Breakaway Brokers

I recently learned of a Chinese concept called “guanxi” that explains exactly why some advisors are more successful at building their client base and AUM.

Managers of VIX-informed strategies have nuanced understanding of volatility, utilizing it as a tool in all market cycles.

This mass exodus of breakaway brokers hasn’t happened, much to the chagrin of us prognosticators, and I know why.

If you feel like you sputtered around and never got what you wanted out of your marketing plan this year, here are three tips so you can rock 2021 like Eddie Van Halen.

The number one thing stopping advisors from growing their businesses on social media is the lack of a strategy, not a lack of followers.

Advisors are highly qualified, although few clients are capable of understanding the difference in your credentials. Does it matter?

You don’t need the advanced training of an FBI field agent to spot the truth. There is a better way.

Collecting client feedback doesn’t have to be a complex process.

As a result of the coronavirus, the advisory business model has changed precipitously, with two key trends driving this transformation…

It’s time to consider an entirely different approach to your process for converting prospects.

What is the best way to redesign marketing materials to convey our message to a specific audience?

When we explore the specifics of an advisor’s business, there are commonly asked questions around the nuances between the SEC and FINRA.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a special day. The reality is different, but a daily, five-minute exercise can transform it into the experience we all want.

Presenting data is challenging, but sometimes advisors have to. Here is how to do it better than your peers.

Here are four habits to incorporate into your daily routine that will trigger referral activity.

Here are the key characteristics that distinguish highly successful digital-marketing practices.

For the second consecutive year, Advisor Perspectives has been ranked as the electronic newsletter that is most-read by financial advisors.

Here are five growth opportunities that will help you advance your firm while the competition sits on the sidelines.

There are three disastrous mistakes I see advisors make with Zoom calls.

During the recent Advisor Perspectives Thought Leader Summit, two of the industry’s most respected experts shared their best practices and insights on growing and scaling your business with fintech solutions.

My three-question test will let you see if your LinkedIn profile page stinks.

While getting into a groove with your social media plan may take some trial-and-error, there are some crucial commandments to maximize your potential and reach.

Paying for qualified prospects from lead-generation services, can be profitable provided that the proper processes are in place to capture, follow up with, and nurture new opportunities.

The controversy surrounding wearing a mask boldly illustrates a pervasive issue for advisors and their clients.

Clients are surprised when I request copies of their tax returns. But when they see the process I use to save them money – tax “alpha” – they often wish April 15 came more often.

Virtually all advisors have the technical competence to construct a plan that will help a prospect. But most make a key mistake when they try to explain that plan, and it almost always causes them to lose the business.

Founded in 2018, Defiance ETFs is an ETF sponsor and registered investment advisor focused on thematic investing. Its suite of rules-based ETFs allows retail and institutional investors to express a targeted view on dynamic sub-sectors that are leading the way in disruptive innovations.

I meet few humble advisors. Most are supremely confident in their knowledge of all things financial. This confidence is rarely justified.

When it comes to reading things online, we have a selective attention span; this is why it’s so important to optimize subject lines in both blog posts and your email marketing.

Growth is cyclical – try, learn and progress. In an ideal state the process is – try and progress – you get it right the first time and never have to iterate. But the ideal state is unfortunately not realistic.

We’d like to believe facts matter. In some situations, that is true, but I believe this quote attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche: “There are no facts, only interpretations.”

Today I am speaking with one of the advisory profession’s preeminent thought leaders, business strategist and success coach Stephanie Bogan. Stephanie is going to share her perspective on the value of coaching, some of her favorite lessons she has learned along the way as a coach and what it takes to really be Successful…in all aspects of your life, not just as an advisor.

I have much to say about referrals. For this article, let’s focus in on three of the biggest mistakes I have seen advisors make with referrals.

It seems like ages ago that our firms closed their doors and we scrambled to set up home offices. We weren’t sure what challenges lay ahead, and the market took our breath away in those first intense weeks. But while we don’t like having to cope with a disaster, human beings tend to do well in a crisis and to adapt quickly to massive disruptions.

Many of my clients have found success by focusing to serve a particular market or offer specialized services. Here’s why this works.

What do I do to raise my profile during this time of isolation?

We think that if we can just impress others with our smarts, charm, wit, worldliness, hipness, etc., it’ll blow people away and they will spread the word about how lucky they are to know us. Unfortunately, this self-centered approach isn’t effective.

You’ve been trained to believe the four most dangerous words for investors are: It’s different this time. I don’t agree. These four are more problematic …

An historic realignment of fiduciary advice has snuffed out 40 Act principles. The SEC, the coming DOL Rule, and CFP Board standards have rejected them. The realignment reveals a path of destruction – to the law, language and logic.

I’m going to share exactly how we build videos for advisors, so you can replicate our process if you find it appealing.

The pandemic has changed investor behavior. It has altered the qualities and services investors look for in a financial advisor.

