains.
Another area where we need to be more specific about addressing is what we deliver to clients for the fees we charge. There is an excellent article on Michael Kitces’s site, authored by Bob Seawright, in which he discusses a hierarchy of advisor value.
The four values at the base of the hierarchy are:
1. Encouraging Consistent and Increased Savings
2. Encouraging Consistent Investment
3. Financial Planning
4. Managing Expectations and Behavior
These are values that quality advisors can and must provide to clients. They relate primarily to financial decisions about how the client and the client’s advisor manage their financial lives over and above investment management.
The other four values are:
1. Asset Allocation
2. Managing Costs and Fees
3. Portfolio Rebalancing
4. Security Selection
These values are the more technical aspects of investing. They are core capabilities every advisor can handle. While these elements add value to clients, they will not likely differentiate you because all or the vast majority of advisors provide these values. If everyone provides these values they are by definition not differentiators.
Seawright states:
One’s savings rate is far more important than his or her rate of return in determining how bright the future is likely to be. However, we are far more likely to obsess over squeaking out a bit more performance out of our investments or tweaking our asset allocation to increase our expected return rather than thinking about ways to save more. Good planning starts with putting the client’s financial house in order and making sure that a good savings plan is in place with the proceeds invested into a solid, diversified portfolio.12
We don’t have to tell you how many DIY friends talk about fees and how few talk about the time, effort, and angst they spend to save those fees. They also don’t talk about 2008 or how well they performed since 2009 or how a rising tide lifts all boats. Yes, some people may do well or even very well, but you know that even the vast majority of fund managers do not beat their benchmarks with all the time, talent, access, and horsepower they have to manage investments. We have already spoken about values beyond performance and will talk more about those values.
Encouraging consistent and increased savings is about establishing discipline within your client base and their families. When we discuss wealth management, especially for your higher net worth clients, we reiterate that being the client’s CFO should include not only investment management but tax planning, retirement planning, cash flow analysis, budgeting, and your client’s multiple banking needs, commercial and personal, including the credit side of their needs. Offering these elements and encouraging consistent and increased savings are valuable services consistent with the client’s goals. Your discipline is of value because most clients will not likely hold themselves as accountable as you can. They generally do not have the time or tools or education and knowledge, in addition to the follow through you can provide.
Seawright’s model for encouraging consistent investment is another critical value you can deliver as your client’s CFO because “out of our general fear, even if and when we invest, we often don’t stay invested.” He further points out that “volatility—drawdown risk, really—is the price we pay for the higher expected returns provided by equities.”13 It’s only your discipline over time and your professional conviction that will keep the client moving forward toward their goals. It’s easy to share charts, like in Figure 1-3, that show the time value of compounding and consistency in savings and investing.
Figure 1-3 | Sample compound value chart.
Source: Federal Reserve database in St. Louis (FRED).
We know that volatility is the price paid for higher long-term returns and that “if we have the wherewithal to keep our composure during difficult markets, we will almost surely be rewarded for it.” Having said that, Seawright further says to be aware that “more recent efforts to deal with volatility differently haven’t fared very well. For the period of 1998–2015 (the longest period available), alternative investments (represented by the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index) have provided an average return of just 5.11 percent, with most of the better returns early in that period.”14 The question is, how well can you encourage consistent and increased savings and investments in the face of the natural behaviors of many clients?
Financial planning is a solid, high value deliverable. As Wade Pfau puts it, “Financial advisors who only focus on selecting investments will really struggle to add value.” On the other hand, “there is immense value in comprehensive financial planning and good financial decision making. It’s important to remember and easy to forget that the end goal of comprehensive financial planning goes beyond choosing investments.”15 There is good news, however, according to economist Tim Duy, who states, “As long as people have babies, capital depreciates, technology evolves, and tastes and preferences change, there is a powerful underlying impetus for growth that is almost certain to reveal itself in any reasonably well-managed economy.”16
Seawright suggests one of the interesting values of providing comprehensive financial planning when he says, “In my experience, individual investors have a great deal of trouble establishing appropriate, realistic and manageable goals. Often they don’t even know what they should be concerned with or what they should include as part of a list outlining what they want or need to accomplish. A good advisor will.”17 Michael Kitces offers this valuable guidance:
Creating a financial plan starts with gathering the client data, which many advisors request by providing clients with a “data gathering form,” typically structured in a manner that makes it easy to input the data into their financial planning software.
