Mark,

This is great stuff. After going through The Kate Wilson Full Case-study my administrative assistant and I sat down to brainstorm what we need the most. We both agreed, the thing that will help us the most are meeting agendas for every client meeting along with your checklists which will help us make sure we're thinking through every client's situation thoroughly.

We're excited to implement more and can't wait for more of your stuff.

Can't wait,

Tom

Thanks Tom,

In case anyone reading this doesn't know about The Kate Wilson Full Case-study, it is in 3-parts (5 1/2 hours of videos) and follows a "Regular Guy" financial advisor named Kate who successfully overhauled her practice, creating calm out of chaos, as she implented fully comprehensive financial services for her clients. This case study follows the first 30 days of her journey examining the very first steps she implented.

We encourage financial advisors and their support teams to see these foundational pieces Kate put into place in her practice.

You can sign up for The Kate Wilson Full Case-study at no charg here:
http://askmarklittle.com/kate/

I'm glad you got value from the content Tom,

Mark

I am the office manager for a large financial planning practice. Any help you could give us to help us coordinate our efforts would be wonderful. We are all convinced that we're wasting a tremendous amount of time and effort by not having written processes and systems for the most important functions in our office. I just hate it when things don't go smoothly... can you help?

Holly, I have been working with Mark for several years and you'll get everyone flying in formation very quickly with Mark's processes. He's got several sheets we have put in place and now everyone in our office knows exactly what to do. I had to respond, because I felt for you... that is exactly where our office was before we started implementing Mark's systems.

I am looking forward to reinventing my practice in a direction that will integrate your concepts although I am a bit overwhelmed.

We work very hard to make everything step-by-step focusing on "bite-sized" pieces. As my friend Bill Bachrach says, "you are tuning a running engine." We realize that you have a practice to run whilst you reinvent and implement even more fully comprehensive financial services. So fasten your seat belt, but our commitment is not to go faster than you can (reasonably) implement. - Mark

As my friend Bill Bachrach says, "you are tuning a running engine." I am so relieved to see this comment. My current image is one of traveling at high speed in my practice with brief pit stops to change tires. I must make these changes but I need them to happen now, and make a difference immediately, otherwise the reduction in time isn't worth it.
Really, really appreciate the directed focus. It's everything we are already doing but its written down and in order of importance. Perfect.

Lisa, that's a great metaphor... we've all felt that way. Spending 1/3 of your work week installing even more fully comprehensive financial services and building your deliverables team won't happen over night. BUT, I've witnessed advisors put enough pieces in place within 30 days, that ideal clients immediately (and continually) notice services ramping-up quickly. If you are following our annual client meeting cycle, then you will meet with every ideal client every four months... every cycle you'll hear some clients comment about how they feel more "financially on-track" and are glad "someone's looking over that stuff" or how they're making smarter decisions about their money in all areas.

So, let not your heart be troubled... as you know, everything we suggest is checklist driven (in sequence), so implement as fast (or slow) as you you can with 1/3 of your time each week. As you know, the other 2/3 of your work week is reserved for client acquisition activities and "delivering on the promise" by interacting with ideal clients

Cheers, Mark

thanks for sending.

Mark provides a tremendous service helping advisors get an inside glimpse into how a well run operation works and delivers a quality service to its clients. His insights are worth their weight in gold, many times what he charges.

Hi Mark:
Looking forward to seeing the new stuff.
Bryan

Mark,
Case study was practical and I see areas of mine that matched Kate's initial predicament. Looking forward toward more definition and direction in implementing the solutions you offer in the Toolkit and in the "long-awaited" study. Thanks!

Mark,

I have enjoyed your material and look forward to seeing what you roll out next.

Thanks,

Phil

Marc, It's great to know that "Kate" wasn't alone in her predicament. If you could give more clarity as to what kinds of definition and direction in implementing you feel you need right now, that would help a lot?

We feel the resources we have coming out do just that, and the purpose of the exercise right now is for us to interact with lots of advisors to make certain that there's nothing more we can do to make our tools as valuable as possible for advisors and their teams.

Mark,
Paraphrasing Bill Bachrach, he has said that we need to move our practices from a "one man band" to being the "conductor" of an orchestra. what tools do you have for defining core competencies/functional expertise(s) of an advisor's practice and processes to evaluate and build informal and formal strategic alliances/collaborations with other advisors that complement one's own practice? Thanks.