I was recently told, “I love Medicare 101, but I’m ready for a Medicare ‘unhinged’ – the real stuff that advisors should know to the core and not all of the usual stuff we hear.”

Behavioral factors can significantly impact a client’s financial wellness. This executive brief focuses on four — Future Concept, Impulsiveness, Materialism and Financial Literacy — to provide insights into identifying and addressing each factor during financial coaching, which financial professionals can use to create the optimal plan for each client.

Ultra-low interest rates and a flood of private equity dollars seeking a decent return have driven the valuations paid in the M&A market to crazy levels, according to two of the most prominent acquirers.

Look for these five factors in marketing director applicants.

When you hear or see the word “threat,” it triggers you in some way. Associating that word with referrals will evoke a terrifying shiver. This is, of course, assuming you’re interested in wanting to acquire more referrals.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg devoted much of her career to advancing women’s rights. Despite her heroic efforts to bridge the gender gap, much work remains to be done.

Over the past few months, advisors and investors have been whipsawed by market movements and emotions have been magnified due to the pandemic. And while the term behavioral finance has often been discussed in the advisor world, the application of it into practice tends to lag.

Nature is our greatest teacher. After spending a couple weeks on a small lake in Vermont this summer, I saw how fishing provides a framework for prospecting – the process of finding and converting a lead to client.

Your social network may be an untapped and robust source for uncovering prospects. While you may be suffering from COVID-19 fatigue, we believe prospecting and having introductory conversations about the services you provide could be one of the best uses of your time.

Knowing your client lifetime value is essential, and it can guide the decisions you make in the course of your career.

Here are five biases that may be lurking in your subconscious and influencing the way you assess men and women.

Advisors must develop their softer skills so they can meet the needs of their clients with both compassion and empathy, all within an increasingly remote and virtual atmosphere.

How do the ultra-wealthy find financial advisors? What are they looking for, and how can your firm use that knowledge to cater to this hyper-specific audience?

It certainly feels different this time. Acknowledging that difference will enhance relationships with your clients.

My learning goal each year is to read at least 40 business-related, non-fiction books – the “stay at home order" has allowed me to read 63. So here is my eighth annual compilation of the ones I’ve read from September 2019 through August 2020.

Your chance of closing business with an existing client is 72%. Most of the income you make from any one client will be ensuing sales, not from the initial solution.

How do I keep my team working together effectively in this remote environment?

Before you work on a marketing plan, answer these 20 questions…

A leading psychologist explains why more women aren’t in leadership roles in financial services.

I realized that it’s been so long since I started my NewsLetter, most of you won’t know its origins. To bring you up to date, here’s the intro to the first one.

Download Coach Through Biases - Yours and Your Clients' to learn how to reframe your client experience through ongoing engagement and conversations about risk — the risk of not meeting goals that is.

That's because when your clients think about risk, chances are they aren’t referring to technical terms like standard deviation. Coaching them throughout your relationship can help combat emotional decision-making and maximize the likelihood of achieving success.

Recently, I released a comprehensive fee survey that was designed to test what, exactly, is going on in the advisor marketplace – to assess whether firms are, indeed, migrating from the AUM revenue model to something that more closely matches time and internal costs with fees charged.

Imagine if you had a meter to measure the positive energy in your firm. How often would it be buzzing off its hinges at full tilt toward positivity?

There’s an insidious form of discrimination that’s rarely discussed, but highly pernicious. And it’s incredibly difficult to overcome.

Prospects find your firm’s website with a Google search such as, “financial advisor near me.” But what happens when you’re not showing up in those searches?

Nobody will die or suffer great pain if you don't react now, this instant.

Ask yourself this question: Why do you trust someone? What is there about them that gives you that special feeling?

Have you ever noticed that Mother Nature always wins?

There’s a fundamental misunderstanding about creating trust. Too often, we conflate an air of confidence with building trust with a prospect.

A true goals-based wealth management (GBWM) approach can help you control for behavioral biases — both yours and your clients’ — and deliver desired financial outcomes for your clients. Coaching clients throughout your relationship can help combat emotional decision-making and maximize the likelihood of achieving success. Join SEI and Capital Group® for this session which will:

• Teach attendees about goals based wealth management
• Show attendees how to implement a GBWM approach by breaking down the implementation process into its core components
• Walk attendees through: identifying clients’ objectives, choosing alternate allocation approaches, the benefits of multiple investment styles and implementation vehicles, and personalization to help you help your clients meet their investment goals
• Introduce the SEI American Funds® Strategies

John, J., and Chris will be available to answer your questions following the presentation.

A common block I see in business growth is incongruence. What people say they want is not what they actually want (or believe is possible).

Doing what others don’t do positions you as someone special. Let’s take a look at two things you can start doing today.

Is there a right way to deliver bad news to an employee?

Advisors are blissfully unaware of the risk inherent in their jobs.