The caveat, however, is that in practice clients often don’t fill out the data gathering form. For some, they feel it’s too much work. For most, the problem is simply that they aren’t organized enough to provide all the requisite information. And may even feel guilty or embarrassed about the fact that they’re “failing” in the very first step of the financial planning process. So what’s the alternative? Ditch the data gathering meeting, and have a “Get Organized” meeting instead. In other words, make the first meeting with the client about getting them financially organized in the first place.18
Prospects and clients rarely have all the data they need for you to put together a comprehensive financial plan. They often do not have a good set of ideas on what their goals are, probably for both the medium and longer term. Two points of value are important here. Helping clients establish their goals is of significant value. Another value is that since goals and situations change constantly over time, the value of financial planning is in the continuous process of planning19 rather than in the plan itself, which is merely a “point in time” picture that becomes more and more irrelevant over time. In fact, many plans become dusty reports that sit on shelves rarely if ever to be looked at again, whereas an annual or biannual process of planning is a living, breathing way of being and keeping financially sound and secure over the next year or two and beyond.
For a final point of value in financial planning, Seawright says:
Another crucial thing a good financial planner can do is to help to protect aging clients from the impact of inevitable cognitive decline. Research confirms what most of us have seen among our families and friends. The ability to make effective financial decisions declines with age. Thus, those age 60 and older unnecessarily lose nearly $3 billion to fraud annually. To put it starkly, research shows that financial literacy declines by about 2 percent each year after age 60. Despite that decline, our self-confidence in our financial abilities remains undiminished (or even increases) as we age. That’s a scary combination that a good advisor can guard against.
Ultimately, a good advisor can and will influence and even change client behavior. In a world where personal financial issues have become increasingly and often unnecessarily complex, a good advisor can help clients figure out what is true and what isn’t, what works, what matters, what is useful, and what can go wrong. There are few . . . people with the expertise sufficient to begin to do that for themselves. Nobody can do it objectively. That’s why good advisors are an absolute necessity.
Seawright’s thoughts on managing expectations and behavior include, “We are all prone to behavioral and cognitive biases that impede our progress and inhibit our success. We are prone to flitting hither and yon chasing after the next new thing, idea, strategy, or shiny object.” He goes on to say, “A good advisor can mitigate these tendencies. Doing so is vital, not the least of all because we tend to disbelieve that we are susceptible to them.” This is a particularly interesting point. “While most people do well at assessing others, they are wildly positive about their own abilities. . . . For instance, in a classic 1977 study, 94 percent of professors rated themselves above average relative to their peers. In another study, 32 percent of the employees of a software company said they performed better than 19 out of 20 of their colleagues.”20 Another article said, “About 93 percent of people consider themselves ‘above average’ drivers.”21 These thoughts come from the principle of illusory superiority. “Illusory superiority is a cognitive bias that causes us to overestimate our positive qualities and underestimate our negative qualities. People tend to think their memories are better than they are, that they’re more popular than they are, or that they’re healthier than they really are.”22 This bias can extend to one’s perception of their performance, intelligence, personality, etc.
Seawright comments:
There is a clear “behavior gap” between the average investor (money-weighted) return and the average investment (time-weighted) return that shows up consistently in the data, albeit in varying amounts. Thus there is some debate over whether the size of this performance gap could be overstated in certain studies due to the return calculation methods used or the pattern of returns over the time period analyzed. But irrespective of the particulars, it remains clear that the behavior gap is significant and the result of self-destructive investor behavior—most prominently panicking during market downturns and performance chasing.
Once again, there is value in managing the expectations and behaviors of clients.
The next four points of the “Hierarchy of Advisor Value” relate to portfolios and portfolio construction. In his point on asset allocation, Seawright tells us significant research has shown that figures we have heard about the impact of asset allocation on portfolio returns are likely overstated. Nevertheless, he goes on to say that:
Good asset allocation is crucial to matching one’s portfolio with one’s goals, needs, situations, and risk parameters, all of which are subject to change. The exercise of allocating funds among various investment vehicles and asset classes is at the heart of investment management. Asset classes exhibit different market dynamics, and different interaction effects. Thus the allocation of money among asset classes and among investment vehicles within asset classes will have an enormous effect on the performance of an investment portfolio. A good advisor is vital to good asset allocation.
Sometimes we take for granted those things that bring value to clients. Do not assume clients understand the critical nature of a personalized asset allocation strategy. In fact, it’s best not to “assume” that your clients understand any of these values you bring to the table as their CFO or “money coach.” Don’t just look at company charts and tell your clients what the chart says. Take into account their spending and savings habits, sources of income, personal desires for a legacy, “real” risk tolerance, projected income and expense needs based on age, and perhaps several other factors. Be a “money coach,” not only a financial advisor. Your client may rather write that book they always wanted to write than study things you have studied and learned over the last 10, 15, 20, or 25 years. There is apparently an old saying that “if you don’t blow your own horn . . . somebody else is going to use it as a spittoon.” By no means are we suggesting that you be a braggart or vain, but have pride in the importance of your work and, in a respectful way, let the client know about the value you deliver to them; that’s what they are paying for.