Marc,

You make it all sound so complex. My resources are for financial advisors who have fully committed to offering even more comprehensive financial services to their clients. Here's what our online practice managment platform helps advisors install:

- A systematic and highly structured annual client meeting process as the operating system for the firm (so that everyone on the growing Deliverables Team knows exactly what's expected of them and when)
- The Step by step method we have utilzed over the years to build and orchestrate a Best-in-Class Deliverables Team of (mostly outsourced) Subject Matter Experts in the areas of Tax, Financial Planning, Money Management, Estate Planning, Insurance Planning and Tax.
- A culture of documenting every major process in your office utilizing the methods that have worked so well for us, and the advisors we coach (namely The Go-To Grid™ & The Best Way™) so that everything in the practice runs smoothly & consistently like a "Swiss Watch"
- All the meeting agendas, client progress meeting document prep-work and our Annual Deliverables Checkpoints™ (DCPs) so that your practice is a has a checklist-driven fully comprehensive financial services system in place so that nothing falls through the cracks for any client.
- All the training & development resources to delegate nearly all of the above to the Deliverables Team freeing up the Trusted Advisor to focus more of their time on client acquisition activities and gaining an even deeper and even more thorough understanding of your ideal clients' situations.

Our goal is to fully support advisors with this turn-key online practice management platform.

Advisors all over the world have successfully implemented our methodology, and we're excited to roll this out as an online system of tools and resouces since I can better support advisors via the web than I can with live workshops.

It has been thrilling to watch so many advisors over the past few years implement these tools. All the best, Mark

I am looking forward to the recent survey results!

Hello Mark,
Thank You again for all the wonderful systems and tools you are putting out on the website. What a difference it is making in our office. One thought I had that might be useful to you is to have the six meeting process diagram as you have developed it on the home page. We could then click on each meeting and find all the appropriate tools, processes and systems categorized by meeting. You migh even do this on a step-by-step basis in chronological order so that the deliverables team always knows what the next activity needs to be during the client acquisition or service process so that they can be more pro-active in keeping the process going. The less the TA has to think about the better, and this way we can spend more time on client acquisition.

One thing that might be useful for us would be to have a template on he website to do the tactical and strategic plans for each goal.

Also I noticed that you have one pager agendas for some of the meetings but not all. It would be nice to have one for each of the six meetings.

Hope that helps Mark, talk soon.

God Bless,

Dominique

              

Hi Dominique, greate feedback.

I'll work with my team to see about putting The Three Meeting Process™ graphic on the homepage of under the "Progress Meetings" tab. If I can swing it, I love the idea of the ability to click on the meeting you want in such a visual way.

Also, there are meeting plans for all six meetings (the three "one-time" meetings as well as the three recurring client progress meetings in The Three Meeting Process™.

Great stuff, as always Dominique, - Mark

I guess what I would be most interested in is the best method to track deliverables, time alloted, etc.. to get an idea of the "billable" time spent with each client. I think some clients rates are super low and some are super high.

Hi Dusty,

I appreciate your comment and it has me thinking.

OK, here's my (unfiltered thought process), the whole idea of having a standardized checklist driven system for providing fully comprehensive financial services is so that the meeting prep (and meeting objcetives) are consistent and thorough so that nothing falls through the cracks (but the process is still flexible enough to serve the dynamic needs of affluent clients).

Stick with me here (I'm thinking)... So, every client has 3 standardized meeting agendas (even though they are allowed to bring up issues on any topic at any meeting... which they do!).

So, because all the Deliverables Checkpoints™ are standard for each of the 3 meetings, it is easy for us to track Deliverables Team Members time attributable to preparing for each client's progress meeting. We also track the length of time of each client progress meeting.

Are we together in spirit thus far? Is your need then, to track Deliverables Team Members time spent post-progress meeting in a effort to get a handle on total time invested upon each client (and maintain an average)?

If this is your need I will contemplate how to share methods we (and other firms) utilize to track this.

Any further clarifiacation would be helpful Dusty.

