When Barry Glassman first started out in the industry, he found his biggest challenge was that he simply didn’t have time to serve clients the way he imagined. The founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services says that he initially had one advisor for every 100 clients, meaning personalization was an issue.
“We’ve worked hard since then to adjust our client-to-advisor ratio to around 30,” he explains. “With our ‘Just One Client’ mindset, we focus on each client individually, always challenging ourselves to think about what we would and should do for this family if they were the only client we served. We find that this mindset allows us to spend more time with each family, resulting in more sophisticated and personalized advice and often better outcomes overall.
“We review our clients’ tax returns, we have proactive meetings with their other advisors, we attend estate planning meetings. Each of these gives us deep knowledge about our clients but, more importantly, gives us the time to do what’s right.”
This hyper-personalized approach is something that defines Glassman’s work ethos. With client expectations changing rather rapidly in today’s market, especially with the advent of tech and the influx of new, younger investors, keeping a human touch in an increasingly digital-led world is key for Glassman.
“Customer service is for us always about personalization,” he says. “While you can give extra attention, the question is what kind of personalized attention can you offer? With our ‘Just One Client’ mindset, we customize portfolios, withdrawal strategies, and personal finance strategies all based on their particular circumstances.”
Glassman is equally passionate about financial education – driven mainly by a desire to make financial concepts understandable and useful for everyone.
“We share financial knowledge and terms that are real and relatable, understandable and useful,” he says. “A lot of times clients leave a wealth management meeting feeling like their advisors were really smart, yet they didn’t fully understand what investments they have.”
This issue, he believes, is a fault of the industry, where the aim often seems to be making the advisor look smart rather than ensuring client comprehension. Glassman uses an analogy to explain his approach.
“It’s like watching the weather, and the weatherman talks for a few minutes about high- and low-pressure systems coming into the region. But really all you want to know is if it’s going to rain today.”
For most people, understanding high- and low-pressure systems isn’t as important as knowing the practical impact – whether they’ll need an umbrella. Similarly, in financial planning, people care about how economic factors affect their personal finances, not just the technical details.
“Our information and educational materials are real, relatable, digestible, and understandable,” adds Glassman.
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