There is a need to fully understand the client in depth through a highly effective discovery process we will describe later. The advisor can then more effectively discuss the rationale for recommendations in the context of the client and the efficient frontier, making sure the client knows and understands the potential impact on long-term portfolio performance with the recommended asset allocation. It is critical that the client understands and accepts the potential performance implications of an investment portfolio as a result of these recommendations. We want to set rational expectations, and one of the ways to do that is by also providing each client with a personalized investment policy statement that incorporates the client’s personalized asset allocation strategy.
The advisor also needs to manage costs, fees, and incentives as best as possible. By this, Seawright points to the need for advisors to research funds looking for cost-effective funds (and exchange-traded funds, or ETFs) and even funds in which the manager is also invested. There is certainly value in managing costs and understanding where you sit in terms of competition, especially in a marketplace where many clients are fee-sensitive. Again, do not “assume” clients understand what you do to manage their costs.
Good advisors also continue to rebalance portfolios periodically as required throughout the year, keeping an eye on the client’s investment policy statement and costs as a function of trading in non-fee-based accounts and any tax implications. It’s important not to overlook any value you as an advisor provide, whether or not it is a differentiator. You do not get credit for what you deliver that the client doesn’t necessarily know about. What does your competition take credit for?
Finally, with respect to value is security selection. Data makes it clear that it is not likely that any particular financial advisor will be in the group that consistently outperforms markets, indices, or benchmarks. Security selection has value because you are a knowledgeable, studied, educated professional who does this for a living and you do save client time and effort and, hopefully, add a level of comfort by providing this service. Yet the facts are that only a small percentage of professional investors have beaten the market consistently over the past ten years and index funds generally outperform actively managed funds, though active managers may have lower risk. It’s a difficult case to sell security selection as a differentiator, which also means you are constantly on the hook to be right and you are discounting the value provided in the rest of your deliverables. Seawright does state that “stock-picking may be dead, but various studies demonstrate that certain investment characteristics can and do outperform with persistence over time (even though they can and do underperform for significant periods).” He also states “a good advisor will stay on top of . . . trends and make sure that client portfolios continue to comport with the best research as well as client needs, goals and situations.” Many or even most investors prefer not to spend time developing the expertise and experience that financial advisors and wealth managers have already acquired. Reinventing the wheel makes no sense.
Seawright makes another excellent point, or shares an opinion, from Dr. David Baltimore, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975 for his work on the genetic mechanisms of viruses, who noted that “good science is a collaborative, community effort; on the other hand, crackpots work alone.” While this is not a comment you will share verbatim with “do-it-yourselfers,” Baltimore’s insights include that we all tend to work better with help, advice, support, correction, criticism, and accountability. These are additional parts of the value you bring to your clients. Even when we readily spot the problems of others, we rarely see our own because most people are wildly positive about their own abilities (remember “illusory superiority”).
Wade Pfau, in his 2015 Forbes article, “The Value of Financial Advice,” makes great sense when he writes:
Can an advisor charging a one percent fee provide enough value to justify the fee? It depends on the answers to two questions:
a. Do you have the time, energy, interest, knowledge, emotional discipline, and desire to implement all of these decisions on your own?
b. Are you working with a comprehensive financial planner who does more than just manage investment portfolios and is capable of implementing good financial planning decisions?
If you have the time, interest, energy, knowledge, emotional discipline, and desire to do this on your own, then you would make an excellent advisor. If your advisor is less than capable, you might be better off saving yourself the 1 percent or taking your business elsewhere.
If the answer to (a) is no, and to (b) is yes, then it is worth considering that both of these studies [Vanguard’s Advisor Alpha and Morningstar’s Gamma] demonstrate how working with a financial advisor can lead to net gains. It doesn’t take much to improve your standard of living through better decision making, even after accounting for any fee related to planning advice. 23
In summary, at this point we suggest you consider the following questions:
• Which of the values discussed in these previous pages do you deliver to your clients?
• How does each of these values pertain to your clients, especially your best clients?
• When and how have you discussed your value statement with your clients?
• How was your value statement received by your clients?
• Have you asked your clients if they value those deliverables—that is, what are their perspectives? Do they believe, based on their experiences, your deliverables are unique?
It should be clear by now that you and your competitors can deliver great value to your clients. In fact, most advisors are capable of delivering a similar set of these values. The question then becomes, how can you be unique in the values you deliver?
