Just getting a designation isn’t enough

Jeff Benjamin [00:00:01] Welcome back to Triple Play. I’m Jeff Benjamin, and we’re still focusing on our niche adviser coverage. We are talking right now with Chris Chen, founder of Insight Financial Strategist in Newton, Massachusetts. Chris has and has a very interesting niche. He focuses on women going through divorce. So let’s see what we can learn from him. 

Chris Chen [00:00:22] Thanks for having me, Jeff. I have three tips about niche practices, in particular mine, which is divorce financial planning. So the first tip I would have for someone picking a niche is to train themselves into the niche. So in my case, I am focusing on divorce, financial planning. And the first thing I did for that was to get a designation is called the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst. Then I started becoming better at it. I got more training. I trained as a collaborative law professional and as a mediator. And I read a whole lot about taxes because taxes are fundamental to that particular niche. So we all have to understand that the designation is not enough. It does not make you an expert. You have to practice what you learn and you have to get deep into it. And when you do, eventually you’re able to provide value that is in excess of your fee, hopefully well in excess of a fee. Second tip, I would have to be flexible. So I started off with divorce financial planning, and then I found that more women than men were seeking me. And so it became divorcing women instead of just divorcing people and then divorcing women thinking of retirement. And now it is women business owners who have divorced and need a financial recovery. So it is, to a large extent, a trial and error. It is about what works. It is about what comes your way and what you can depend when it comes your way. The third tip I would have would be about marketing. Having a niche is not just about having the skills, it is also about being able to reach a niche audience. So one of the challenges with divorcing people is that they are difficult to find. Divorce hits every demographics old and young, rich and poor in a bit of a random way. It is different than, say, retirement, where you can often determine a person’s likely needs based on their age. So I found that the divorced niche is best addressed through professional referrals. That is because when someone is looking through divorce, they’re usually looking for a lawyer or a mediator before looking for a financial planner. So you need the lawyers and the mediators to recognize the financially and suggest to the client that you would be useful for them. So part of the benefit of taking less direct financial training that I was talking about earlier was collaborative law and mediation is that you get to start mingling with other professionals. For example, in collaborative law training, you get to train together with lawyers and divorce coaches. Eventually, what I did was to organize my own training directed to mediation and legal professionals. I would have a daylong workshop. I called it a symposium with different speakers talking about various financial aspects of divorce. Now, with a web taking more and more importance, people are finding me online more regularly and that’s good. But I still need to supplement. So I do a weekly podcast directly to consumers, called Divorce Friday where we talked about the financial aspects of divorce, and I also do webinars every month with other professionals, including a lawyer and a coach. Marketing never ends. Well, thanks for watching. I hope it helps. And if you do need any help, please give me a call. It can be found on the web and anywhere that you can type in. Chris Chen CFP. 

Jeff Benjamin [00:03:57] OK, folks, thanks for watching. That was Triple Play. And I’m Jeff Benjamin. If you want to talk to me about your niche practice, find me on Twitter. I’m @BenjiWriter.