Succeeding your business
Redefining retirement and your business
Tying the Knot: Growth by merger
Evolution of the family office
March 10th, 2010
Tags: Evolution Of The Family, Family Office
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Four ways to get maximum impact from client gifts
March 10th, 2010
With Christmas around the corner, many advisors are thinking about how to get the most mileage from the dollars they spend on client gifts.
My column in November’s Investment Executive outlines four strategies to do exactly that:
- 1. Tap into positive experiences
Births, weddings and graduations all give you the chance to maximize the impact of the dollars you spend. One advisor sends clients who have children or grandchildren a blown up birth announcement in a silver plated frame - this never fails to get a huge and immediate response.
- 2. Tailor the gift to client passions
Tags: Best Seller, Birth Announcement, Capital Gains, Charitable Contributions, Client Gifts, Cooking Wine, Grandchildren, Interested Clients, Investment Executive, Leading Authorities, Longevity, Malcolm Burrows, Maximum Impact, Passions, Time Clients, Travel Golf, Video Gifts, Wine Journal, Wine Lover, Wine Travel
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Three Articles You Can Send to Nervous Clients
March 10th, 2010
Despite the more positive tone to markets, anxiety is still high among many Canadians.
Here are three articles from this past weekend’s Barron’s, New York Times and Wall Street Journal to reassure nervous clients.
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal wrote that “the U.S. economy’s natural healing tendencies are asserting themselves and the American economy is poised for a rebound.”
WSJ.com – Opinion: A Jobs Bottom
Also on Saturday, an article in the New York Times outlines how a recovery is underway, in large measure due to U.S. actions to forestall a more serious economic decline.
Tags: American Economy, Baby Boomers, Bank Of America, Bidding Farewell, David Leonhardt, Economic Decline, Economic Scene, Email Clients, Finance Professors, Franklin Allen, Global Equity, Goldman Sachs, Jeremy Siegel, Merrill Lynch, Paul Sullivan, Positive Tone, Quarter Profits, S Real Estate, Sunshine State, Wall Street Journal
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Three ways to inspire clients
March 10th, 2010
What’s your main goal when meeting with clients?Given the beating their portfolios have taken and the general mood of pessimism, often it’s to have them leave feeling more optimistic and upbeat about their future prospects and in particular about your role as their advisor.
After all, people shouldn’t see meeting with their advisor as a prescription for pain, similar to going to the dentist. Instead, your goal should be to have clients walk away from meetings feeling better than they did when they came in.
Here are three ways to do that, without pretending we aren’t facing real issues putting our credibility at risk.Help clients regain control
Tags: 2c, A6, Asset Mix, Conservative Estimate, Credibility, E2, Financial Future, Financial Futures, Financial Planning, Future Prospects, Gap, Going To The Dentist, Itt, Main Goal, Part Time Job, Pessimism, Pessimistic Outlook, Portfolios, Powerlessness, Three Ways, Tradeoffs, Work With Clients
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Shaping your brand
Building your business
Is Your Focus Narrow or Broad?
March 10th, 2010
In defining your business, there are a number of decisions you have to make in order to appropriately position what you offer. You can choose to have a narrow or broad focus to your business. By choosing a narrow focus, you have opted to specialize. A financial advisor may choose to focus on a specialty such as investment advice, life insurance planning or estate planning and, consequently, offer a particular set of products and services. Another way to narrow your focus is to specialize in defined market segments such as retirees or pre-retirees. If you specialize in the retirement market, your clientele would primarily consist of people in their 50s, 60s and beyond.
Tags: 50s 60s, Array, Case In Point, Case Size, Clientele, Collateral, Financial Advisors, Financial Health, Financial Planning, Financial Security, Financial Services, General Practitioner, High Net Worth Clients, Insurance Premium, Introductions, Investment Advice, Life Insurance, Market Segments, Narrow Focus, Retirement Market
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Articles You Can Send Your Clients (August 5, 2009)
March 10th, 2010
This last week has been marked with the continuation of the great melt-up in the markets, with more confirmation coming from the markets in the form of tried and true rules of thumb passing a stamp of approval, such as Dow Theory Letters calling of the bull market. In addition, their has been renewed strength coming from the commodities sector with oil prices creeping still higher, a reason for many Canadian investors to be happy. On the economic front, the Case Shiller Housing Index registered what some are saying is a bottom, and that was taken as very positive news. Whether this is a secular or cyclical “bull,” there are still reasons to believe that we are far from the end of this rally, at least for now.