Uniqueness embodies the question, “How am I different from other FAs doing what I do?” It says that something or someone is unlike anything or anyone else or very special or unusual. While there are differing estimates of the number of practicing financial advisors in the United States, a Reuters article says there are about 285,000 financial advisors.24 The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the number of “personal financial advisors” in 2014 at 249,400 (and growing by 73,900 through 2024.) 25
One can reasonably conclude that being totally unique (i.e., “unlike anything or anyone else”) would be extremely unlikely. Yet there is always a possibility to be a Katie Ledecky or a Michael Phelps, although even they take a Silver or Bronze at times. Being “very special or unusual” is a great goal, but it’s important to remember you are not competing against 285,000 other advisors. You have a niche or a geographic area that significantly limits the number of your direct competitors. Furthermore, you need only 100 or 150 clients at the right quality to be a successful advisor.
Key point three is to remember what has been called the Law of Fractional Advantage.26 This law says that “all you need to do to win at anything is to be slightly better than your competition.” Sam Silverstein, looking at 2008 data in the world of golf, noted that Tiger Woods’s “scoring average . . . [was] 67.91.” He went on to say that “the second rated golfer on the top scorer list, Mike Weir, had a scoring average of 68.56. As good as Tiger [was], and as dominant as he [was], the only difference between [Tiger] and the number two player on the scoring list is 65 hundredths of a point.” As said, “a small advantage can make a large difference in results.” 27
Your job is to gain a sustainable edge (real or perceived) over your competition. Differentiation or uniqueness does not have to be in absolute terms but in performance relative to competitors. Kenichi Ohmae states, “If you are fighting with a competitor who has equal qualifications, effective and persistent execution in critical functional areas may be the only differentiating factor.” 28
The intent of this book is to describe how to create both value and differentiation that is better than your competition. Key point four is that if you provide effective and persistent execution in the critical functional areas to be discussed—the “six core client-facing processes”—we believe you will be differentiated. These six core processes are the:
1. Intake Process
2. Financial Planning Process
3. Risk Management Process
4. Investment Planning Process
5. Client Service Process
6. Planning and Review Process
These processes will be discussed in Chapters 3, 5, and 6 and can deliver your value. The value of your deliverables in aggregate from these six processes can provide differentiation.
The goal of differentiating yourself (and your team, virtual and real) is to answer that question and to make it obvious that you are the only advisor who can fulfill all your client’s or prospect’s wants, needs, dreams, hopes, and visions for a “perfect” financial future. This could be an overstatement of investors’ expectations—but maybe it’s their real hope.
Key point five suggests 16 elements or deliverables to which you can commit to define your differentiation. If you do them ALL and work hard, consistently, and if you implement and provide effective and persistent execution, you will be in excellent shape on value and differentiation.
1. It’s always about the prospects or clients. Your first meeting with any prospect is all about the prospect. It’s not about you, your company, or your investment approaches. It’s all about learning about the prospects and what makes them tick. Get to know them personally and then professionally. As Katherine Vessenes says, “Identify the land mines in their current strategies. Most clients are completely unaware of the problems lurking in their finances before they come to us—and the devastating consequences of not taking action now to help protect their future.” 29
Prospects make up their mind about you within the first seven seconds of meeting you and spend the rest of their time justifying their initial belief.30 A series of experiments by Princeton psychologists found that “all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions.”31 Make sure your first second is your best second in how you and your office look, how you speak, how you greet, how you listen, and how prepared you are. Note that it’s natural to be nervous before meeting someone for the first time. That’s actually a good thing; it means the meeting is important to you—and it is. This process is detailed in Chapter 5, Your Intake Process.
2. You offer service commitments. Have a written service level agreement (SLA) or service promise with your clients (which we will detail in Chapter 3, The Client Loyalty Process). The purpose of the agreement is to ensure that the proper deliverables, commitments, and reminders are in place to provide consistent communications, service, support, and delivery to the client by the FA and her team. The agreement provides accountability and responsibilities of the team and presents a clear, concise, and measurable description of your service provisions to the client. The agreement provides the client and FA with matched perceptions of expected service with actual service support and delivery. Most clients don’t know the extent of services you provide on their behalf. The SLA is a written reminder and addresses all the elements a “wealth manager” delivers and offers to deliver including financial plans, estate plans, education plans, communications plans, charitable giving, and the 30 to 40 or more deliverables outlined in your service model or promise. The SLA is customized with or by each FA by client or tier. Service level agreements need to be approved by compliance.
This is the place where you define and discuss the values you deliver with your clients. This is the place you ask your clients if they value those deliverables and gather their perspectives. This and the next point are also your opportunity to manage expectations and behavior.
3. Your service commitments are a two-way agreement. The client knows exactly what to expect and can measure you on living up to the promises you make. This is a unique experience in many cases. This is about DWYSYAGTD—Do what you say you are going to do.