Interesting. - Mark

Hello! I am new to the financial services industry and am in the process of helping write new marketing processes and systems for the firm I work for. Any insight into what advisors REALLY want would be more than helpful to me. Thanks and I look forward to seeing the study. Thanks!

Hi Jill,

So are you an advisor tasked with acquiring and serving clients or would you describe yourself more as a memeber of a financial advisors "Deliverables Team?"

Our advice would depend upon what your role in the organization is.

Best, - Mark

Hi Mark-

Thanks so much for your reply! I am a member of a Deliverables Team looking to provide the best service to our advisors. Can't wait to see the study!

Thanks,

Jill

If you are currently documenting processes, then the first issue is to figure out, whether the processes are documented or not, if people are currently doing things the best way. I recommend you identify everyone involved in the process have them identify what they do & how they do it.

Once you have the key milestones of each process we coach our financial services offices to document every process on a 1-pager first (the details of the process can be elsewhere). We created a format we call The Best Way™ (TBW) that is available through our online-resources, but the essential elements for each process are these:
1. Should be 1 page (standardized format)
2. Should describe 12 milestone steps or less (a summary)
3. The overall process has a relationship manager accountable for the process (one person, not two)
4. Each milestone step of the process has a person accountable for that step (one person, not two), along with some time reference (EX: 2 days later)
5. The frequency (and next date) for review and update of the process is noted (to refine & improve).

You mentioned that you are documenting marketing processes and that's great. My recommendation for any firm is that they start by fully documenting the annual client meeting cycle (the process we teach is called The Three Meeting Process™). Without that process in place most practices waste countless hours that could be directed towards client acquistion efforts or other "high payoff" activities.

We have tons of tools and resources available within our online practice management platform (about to be released) which help offices create and manage processes effectively so that everything runs smoothly & consistently.

Cheers, - Mark

I hired a best-in-class CFP July 1 as a full-time staff member. We've started several new plans and plan updates and realized a few days ago that without a workflow process we were quickly headed toward chaos. So two days ago the whole team sat down and we mapped out every step from the moment we get hired to create a plan to the Implementation Meeting. We used our CRM to assign a timeline and task list for the responsible parties. How cool it was to watch ACT! post everything in chronological order onto our calendars/task lists! Now we have a checklist so we can stay on track. Mark, your Best Way tool alone is worth the price of admission!

Kevin, You have no idea how what you describe affects me when I read it. I have a "tingley" feeling come up my leg.

No, seriously I love the excitement & passion. It's hard to conjure up that sort of excitement for processes documentation when we're talking about it "in theory," away from the office, at a conference or workshop (which is how you and I have known each other over the years).

It's a whole different matter when you dissect the best result you want (every milestone in the work flow), assign it, with every memeber of the team "owning it." At the risk of sounding geeky... it is exciting. It's exciting for the team (who knows exactly what to do & when to do it), it's exciting for the advisor (who knows well how a "clutch process" will better-serve clients) and it's exciting to clients (who notice almost immediately).

Yes, admittedly I am a Process Maniac. Welcome to the club. - Mark

IS this something that is accessible?? We could really use this same kind of information. I just hired a CFP recently as well and am trying to get a process like you have described

Dean

I'm reading a bit into Kevin's post above (he can amplify if he reads this). Be aware there are two things going on here. 1. The Best Way™ work-flow (processes) and 2. the automating of those steps in the process (assigning them to Deliverables Team Members) by setting up action sequences for each step in his CRM.

I believe the real power of what Kevin is describing is how his team took a deep breath, identified every step of the process from the moment he was hired until the implementation meeting. From that point I would recommend creating The Go-To Grid™ & The Best Way™ (TBW) processes we teach in order to have standardized documentation showing exactly who does what & when. Kevin's team then automated these processes thru their CRM by assigning, in essence, task request assignments of every action step to a member of his team (on a timeline).

The Go-To Grid™ & The Best Way™ (TBW) processes are fully available and fully supported on our site right now. Automating these processes through your CRM is not documented. Do you have a method of automating an action sequence to automatically distribute "to do's" to your team?

Also what we will be posting is ALL of our firm's processes (eventually) so that you can "shop for a process" you need & then customize it to make it work well with your team. - Mark

can't wait to see the results

I have not seen a lot of advise about running a one-man (person)financial
planning practice. Currently, I am trying to get better organized to process my work without having to hire anyone right now. Need help.