Tags: Benjamin Graham, Canadian Investors, Case Shiller Housing Index, Commodities, Confirmation, Continuation, Dow Theory Letters, Economic Front, George Soros, Industry Insiders, J P Morgan, John Templeton, New Values, Nouriel Roubini, Oil Prices, Perma, Peter Lynch, Positive News, Rally, Rothschilds, Rules Of Thumb, Stamp Of Approval, Universal Agreement, Warren Buffett
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Getting a do-over on investing decisions
March 10th, 2010
My March column in Investment Executive describes a talk one evening last fall in which I spoke to 200 investors, filling in at the last moment for a speaker who’d had to cancel because of a family emergency.
I asked the audience to imagine that it was January 1 of 1970, forty years ago – and they had $100 to invest. They could put that $100 in one of six stock markets – the United States, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia. Further, they could divide it up in any way they wished – they could put it all into one market, divide it up evenly among the six or any combination in between.
Tags: Academics, Audience, Compendium, Exercise 1, Family Emergency, Forty Years, Hong Kong, Investment Executive, Investor, January 1, Last Moment, Market Bias, Phrase, Proximity, Recency Effect, Roller Coaster Ride, Stock Markets, Target, Tendency, Volatility
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Turning service problems into opportunities
March 10th, 2010
No matter how hard we try to avoid them, it’s inevitable that on occasion clients will experience a service problem – a change of address doesn’t go through, something that was supposed to be sent slips through the cracks or a request wasn’t followed up on.
Even small mistakes can be costly – they can corrode client confidence, undermine goodwill and sometimes even cost you a client. A while back, I spoke to an investor who pulled his account because of a succession of irritating mistakes over an eighteen month period.
Tags: Advertisement, Change Of Address, Client Confidence, Cracks, Email, Face, Goodwill, Gritted Teeth, Investor, Relationships, Shoulders, Six Step, Slips, Succession
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Fundamentals helped firm flourish
The family office evolved
De Goey: Probability, disclosure and client choice
March 9th, 2010
Tags: Client Choice, De Goey, Disclosure, Probability
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Final Words: Ethnic communities present opportunities
March 8th, 2010
Tags: Ethnic Communities, Final Words
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Patti Branco’s Words of Wisdom for Advisors
March 5th, 2010
This article is a guest contribution from Patti Branco, author of The Path to Million Dollar Production.
It doesn’t matter if you are new, connected or from a rich family. These are clearly advantages, but a lack of them is not a deal killer or a career breaker.
People buy people. ‘Sales’ is often more art than science. It is a continuous learning process, where listening is often more important than speaking, and learning should be your food for success. Product knowledge, people skills, enthusiasm.
- First, learn to block your time so that all of the important activities are not left to chance.
Tags: Branco, Competency, Confidence, Continuous Learning, Curve, Dollar Production, Moment Of Your Time, Moments Notice, Network Opportunity, Precious Moment, Product Knowledge, Rest Of Your Life, Seminars, Sincerity, Three Feet, Upbeat Music, Volunteer, Warmth, Whiner, Words Of Wisdom
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A four step conversation to build confidence
March 5th, 2010
Last week, I talked to an advisor concerned that if he called clients too often, he might communicate that he is truly alarmed by what’s going on and raise their anxiety levels as a result.Consider advice on this topic from a recent interview with Rob Kaplan, former Vice Chair of Goldman Sachs and currently a professor at the Harvard Business School:
Tags: Anxiety Levels, Bad News, Confidence, Conversations, Downside, Economy, Goldman Sachs, Good Advice, Harvard Business School, Human Nature, Investors, Lot, Organization, Rob Kaplan, Tendency, Vice Chair
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