4. You send summary letters. After each portfolio review meeting, whether in person or by telephone, send a summary letter to the client. The letter should include:
• A thank-you for being your client
• Meeting summary, which would follow the agenda you used
• Any follow-up responsibilities of both your team and the client
• A summary of the service feedback you received and comments on what actions you are planning to take
• When your next meeting will be
There is a sample letter later in this book. In my experience most advisors do not deliver this “summary letter.” If they do, it’s often an email. I realize it may be old school, but physical letters are in themselves different. These letters also serve as the summary you would include in your client relationship management (CRM) system.
5. You are a financial planning–based practice. In addition to developing a plan with the client, you are holding them accountable to the plan for their actions (e.g., spending, saving, investing) to make sure they stay on track for their goals. We discussed this previously as a value and this process is further discussed in Chapter 3 on client loyalty. In many cases it is a differentiator if complete. Figure 1-4 is an example of a set of deliverables of a financial plan from a planner client. Note that not all clients need all deliverables and some of these deliverables may be created and delivered by strategic Center of Influence (COI) relationships.
Figure 1-4 | Sample set of deliverables for a financial plan.
This is your opportunity to encourage consistent and increased savings, encourage consistent investment, and develop a financial plan that meets the complete wants and needs of your client.
6. Your work ethic can be a differentiator. One nationally recognized FA we interviewed summarized it this way:
• You don’t come into the office at 8:15 a.m. and leave at 4:15 p.m. every day except Friday when you take off.
• You don’t send out portfolio management reports by email with a note saying “if you have any questions, call me.”
• You care about your client’s wealth more than your own and you care about who they and their family really are.
This speaks to availability, personalization, and integrity, which are all parts of differentiation. Regardless of what you offer as solutions that you think are different from your competitors, as stated you must work hard and execute well. It’s how in part you gain a sustainable edge (real or perceived) over your competition.
7. Your certifications are important—especially external ones from the College for Financial Planning and/or Investment Management Consultants Association. It’s good to be able to say you have the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation, which is a professional certification mark for financial planners conferred by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. Consider other designations such as the CPWA, CIMA, and CDFA.
In his article “Can Becoming a CFP Boost Income?” Michael Kitces says “it appears that obtaining the CFP marks is becoming a key step to climbing up the adviser ladder.” He also quotes an Aite study32 whose “authors also find that while CFP certification is associated with higher income, it’s not simply because consumers seek to hire advisers with the CFP marks. Instead, the positive impact derives primarily from enhanced overall credibility, improved technical expertise and knowledge—which also leads to higher self-confidence—and greater client satisfaction with the adviser’s more comprehensive financial planning acumen.” 33 If you are not already a CFP, you are behind the approximately 25 percent of your competitors who have a CFP designation.
8. You offer a customized, personalized portfolio. You must have enough money management expertise to know the markets and prepare asset allocations that are not solely in context of corporate models but in context of individual clients, their wants, needs, temperament, risk tolerance, family, etc. Some FAs farm out all money management, and while that works for some it may not allow them to be as involved in customizing portfolios as some high net worth (HNW) and ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients think they want and some FAs prefer. You need to know how to address that as well while not growing an inordinate number of different investments or positions across your book. (This process is further discussed in Chapter 3.)
This value is where you deliver the second part of the Seawright model: asset allocation, manage costs and fees, rebalance portfolios, and select securities.
9. You are a team of professionals (real and virtual) who all “know” the client. Your team consists of investment specialists, business people who understand markets and solutions, and operations who service clients. The team has a sole focus on the client and brings the resources of many heads to each client’s wants and needs. If two heads are better than one, perhaps tens or hundreds or thousands of heads are many, many times better than that. There is not only the wisdom of many, but the service and support and continuity of the many who work as a team.
It would be a very positive addition to your team’s understanding of your client to have a written biography of your clients and their spouses at least for your A book. These biographies can be developed from your knowledge, client interviews, client resumes, LinkedIn and Facebook and other online data, as well as photographs of the family. How natural would it be to interview clients and gather information about their families to get to know them better while seeking others in their family you may be able to help? Most people like to talk about themselves, and implementing such an approach will be easy to incorporate into discovery meetings or check-in calls. If for any reason you need to have your clients meet a specialist, or you want to brief new people or your manager on the client, it would be most helpful to them as well to get to “know” the client better.
10. Your interests, facilities, knowledge, and discipline—and time—can be a differentiator. According to William Bernstein, you need four faculties in order to invest competently:
• An interest in investing
• The horsepower to do the math
• The knowledge base
• The emotional discipline to execute faithfully 34 (i.e., take the emotion out of investing)
These in fact are your and your firm’s or Broker/Dealer’s (B/D’s) faculties, whether or not you use robo tools. While robo-advisors have some of these characteristics, there is no substitute for human interaction. Single individuals cannot yet replicate all the required faculties and will not likely ever be a substitute for social contact.