Hi Ozzie,

One of the objectives of my online resources is to convince advisors not to be a "one-man-band." I have purposely structured my processes to be "doable" with an advisor and one administrative support person (even a part-time person or eager friend or family member willing to help out).

You know the old saying, "if you don't have an assistant... you are one." Having said that I recall the days when I had nobody on my team to help. My advice is to try to get someone to help you as soon as possible. My processes (with download templates and video lessons) will explain to them what to do. Having, even a little, administrative support is a "gift of time" for you, which is time better spent serving your existing ideal clients and client acquisition activities (the real high-payoff activities for your time).

All the best in implementing - Mark

After each meeting, do you provide the updated implementation plan to the client ? Also, to you simple strike through the completed items (and leave in the document) , or do you erase what has been completed in prior meeting ?

The template in our online resources for the client's Step-by-Step Implementation Plan of action is called the client's Greatest Probability Strategy™ (GPS).

My Deliverables Team Members update this before every client progress meeting and it is not uncommon for the client meeting to result in some adds, changes or deletes to this list of action items.

Every time we modify The Greatest Probability Strategy™ for a client, we "save as" with strike-throughs on all completed items on the archived document (along with "date done" & person who did it).

Your question inspires me to make a note to add something to our online resources regarding our internal list of action items (not given to the client). It is on the same word document but not printed out for the client to see. This "Internal Implementation Plan" lists technical behind the scenes activities (ex. double check client's wiring instructions prior to wiring money) to somewhat sensitive action items not meant for the client (ex: follow up to make sure our clearing firm doesn't forget to send out their systematic withdrawals again next month). Important action items fo the team, but not meant for the client.

Thanks for the input... I'll make a note to add some resources around this. - Mark

I am still in the getting started phase AKA trying to drink from the fire hose without drowning. I look forward to seeing the results of the survey.

Don

Hi Don,

I know this is a big issue!

What do you feel can I do to support advisors who feel "fire hosed" with all they perceive to be in front of them? The reality is that, when taken in sequence, progress is seen in baby-steps (no drowning allowed) and results are felt almost immediately by the office team and clients (within 30 days).

A big wake-up call for me was when we made these online resources available to a closed beta group of more than 100 financial advisors. The immediate reaction from the group to my resources was... "This is great" AND "Where do I start?" So I created The 30-Day Quick Launch Guide (http://askmarklittle.com/launch/) and the results were amazing. Within 30 days we saw huge progress by advisors implementing these "baby steps" from an eye dropper (not a fire hose). So I see the value of breaking my systems down into even smaller & smaller bite-sized pieces to help advisors and their teams implement quicker.

Any thoughts on which areas or processes that need my attention to drill down even further?

Your input is greatly appreciated Don. - Mark

Mark,
The materials so far have been very good and our practice is already seeing the benefits. Thanks for all your work!
Mark C.

I would like more information on how to coordinate the different disciplines of the financial planning process with what will be handled in-house with what will be outsourced to outside experts such as attorneys, insurance agents, etc.

Mark,
You are an inspiration to all of those "one man banders" out there who really want to be the Symphony Conductor!
Brad

Mark, your input is refreshing . keep it coming.

Thought i provided comprehensive services until got Kate case. Challenge - - balancing implementing new services and porcesses that clients should get with being under control. 30 day quick launch has been best delegating tool for our office. Sara relistens to the recordings and said she picks up new things each time, kind of like watching a movie a second or third time . . . She feels your comments are made to her, not to the me so I can tell her what you said. Mark - keep up the great work. Its helping us to join you in being done.

Mark,
Looking forward to really getting into the process and applying these to our office. It all makes great sense and I don't believe the majority of us are really delivering comprehensive planning and services, which is what many people need, especially in the volatile times we are in now. The better we can educate and take care of our clients, the more we help create a financially literate society. Thanks again.

I agree Jeff, it is clear that to implement fully comprehensive financial services advisors have to really really want it. Offering more services to clients sounds great in theory, but there are a few moving parts you have to get right (which is what we're focused upon with check-list driven systems & processes) and giving lip-service to wanting to become more comprehensive just doesn't cut it.

