Manage Your Practice
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Standing in Your Clients' Shoes
Added on March 2014 in Manage Your Practice
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Summary: Empathy--the capacity to recognize and share another person's experiences and emotions--is a crucial trait for advisers to have if they want to succeed in an industry that is about effectively handling client emotions as well as their money. If a client feels listened to and validated, the adviser can win over that client for life, and more, therapists and advisers say.
Create value with a strategic alliance
Added on March 2014 in Manage Your Practice
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Summary: Would you like to have a steady source of referral business without ever asking for a referral? Then you need to build a strategic alliance. Before I get into the “how-tos,” let me review the philosophy. In order to build and lead an alliance, you need to have a full-service mindset, which is different than a transactional or product-driven mentality. I'm not judging, just pointing out that a strategic alliance led by an adviser must be from a full-service orientation.
'Robo Advisors'? How to Fight Back
Added on March 2014 in Manage Your Practice
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Summary: My vision for the months and years to come tells me that a number of well-funded, low-cost online portfolio management services - what many in our industry dismissively call "robo advisors" - are going to disrupt the lives of planners who have the grave disadvantage of being made out of flesh and blood. Before long, online asset management firms like Wealthfront and Betterment are going to pour their venture capital dollars into widespread advertising campaigns. Smart advisors will compete head-to-head by anchoring their value to clients on their advice, rather than their portfolio management.
Want Sustainable Advisory Firm Growth? Automation Is Key
Added on March 2014 in Manage Your Practice
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Summary: A white paper released by SEI Advisor Network and ActiFi Inc. in March challenged advisors to integrate technology and automation more efficiently in order to run a more successful practice. Far too often, knowledge about client relationships and key processes resides in the heads of one or two people. The business risks are high, especially for growing firms, as balls get dropped, client service suffers and onboarding new employees is virtually impossible,” says the paper, authored by SEI’s Raef Lee and John Anderson, and ActiFi’s Spenser Segal.
Voices: Dave Polstra, on Realizing the Limits of Your Expertise
Added on March 2014 in Manage Your Practice
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Summary:One of the most useful lessons I've learned during my time as an adviser to corporate executives is the importance of developing an area of expertise. It's one of the founding principles that my partners and I operate on as a firm and it's a good concept for us to remind ourselves of as advisers: You cannot be all things to all people.