11. You have a consultative process. Bernstein also said that success is dependent on:
• Defining goals and executing and adhering to a long-term investment plan
• An ability to properly allocate and diversify the client’s assets
• Developing an investment strategy and selecting appropriate investment managers
• An ability to monitor and make adjustments as necessary
These factors are similar to the values mentioned previously. They are part of your differentiation as you conduct your business using a consultative process, have a buy-and-sell discipline that takes the emotion out of the process, and continually manage your client’s assets, interests, wants, and needs and communicate consistently and proactively with them. Ensure that your clients understand your consultative process.
Use the “pencil selling” technique to make your point and when explaining any concept or approach, such as your consultative process. Take paper and pencil and sketch a diagram of the concept or idea you want to explain. Using your version of the wealth management consultative process, create it as an example in front of the client. Most firms have a diagram of that process, which you can find online; it typically includes steps for discover, diagnostics, plan development, plan review, commitment, follow up, etc. Your sketch will help the client focus on the concept much better than a PowerPoint slide or image that is often shown in a single view. Pencil selling creates interaction and illustrates your competence. Think of using this technique for showing charts like the efficient frontier or any other basic chart or graph where you’d like to get more client involvement than a presentation or brochure typically allows.
12. You can explain what makes you you, and your firm your firm. When everything else is the same, you can be the difference. This is quality advice. Let the client know who you are, your values and belief system and that of your firm. Put your views, values, and beliefs in context of their values and beliefs and their wants and needs. This is part of your value and your humanity. You know yourself, are proud of what you do and why and how you do it, and you care about yourself, your family, your firm, and mostly about your client—and that needs to come across. People ultimately choose to do business with people they like, know, and trust, and everyone likes someone who appreciates them.
13. You have a giving approach to clients. Look for opportunities to be giving and make sure you recognize them. Be cognizant of your clients’ lives, the events in their lives, their occasions, and their need for help, and react to each and every situation.
14. You are the lead, the quarterback, the CFO, the “money coach” in your clients’ lives. We liken that value to a health advisor. If you are in your 60s and beyond, you have probably encountered gastroenterologists, pulmonologists, dermatologists, podiatrists, cardiologists, ophthalmologists, proctologists, urologists, nephrologists, and internists, among other specialists. What would it be worth to have a health coordinator who understands each of these specialties and could coordinate the delivery of health services to you? Your primary care physician refers and helps but doesn’t provide this depth of coordination, though concierge doctors may provide improved coordination.
And that’s what you can do, and where you can provide tremendous value and differentiation. As a financial services provider, you are the equivalent of a concierge provider by being a single source for investment advice, insurance, mortgage, banking, financial planning, estate planning, accounting and taxes, and other services. It’s called “wealth management.” We call it a “personal CFO.” You may not actually execute all these services but you can coordinate them, understand them, and integrate them as the client’s CFO, based on their needs. What is it worth to have a financial services coordinator who understands each of these areas and the language spoken by all of them? This is a service that today’s robo-advisors do not provide but you can, at least for your best clients.
15. You are a human expert. What is it worth to give your client’s peace of mind, constant vigil, and a deep knowledge of their financial being and humanity? Your clients want human contact because they seek collaboration, congruency, clarity, and communications. These are elements not provided by robo-advisors or discount brokers. At the end of the day, the reason they hire YOU is YOU—your humanity, the trust they have in you, and the comfort you provide especially when markets get sketchy. Your differentiation really comes from becoming an expert in human beings, human behaviors, human psychology, and human fears.
16. You document your value. Finally, and you can add to the list, implement what we call a CAPS letter—a Client Annual Progress Summary letter. Clients don’t always remember what you delivered throughout the year to service them. It’s differentiating to recap the value-based deliverables you provided to them throughout the last 12 months or “what I have done for you lately.” For a sample letter, see Figure 1-5. A well-managed CRM system with a complete set of notes will be central to delivering this.
Again, we prefer a physical letter rather than an email.
These 16 points are not about doing the right thing today; they are about doing the right thing every day, day after day, with consistency and constancy. It’s not about which of the recommendations you will execute. You need to do them all. This is an AND situation, not an OR situation.
You now know “What you do” and “Who you do it for.” You also have the 16 points of value—and any more you may want to add—to develop your differentiation plan and prepare a UVP and a statement of differentiation. The prospects and clients who appreciate the deliverables that you consistently provide will understand your value.