We also agree that during periods of uncertainty, our clients really need "the real deal" when it comes to an authentically comprehensive advisor who can help them navigate through the soup and make sound decsions along the way.

Best, - Mark

All of it was interesting and worth the time invested. I wish you all the success in the world.

From my 25 years of experience trying to find "best in lass" experts to handle the deliverables takes some doing. Also if you succeed in doing so you no longer become a "trusted advisor" but a "trusted co-ordinator" of services.

Also the emphasis on the word trusted is a bit overdone; especially in today's environment.

All the best and I would like to see the results.

Hi Marcus,

I appreciate your feedback and the fact that you are an experienced advisor who has "been around the block."

Your comment about "the emphasis on the word trusted is a bit overdone; especially in today's environment" struck me. My visceral reaction to your statement was my feeling that an emphasis on being worthy of trust is essential; especially in today's environment.

I am curious what other advisors think.

"To be or not to be". . . To be a trusted advisor is one thing;to ask our clients to trust us is another. Unfortunately I've seen too much of the latter.

No matter what we wish to attain we should want our clients to always feel they're free to question and be a part of the process. Too often clients want to trust us until it's too late.

Marcus,

Who's suggesting that clients aren't free to question things or be a part of the process? That's not what "financial delegator" means.

When you say "Too often clients want to trust us until it's too late" (if I'm interpreting you right) I hope you don't really mean that. It implies that MOST financial advisors are unworthy of trust, which I do not believe.

I don't concern myself with how the individual clients of advisors make the decision to trust their advisor. Every individual has their own method of deciding who they will give trust to, so it's too big of an issue for me to get my brain around. Where I think all the "talk about trust" should be focused is regarding how we can, as financial advisors, be worthy of more trust. The issue is on us, as advisors.

You see I don't believe the issue is the client's. I can't control how they think. I choose to focus only on those things I can control and I CAN control whether I am worthy of trust or not. It's an integrity issue. I would never agree that "most advisors" are not worthy of trust, but I do believe there are a lot of advisors who would like to,

- offer more fully comprehensive financial services to their clients than they are currently offering,

- make the services they offer more conflict-free, where the value is placed more upon the advice rather than the products recommended,

- have a better system in place to proactively help clients avoid financial "blow-ups"

- help clients make smarter choices about their money in even more areas of finance than they currently feel they're able to,

- be the "real deal," as an authentic fully comprehensive Trusted Advisor who knows they're offering top-tier advice to their clients because they've recruited a Best-in-Class (mostly outsourced) experienced Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts to give that advice.

I'm sure you'll agree with me that most (not all), but most financial advisors got into this business to do well themselves by helping clients do well financially. What's lacking in our industry are systems and processes to help advisors deliver on that vision.

So, for my part, I'm going to stay focused only on financial advisors who have made the commitment to implement even more fully comprehensive financial services for their clients. In this way they are showing evidence to the world, through their actions, that they are making the effort to be even more worthy of trust.

I'm inspired by most advisors, - Mark

"Where I think all the "talk about trust" should be focused is regarding how we can, as financial advisors, be worthy of more trust. The issue is on us, as advisors."

As you said and I agree, this is the key. Unfortunately too many advisors, in my experience, move the ball to the clients couurt by asking/implying to be trusted.

Whenever a client has said "I trust you" I immediately counter with don't trust me, be a part of what we're doing and ask questions so you understand. To be "a trusted advisor" in the brokers mind is find and that's were I feel Bachrach's enmphasis should be.

Your training to assist us to document and use processes is excellent. Hopefully it will be less onerous than Bill Good's.

Good Luck.

Bill Good's processes are marketing processes, not a practice management operation system to deliver on fully comprehensive financial services.

In my experience, what makes processes complicated are issues like:
- They're over complicated
- They take too long to customize for a specific office culture
- They're over-automated (too many tasks are assigned and don't change when circumstances chage).

Our methodology has been highly sensitive to these issues, which is why we have our advisors create processes with their teams which are simple, highly customized to the office and is flexible. The step we don't deal with is how an advisor "automates" their processes utilizing email & other technology... but my development team is actively working on it.

