There’s more to the advisory business than just managing money

Money is a means, not an end — it’s a tool.

That’s the message Bruce Ensrud, wealth advisor and founding partner of Parable Wealth, wants to convey to advisors attending the Advisor Insights Lab.

“The objective for us and for our clients is not to just make a big pile of money … it’s abundance and generosity,” Ensrud said. “People sometimes start a conversation about money worried and scared and nervous and feeling like they’re not going to be OK. Our goal is to help them move along a spectrum, at the end of which, we can demonstrate to them that there’s a quantifiable abundance here.”

Taking place Thursday, the Advisor Insights Lab, hosted by InvestmentNews and sponsored by Thrivent Advisor Network, will discuss how financial advisors can use their business for growth and inspire others.

One of the topics will be how financial advisors have built profitable businesses for good. Ensrud said he hopes the advisors who attend leave knowing that the business is more than “just managing money.”

“It’s changing lives and impacting communities and making the world better,” he said. “That sounds grandiose but if what you’re doing in this work is trying to figure out which small-cap growth fund you should use in your portfolios, I think there can be more to it than that.”

Ensrud also challenged others in the financial industry to start thinking that way. “Frankly, some of the just-managing-money stuff is not going to be done by human beings at some not-too-distant future point.”

At Parable Wealth Partners, an independent advisory team that’s part of Thrivent Advisor Network, advisors work with clients to articulate their purpose and their mission. One thing Ensrud does at his firm to maximize the impact on clients is to help his employees to recognize their value.

“We went through a program called LifePlan from the Paterson Center to try and help our team members articulate their own purpose and hopefully that allows them to connect it with what they’re doing here and, in their work,” he said. “More than that, it’s ‘What do you want your life to be about?’ and that was really cool to see people on the team begin to articulate that kind of stuff.”

Ensrud added that the team members at Parable Wealth have spent a lot of their time articulating their mission and rallying around it. “For us, it’s changing the story to one of hope and contentment that enlivens the mission of others. It’s super gratifying when we can see a charity benefiting a life transformed. It would be really dull if it was just about the money.”

Advisors looking to grow and use their firm for good and to enhance relationships within their business are encouraged to attend Thursday’s event. Registration is ongoing and is free to attend. For more details and to sign up, click here.