We know you have many clients. We know time and affordability are concerns. However, these things are mandatory for the clients you want to retain—your A clients and perhaps many of your B clients—as well as the family, friends, and colleagues of those clients who would like to become your clients. Dentists say you only have to floss the teeth you want to keep. It’s the same with clients you want to keep and grow with. If your team is large enough and of the right design you can have multiple delivery models—that is, you can have more than one “Who you do it for” and “What you do” models with different pricing based on client wants and needs and services delivered. In Chapter 3, in the section “Your Client Loyalty or Client Service Process,” we will discuss multiple service models.
Figure 1-5 | Sample Client Annual Progress Summary (CAPS) letter.
Street Smart Research Group, LLC
Practice Optimization for FAs
Dear Dr. Smith,
I wanted to drop you a line to thank you for your business throughout the last year and provide a service summary.
As you know, our relationship is based on a broad range of wealth management services that go beyond buying and selling investments.
For example, in 20XX, we:
• Prepared an updated financial plan that showed . . .
• Discussed an education funding plan for your son, NAME, and daughter, NAME . . .
• Met by telephone XX times, including a minimum of a call a month to discuss status. We also chatted on a number of occasions to discuss specific actions that we thought were appropriate for your portfolio.
• We conducted X portfolio reviews via telephone to discuss the performance of your portfolio and make any needed changes to rebalance your asset allocation.
• We met on MONTH, DAY, to review your portfolio and performance, discuss your asset allocation in context of the current market conditions, validate our investment policy, discuss, and validate your goals, and detail our go forward plans.
• We vetted your entire portolio by revalidating the quality of the money managers in whom we have entrusted your assets. In fact, of the industry’s X,XXX money managers, the firm pre-vets the entire group and we further vet individual managers by style to make appropriate investment recommendations to you for the coming quarter.
• Etc. re: Wealth management services such as meetings with estate attorneys, CPAs.
• Etc. re: Wealth management services, Alternative investments, Business valuation, Deferred compensation plans, Education planning, Employee stock-option plans, Equity/Fixed income research, Estate-planning assistance, Hedging, Diversifying concentrated postions, IRAs, Insurance and annuities and so on.
• Etc. re: Other investment planning and management
• Etc. re: Liability services
• Etc. re: Review and recommendations with regard to your company 401(k) plan
(See your Client Service Model and CRM notes to flesh out your deliverables.)
(Include a summary statement and an expression of looking forward to another year of clientship. You can also reinforce your desire for feedback.)
Sincerely yours,
Author and consultant Julie Littlechild35 has said: “We need to ensure that our value is expressed in every corner of our business. Value (differentiation) is more than a statement; it’s an experience.”36 She suggests you review your business to make sure what you say is not only compelling but that it completely illustrates your value. Make sure what you say is what clients and prospects hear and see, that is, DWYSYAGTD, Do what you say you are going to do.
Despite your high-value deliverables, there are investors who are highly fee-sensitive, who may not see the value of these deliverables, who may prefer to be self-directed and believe they can invest and service their own financial well-being without an advisor. These are “do-it-yourselfers.” We don’t mean to disregard these investors. Over time, with consistent, periodic contact, some of these prospects could conceivably have a change of heart or mind as their wealth and family grows and their available time decreases.
Some prospects and clients believe they can defy the Dalbar data, which says:
• In 2014, the average equity mutual fund investor underperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin of 8.19 percent. The broader market return was more than double the average equity mutual fund investor’s return (13.69 percent versus 5.50 percent).
• In 2014, the average fixed income mutual fund investor underperformed the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index by a margin of 4.81 percent. The broader bond market returned over five times that of the average fixed income mutual fund investor (5.97 percent versus 1.16 percent).37
Some of these people may be right, even in the face of Dalbar data that reports similar results for many years.38 See Figure 1-6.
Averages are just averages. By definition, there are some individuals who will perform better than the average. However, and as previously mentioned, “while most people do well at assessing others, they are wildly positive about their own abilities.”39
Figure 1-6 | Dalbar analysis of past returns.
(1) Note that returns are for the period ending 12/31/14.
Data from Dalbar 2015 quantitative analysis of investor behavior
Explanation of data used at http://www.bellmontsecurities.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-DALBAR-QAIB-study.pdf (page 4)
If what we have written is not what your prospects want, they are not your best prospects. Quoting Bernstein one more time, “No one in his right mind would walk into the cockpit of an airplane and try to fly it, or into an operating theater and open a belly. And yet they think nothing of managing their retirement assets. I’ve done all three, and I’m here to tell you that managing money is, in its most critical elements (the quota of emotional discipline and quantitative ability required) even more demanding than the first two.”40 While robo-advisors may have much of the quantitative ability required, they still can’t talk you off the ledge.
Your value and differentiation is a matter of becoming expert in five key areas:
1. Understand that a Unique Value Proposition has two distinct parts, value and uniqueness, and you must detail both parts.