However, by far, the biggest problem with processes in an advisors office are none of these. The greatest challenges we find are advisors or their teams,

1. Not "buying in" to the idea of the need to stop & document major processes (even if we provide a way to do it in less than 20 minutes).
2. Not following processes once they are documented.
3. Not ammending processes once it is acknowledged that it is, for some reason, broken.

My own experience with our process methodology is that it is simple to implement and less onerous than the absence of a process. But even with solid processes in place the responsibility will always fall to the office leader to insist they be followed and updated regularly.

So how do we get our team to follow processes with out fail? "Push-Ups" for everyone! - Mark

Mark,we need ways to streamline processes and develop a cookie-cutter approach to client interviews/meetings.Mike

Gotcha Mike!

To clarify further, is your need for a simple method of documenting processes which are currently not documented, or... is your greatest need to have a system of continually streamlining and improving existing proceses which are already documented.

I get the "cookie cutter" metaphor and will be sharing all of our firm's documented processes which can serve as a template for you to cookie-cut (& customize) a process that works well for the people on your team.

Your feedback is great. - Mark

desperately, help, help, help!!! need a checklist and our process to document and delegate all the duties required to prepare a file pre-meeting and post-meeting.

1. what needs to be done with a file to prepare for a meeting( pre-meeting) and 2. who needs to do these various things

after the meeting what needs to be done with the file(post-meeting)and 2. who needs to do these various things

Thanks,

Dean Kendall

Hi Dean,

The pre-meeting prep files and specific meeting plans (with documents to be prepared by your team for each client progress meeting) is covered in the The Dry-run Prep Meeting™ content, which you have access to in the "week 4" content of The 30-Day Quick Launch Program (http://www.askmarklittle.com/launch/).

The post-meeting duties are driven by The Implementation Plan™ (GPS) action items resulting from the meeting. I am making a note to more fully document this post-meeting process of the Deliverables Team within our online resources so things run smoother.

I've run your question by Chad Tennant, our Director of Client Services at the firm and will forward on any checklists or docuemnts to you in the mean time.

Dean, it has not escaped my attention that you are really committed to implementing and I am committed to help you. - Mark

This study is an excellent idea as all advisors are interested in how to offer more value so they can charge a higher average fee per client and deepen the relationship at the same time.

I struggle with the lack of consistency between the client agenda content and the Meeting Plan. Perhaps i'm trying to read too much into the process.

The information in the Kate Wilson Case Study was very valuable. More of similar information would be very valuable.

Bill

I'm looking forward to seeing this report.

Mark,
     Loved the case study but am apprehensive about starting from scratch. None of my current clients fit the mold for this comprehensive financial planning practice. That's okay since I have been wanting to get into the group of "Ideal Clients" that this would benefit. I see the tremendous value however starting from ground zero and finding the folks that want the service seems daunting. I love your written process approach since 22 years in the Marines have taught me that is the best way to get everyone on the same page and running smoothly amidst chaos.

I recently switched Broker-Dealers so I could focus my practice on offering best-in-class, Fully Comprehensive Financial Planning Services for my best clients, of which I currently have about 25. While I have "the vision", the process, as well as where and how to start are still not perfectly clear and leaving me feeling overwhelmed.
The change of broker-dealers has caused a huge disruption to my cashflow but I don't feel justified in charging the appropriate fees until I have the deliverables in place! Quite a dilemma.
I look forward to your report.

ND

Thanks Mark,

I am really excited about making major changes in my practice, but I too am feeling completely overwhelmed. Something that I would find very helpful is learning in much more detail what various practioners actually charge for the various services and deliverables they provide and how that fits in with the deliverables processes.

Mark,
I look forward to your advisor study. Thanks for all the efforts you have poured into these resouces. Implementation has been slower than what I would have liked but we are are going through the Kate Wilson study step-by-step.
I do not have a request for any additional resources at this time. I am confident that once we fully implement what you have created we will be light years ahead of where we where in terms of client service and efficiencies.
Thanks,
Randy

Mark,
You're doing a great job in transforming order out of chaos. Keep the ideas inspiration coming! Thanks!

Mark, this all has been very helpful and the guidance has been awesome. It has allowed us to be consise and consistent with our deliverables. However, The templates are not user friendly doownloaded from the website.. What I mean for example the Legacy flow chart is difficult to redo. Is is possible to have a blank template that we can populate with trying to rearrange your imputed infomation. Also, It would also be helpful to have a list of items that the client needs to supply for the next meeting. IE the insurance dec pages ect. Thanks again for everything.

