As much as the markets and financial regulatory environment change, so too do your clients’ needs and goals. However, in financial advisory practices, you can’t rely on clients to always express those desires and needs. In a worst case scenario, your client’s needs might change and he/she might not even share those changes with you, and thus your inability to adapt to changes you don’t know you need to make can cause the relationship to deteriorate.

To prevent that from happening, you need to proactively drive communication with your clients. Of course, communication is a natural part of client interaction, but to get more specific, client-directed answers, using a client needs survey can provide insight that you might not be able to extract from a phone call or normal email exchanges.

We’ve previously discussed one way to distribute surveys [GC1] to clientele – using the Survey Monkey service. However, you need to consider what exactly to put in the survey to get the information you’re after without anything else clouding the message.  Continue Reading »

You want be viewed as a leader in your field for several reasons, not the least of which is that it’s good for your reputation and good for business. But it takes more than just being a knowledgeable financial adviser who’s good with clientele to be known as the expert.

Growing your business and enhancing your personal brand in a competitive field means putting yourself “out there.” Sure, that’s a rather nebulous phrase, but it’s an important way to become known. One of the ways to do this is to make presentations at conferences and seminars.

Does this thought terrify you? You aren’t alone – a Gallup survey ranked public speaking No. 2 among Americans’ fears (behind only snakes). That’s why instead of starting with a big national or regional conference, start small.  Continue Reading »

In the previous post of our seven-part series on practice management, which we’re calling the ActiFi Practice Management Primer, we covered how to benchmark your firm against your peers. In this, our final blog in the series, we focus on execution.

In the past six Practice Management Primer posts we shared an approach to translating your most important business goals into specific actions.  This series of blogs has been  broken into five segments, which you can focus on one at a time. The aim has been to help you envision how you can apply these principles and practices to your business in a practical manner. Lofty goals and ambitions are good, but without a clear path towards achievement, those goals and ambitions might well be left in the realm of what “could be.”

Now that you’re familiar with the concepts, it’s time to execute. As you do so, it’s important to have a broad view of the financial services industry’s macro-trends, which include:   Continue Reading »

Preserving your position as an industry expert is crucial if you want to stand out from the competition. When maintaining a relationship with a current client or when pitching a potential client, you want to demonstrate thoughtful leadership.

Creating an intriguing presentation about a particular wealth management topic is a great way to get your message in front of a prospect’s and/or client’s eyes. Here are some considerations for producing a presentation that gets noticed:

1. Choose a timely and distinctive wealth management topic. Continue Reading »

In the previous post of our seven-part series on practice management, which we’re calling the ActiFi Practice Management Primer, we discussed the importance of key performance indicators and measuring results as it relates to your overall practice management plan. With that information in mind, along with the other points we’ve discussed, in this blog we’re covering the next step in the process: benchmarking.

The most important benchmarking you can do is against your own goals and objectives to determine what is working and what is not.  Once you are clear on your performance against your goals it is useful to take a broader perspective and determine where you stand in relation to your peers and competitors. By comparing your results and stats to those of other practices, you’ll be able to see where you’re coming out ahead and where you’re falling behind.

To get started, you’ll need to identify the appropriate benchmarking studies related to your firm’s goals.   Continue Reading »

When you’re developing a publicity strategy for your firm, it’s essential to make sure that you’re covering all your media bases. While many advisors think about the glamour of having their story on broadcast media like radio and TV because of its broad reach, don’t underestimate the value of print media and the exposure and credibility it can provide.

Rumors of the demise of print can’t be taken at face value. That’s largely because the idea of “print” has changed so radically. While traditional newspaper and magazine readership has declined, the growing ubiquity of online “printed” material means that people are still out there reading—they’re just doing it in a new way. What’s more, the demand for specialized, industry-specific material from reliable sources is high. That means there is plenty of room for your ideas to get exposure.

However, it’s up to you to collect those ideas and turn them articles that people want to read. It’s a trickier prospect than you might imagine, so don’t jump into it without a little bit of background work. Start by taking a look at what’s out there. Continue Reading »

by Spenser Segal

In the previous post of our seven-part blog series on practice management, we discussed the importance of making sure that the right tasks are assigned to the right people. At the core of this idea is finding people in your practice, or even outside of it, who have the readiness—the will, skill and time—to carry out the necessary assignments. But what comes next, after the tasks have been completed?

After all the proverbial “i’s” have been dotted and “t’s” crossed, it’s time to start taking a good, hard look at whether your efforts have been effective.  While taking stock of what the results coming in mean, think back to our previous discussion about strategies, tactics and tasks. When you’re evaluating at this stage, tying strategies to a measurable result–a key performance indicator (KPI)–will help to clarify the new incoming data.

So, what is your KPI? Continue Reading »

It might not be part of the formal job description, but if you’re a financial advisor, being a media hawk is important. Keeping an eye on what’s happening in the news – both in the financial sector and other areas that affect it, like world events – is essential. What’s more, it can be part of your own media strategy.

Developing your ability to work with the media is something that can have short-term and long-term benefits. Your level of familiarity with the type of stories that go out on TV, radio and in print will directly impact your ability to participate in those venues. If you develop your skills and become a media pro, it might well lead to increased exposure for your practice.  Continue Reading »

Getting your name in the media and building your public profile through media exposure are two things you want to happen. But because that doesn’t often occur without a concentrated effort on your part, you need to think strategically as you launch your media relations efforts.

As much as you want to have the benefits of a higher profile, you also want to make sure that you’re not exposed to risk because of media coverage. Those risks could come in many forms, including potential lawsuits, so it pays to make sure that the information you’re putting out there is sound and in compliance with regulatory guidelines.  Continue Reading »

by Spenser Segal

In the last post in our seven-part blog series on practice management, we discussed the best ways to translate your goals into actionable tasks. If you followed the principles laid out in that last post (and the two preceding it), you now have an effective road map to make changes that will give your practice real, measurable results. However, the next step toward achieving your goals is one that can make or break your plan: ensuring that you are assigning tasks to people who have the will, skill, knowledge and time to perform them.

The people who make up your practice are there for a reason—you’ve hand-selected them because they showed the potential to help you and your clients succeed. However, everyone has different strengths and workloads, so you need to take a good hard look at who is ready to take on each task that has to be completed. And, to put it simply, readiness is a combination of will, skill and time.

In our extensive experience working with advisors, the most common reason that goals aren’t achieved is that tasks aren’t effectively executed. Assigning these jobs to capable employees who don’t have the readiness to see them through could set back your goals or even be their downfall.  Continue Reading »