3 unique roles for advisers on a team

Well-defined job descriptions help a firm better serve clients and prepare for succession.

There are countless benefits to building a team, yet according to our experience and research, few teams achieve the success they hope to. That can be attributed to a variety of factors.
Advisers create teams for several reasons, all of which require clearly defined roles and accountability within them.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen that way.
All too often I work with teams who have merged their practices but are still running two separate businesses, because they fail to leave their solo roles and step into new, team-based roles. That leaves members attempting to fill multiple rolls, which negates the benefit of forming a team in the first place.

THREE ROLES

The best teams have three adviser roles. Of course, several additional roles are filled by team members or consultants devoted to providing support in other areas. But these three roles are central to delivering on the promises you make to clients.

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Senior lead adviser: Senior lead advisers should be focused on their activities as rainmakers. They should be consistently filling the pipeline, meeting with potential clients and centers of influence, and bringing them on board.

They should also be developing relationships with clients who will speak positively about the firm.

Their secondary role as a relationship manager is more strategic and assumed only when clients need a partner to help make a crucial decision.

The senior lead adviser might be brought in when clients are especially important to your team’s success or their situation necessitates a higher level of attention.

Senior lead advisers are sometimes the most technically proficient members of the team, and in many cases they have their certified financial planner or certified private wealth advisor designations.

The common trait of senior lead advisers is that they can make it rain.

Lead adviser: The primary function of the lead adviser is as a relationship manager concentrating on complete client care. That means being absolutely certain that no accounts are leaving the practice and that the team is delivering on promises made to clients.

A secondary set of responsibilities for the lead adviser encompasses four crucial responsibilities: uncovering new assets from existing clients; finding new revenue opportunities to serve existing clients more effectively; connecting with the heirs of clients’ wealth, and knowing when and where that wealth is ready to transition; and engaging clients to uncover those who can advocate for the firm.

Those responsibilities require exhaustive industry knowledge and stellar communication skills.

Service adviser: Service advisers take care of all follow-through. They are essentially responsible for completing the work that ensures delivery of what the client was promised.

Front and center at some points and behind the scenes at others, service advisers make sure that all client information and paperwork is complete and in order.

Remember, however, that you want advisers in all capacities to be in front of clients as frequently as appropriate.

That kind of engagement makes clients feel served and supported. It also creates a familiarity between them and all advisers on your team.

That’s important for a number of reasons, including that eventually service advisers will move into lead adviser and senior lead adviser roles, according to your succession plan needs.

The advantage of having a team is that it allows members to home in with increased focus and efficiency on their core competencies and the unique value they bring to the business.

This won’t be possible if you or any of your team members are wearing “all the hats” or trying to fill the senior lead adviser and lead adviser roles simultaneously.

While you may work together to accomplish some of these duties, only one team member should be the driver of each.

Ray Sclafani is the founder and chief executive of ClientWise, a business and executive coaching firm working exclusively with financial professionals and teams.