No-brainer... I can always count on you for highly specific and useful feadback.

Gratefully, Mark

Fantastic content! Keep it coming!

Mark,

I like the idea of my practice runninhg like a swiss watch-when i am not there...

Best,
Peter

I am very intrigued so far and look forward to seeing installment 3 as well as viewing the additional material you are putting together. Our firm has some wonderful technology tools such as junxure, IPS advisor Pro, Naviplan, advent, etc. I'd like to hear any suggestions you have to make best use of tools in a way that streamlines work instead of creates redundancy. Some of these programs talk to each other which is helpful but in some cases it seems we are doing a lot of data entry multiple times. Thanks-

Please send me the survey results. I look forward to seeing how my needs and experience compare to others, thanks.

CDN version of checkpoints and deliverables--It is my understanding that a CDN advisor has produced this and gave it to Mark Little. Is this available to other CDN advisors, I could really use this ASAP??

Thanks very much

Dean Kendall

At the request of three Canadian Advisors I set up a forum to discuss issues in my content which vary in Canada. The forum is to allow Canadian Advisors to edit my Deliverables Checkpoints™ (DCPs) and support each other as much as possible as you implement the online practice management platform we teach.

Perhaps you could provide leadership and encourage use of that forum by posting your questions & issues there. Once I see some activity on that forum I will send out an email broadcast to every Canadian advisor using my materials to encourage them to join your conversations there.

I believe you are right when you say some advisors have already re-written my Deliverables Checkpoints™ (DCPs) to be more consistent with Canadian laws and regs.

You can find the Canadian Content Forum at: http://trustedadvisortoolkit.com/[…]/canadian-content-community

Hi Mark,

I greatly appreciate your materials, insight, and feedback. My biggest obstacle right now is fining a qualified assistant who is also affordable. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on that?

Thanks in advance for any advice you have in this area.

Sincerely,

Raleigh

Hi Raleigh, I deal with this issue a little bit in the study I'm about to release, but mainly just to refer folks to Brian Tracy's outstanding (short) book Hire & Keep The Best People.

One thing we realized at our firm was that we weren't doing a good enough job of letting everyone know exactly the profile of person that we're looking for. Let me restate, once we did a better job of communicating the results that we were looking for from an Administrative Manager (a flyer with detailed description) then we emailed and called literally everyone in all of our networks (everyone working for me contacted everyone they knew). On the list we included all our:
1. Clients
2. Friends
3. Business contacts
4. Every business owner we knew (from the butcher, barber baker and, yes, candlestick maker)
5. Everyone we knew in church, volunteer circles or on charitable boards.
6. Everyone in the local FPA (the President volunteered to send around an email)
7. Everyone in the local CPA Society (I went to their monthly luncheon)
8. Everyone I knew in the local Chamber of Commerce (and other civic groups).
9. The heads of every HR department in town (they're all trying to help folks they've laid off).

I think you get it... we were not communicating well with our own networks to get leads. It worked like a charm. Our famed Administrative Manager (AM) for the past decade (the subject of many of The Best Way™ processes we teach to this day) was found through our network. She was the receptionist at a beauty parlor & a clerical employee of mine encouraged her to come interview. She has been the "gold standard" for Administrative Managers so I encourage you to work through your network. This method has worked better for me than any other; much better than placement or search agencies.

Hi Mark,

I've got to tell you that I'm still in a fog with some of this .... where do I start? .... how do I organize? .... etc. Yes, I know you've outlined all of the above and you've done a good job of it. I'm simply struggling with trying to slow down my day-to-day activites long enough to implement this new strategy. My office assistant and I have had two meetings about this, so at least we've opened the dialogue.

No matter ... fog or not .... I'm on board with this! It's like anything else, just put your nose to the grindstone and don't stop until you reach your goal.

I look very forward to the new material and to the day I have my practice "fine tuned"!

Thanks,
Renee

Hi Renee,

Installing fully comprehensive financial services delivered through a Best-in-Class Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts can seem like an overwhelming project as you look up at a mountain of effort you'll need to climb to achieve the goal.

