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Friday, November 20, 2009
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“Practice management ideas are great -- but how do I implement them?”
If you’ve asked yourself that question, INPractice is the answer. Each month, it tackles one practice management issue in four weekly installments.
Every Monday in the InvestmentNews Daily e-mail — and online here — advisers receive their weekly action steps. Follow through on these clearly defined “to-do’s” and in one month you will have transformed one key area of your business.
About Maureen Wilke
Content for INPractice is provided by Maureen Wilke, founder of Wilke and Associates of Glen Ellyn, Ill., and adviser to leading firms on strategies for practice management and adviser productivity.
Maureen has helped thousands of advisers increase the value of their business and now offers The CONNECTED Advisor: 8 Steps to Building an Extraordinary Practice (www.connectedadvisor.com) to distribution firms, wholesaling teams and advisers. She has spent nearly two decades in wealth management, marketing, sales and wholesaler training at firms including Nuveen Investments, and can be reached at Maureen@wilkeinc.com.
This is the time of year when many financial advisers have traditionally held yearend client dinners and parties. However, many advisers have shared that they need help in creating client gatherings...
Many of your retired clients are discovering their accumulated savings are insufficient to meet their current expenses, which translates into a need for more income.
In a survey by the Longevity Alliance Inc. of Washington, 42% of retirees said changes in their financial situation would cause them to think about going back to work and 29% said changes in health care coverage would be a key factor in that decision.
Over the past year, we have heard from advisers that the economy has not only hit clients hard; it has also affected their children who have recently graduated from college.
At a recent workshop, advisers told me they are finding that a surprisingly high percentage of their clients are unemployed. Advisers found this out during client reviews, and they said the news surprised them — clients had never called to let them know about their new circumstances.
The focus for most advisers over the next three months will be on executing client reviews and completing the follow-ups. This is the most important service an adviser can perform for clients in today's market, so don't clutter your team's calendars with other activities. When done right, client reviews are an effective business builder.
With just seconds left in the Minnesota-San Francisco game on Sunday, Brett Favre passed to Greg Lewis to score the winning touchdown for the Vikings. It was an amazing throw and Lewis followed through with an incredible catch by making sure his feet landed squarely in the corner of the end zone. More than just the catch, Lewis' follow-through footwork was the difference between a win and a loss.
Streamlined business practices help you become more efficient, and last week we explained how segmenting your client base can lead to a more efficient process for conducting client reviews this fall. The tiering method we outlined has worked well for many advisers. Simply following last week's steps can translate into completing your client segmentation in about two hours.
Now more than ever, advisers must accomplish more with less – which becomes all the more apparent now that annual client reviews are coming up.
Throughout August, we have focused on how to serve affluent clients. If you haven't had a chance to review and execute the ideas we discussed, here are the three strategies you can implement right now.
Study after study has found that affluent clients, above all else, want three things from their advisers: comprehensive financial planning, high-touch service and regular communications.
In your best clients' eyes, are you a knowledgeable, informed resource? Do you know about issues that are of greatest concern to your affluent clients?
How do you deliver premium-level communications coverage to top clients when you’re spread thin in terms of time and administrative help?
Now more than ever, it’s important to segment your clients and be sure you are focused on the top 20% to 30%.
The summer months are an ideal time to conduct client beneficiary updates.
Updated beneficiary details are so important and so often ignored that you will be providing an extremely valuable — and much appreciated — service by bringing this matter to your clients' attention.
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