2. Define the elements of your deliverables and their value.
3. Understand the Law of Fractional Advantage41 and deliver on enough of those elements to make you unique.
4. Provide effective and persistent execution in the six core client-facing processes to be described.
5. Deliver the 16 elements that will, in aggregate, define your differentiation. This includes:
• Being your client’s CFO and focusing well beyond investments
• Helping your clients understand money, including how to build their assets through their saving, their investing, truly comprehensive financial planning, and setting their expectations and behaviors
• Providing your technical skills to properly and continuously allocating their assets, managing the costs of their investments, rebalancing their portfolios as needed, and selecting appropriate investments
Our team, OWN Financial Advisors LLC (Owens, Wynn, and Nickel), brings over 65 years of experience to our mission of providing objective financial advice and wealth management services to affluent individuals, families, businesses, endowments, and foundations. Part of our differentiation comes from having created an open learning and sharing environment with our team of special professionals and our clients in order to benefit all whom we are privileged to serve. The wisdom, knowledge, and experience within all our partners and clients creates a unique brand of service to all.
At OWN, we use a highly client-centric planning approach, looking beyond the surface and taking a deep, personal interest in helping to improve the quality of life for all our clients and their families. Whether their focus is on wealth accumulation, preservation, or distribution, we combine extensive due diligence and portfolio management experience to develop financial strategies and portfolios that address each client’s special and unique circumstances.
Ongoing and honest communication is the hallmark of our approach. Clients deeply value our candor and willingness to be practical and direct, providing the necessary advice over the convenient message. It’s this same forthright approach that makes us adept at working in tandem with our clients’ other advisors, such as attorneys, accountants, and insurance representatives, so we can coordinate their wealth and estate management strategies whenever appropriate.
OWN Financial Advisors offers:
• A small boutique within a major financial institution. The team combines the true intimacy and personal attention of a boutique with the resources of a major financial services firm.
• Our word is our bond, which we will prove over a short period of time so we can demonstrate our proactive service and contact plan and the skills and experience we bring to the protection of your assets and the reaching of your goals.
• A team with multiple specialized skills and professional designations to deliver high-value services to clients with proven trust and integrity. Our work ethic, passion for the business, and desire to help clients is what drives these self-made successful professionals to always want to give more to their clients. These professionals know what it takes to be successful in everything they do for every client.
• Personalized strategic solutions, which we developed to address the complex needs of successful individuals. These solutions include discretionary portfolio management: stock option analysis, retirement and estate planning, hedging and monetization of concentrated equity positions, life insurance, and wealth preservation and transfer strategies.
• A team that meets regularly with clients wherever it’s convenient for face-to-face meetings. Our family orientation allows us to take a proactive and personal interest in the well-being of each client and their families. At the heart of our philosophy is our passion to build honest and enduring client relationships by consistently providing objective and insightful guidance as well as outstanding service. As a result of our efforts and holistic family approach, much of our work leads to “multigenerational” client relationships.
• Services for business owners, for-profit and nonprofit, to provide strategies for cash management, short- and long-term financing, as well as retirement plans.
• “Follow through” and client satisfaction, which are of primary importance. We are sharply attuned to new situations and changing market conditions; our passion to be proactive is a key ingredient in our approach.
• Successful track records with over 65 years of successful experience.
• Strategies designed to help you reach your unique goals.
• An understanding that you are extremely busy, with too much work to do and not enough time to do it.
• An understanding that the process we will use together has to be understandable, focusing on areas in which you need help to make your life easier, better, and more enjoyable and rewarding.
• Personal service to help you through a rigorous process focused on what you need and on which you want to focus.
With our team you will:
1. Set far better goals that motivate you in a healthy way.
2. Accomplish goals more quickly if you stay on track.
3. Make fewer mistakes.
4. Move up to the next level of your financial life.
5. Reduce the number of problems you deal with and better resolve the problems that are left.
6. Be a lot happier—and that happiness will last.
7. Be much more effective in having time for your family, business, and personal relationships.
8. Have a better life, not just a better lifestyle.
9. Receive unlimited support to prevent you from reverting to old, unwanted habits and behaviors.
10. Master the secrets of the most successful people in the world.
11. Have an experienced professional to hold you accountable for the action steps necessary to get results.
12. Get help determining which action steps to take.
13. Identify the unconscious fears and negative beliefs about money that may be holding you back.
14. Clarify what you want in your life.
15. Get the results you want, with the help of a personal team of advisors who are all about you and helping you get those results.
Sections of Chapter 1 are based on “A Hierarchy of the Value a Financial Advisor Provides,” Nerd’s Eye View (blog), March 8, 2016, https://www.kitces.com/blog/hierarachy-of-financial-advisorvalue/, with permission from Bob Seawright.