Thankfully, there's a simple antidote. After deciding once-and-for-all that you're committed to implementing comprehensive financial services, then just take the first step. You're not going to climb this whole mountain overnight, you're just committing to the effort & then taking the first step.

So, what's the first step? It's implementing a systmatic highly structured annual client meeting cycle with agendas predetermined for each meeting and checklists driving the whole process (the process we support is called The Three Meeting Process™). Whatever process you choose, this is the best "first step" because it puts in place a structure for processes behind-the-scenes which you and your office assistant can utilize to organize everything and everyone you will be putting in place over the months to come. This structured annual client meeting cycle becomes the operating system for everything.

So once this is in place, what do you have? I'll describe how offices who have implemented The Three Meeting Process™ (TMP) look:
- Every ideal client agrees and commits to three progress meetings per year in the advisor's office.
- The client progress meetings occur every four months so any four-month period you have met with every ideal client.
- Every client has 12-months of meetings on the calendar at all times (so you know when every client is coming in for the next year).
- No single month of the year is scheduled with any more client progress meetings than another, so that meetings are spread equally across the year (and doesn't unduly strain your team).
- Each of the 3 meetings has a predetermined checklist and agenda so that, for each ideal client, all checkpoints on the list are crossed off every 12 months to ensure nothing falls through the cracks and all your clients are on-track financially.

If you implement this, even if you don't work with us & obtain all the agendas & meeting checklists, what's the worst thing that can happen while you develop all that stuff? The worst case scenario is that your clients are impressed with a more regular meeting cycle and an opportunity to interact with their Trusted Advisor (who has committed to ramping up to comprehensive financial services).

So, the quickest & easiest way out of the fog is to focus 100% of your energies on scheduling all of your ideal clients into a structured and consistent annual meeting cycle over the next 30 days. If a month from now all your clients have 3 meetings scheduled over the next 12 months (one every four months), then, and only then, do you need to focus on the next step up the mountain.... putting in place standardized meeting agendas & checklists for the progress meetings (since clients will now be scheduled to come in).

Being at the top of the mountain looking down and helping advisors climb up I can tell you these two things. 1. The effort is not easy, but it's worth it, and 2. It's easier than I thought it would be... and fun!

You'll do great Renee. - Mark

Our office had put together all of the reports prior to having access to the trusted advisor toolkit website. I am using the website more than I thought I ever would, to use the reports and graphs. I know that these tools enhances my presentation and provides more value to my clients. Mark makes us look so good. Thanks for all the time and talent that you have put into this project.

I am interested in the results of the study. Most of my revenue today comes from asset based fees. We internally put together mutual fund portfolios from an approved list so this is not a complete outsourcing of the money management. We do this to add tactical asset management to our portfolios because our RIA delivers strategic long term allocations.Our tactical shifts are only a few a year. My internal team supports this, is there any reason to consider changing what we are doing?

Hi John,

This is a fantastic (although more-advanced) question. While many advisors struggle with putting the fundamentals of fully comprehensive financial services into place, this issue is one they will face at some point down the road.

Here's the issue, a Trusted Advisor (TA) is faced with assigning a Deliverables Team Member (DTM) to convert the overall asset allocation established as suitable by the financial planner (EX: 22% Lg Cap Value & 16% Mid Cap Growth, etc, etc) into specific investments (with symbols) which can be traded into the client's accounts. Further issues are, into which accounts to place these investments and then there's the issue of what to do with existing holdings, including "concentrated positions," in those accounts as well.

So, Taking an asset allocation from the 30,000 foot level (usually created by the financial planner) and bringing that down to where the rubber meets the road (making specific buy, sell & hold recommendations) can be tricky. A Turn-key Asset Management Program (TAMP) usually won't do this for an advisor (they usually accept only cash placed into various pre-determined allocations).

The fall-back most advisors try (and I work hard convince advisors to resist this tempatation or coach them out of it) is to make the decisions themselves, which puts them back onto the Deliverables Team as the "Money Management Subject Matter Expert" which is not good. Our view of the Trusted Advisor (TA) as the conducter of the orchestra (Deliverables Team Members), does not allow them to jump down from the lecturn & play "first violin" every once in awhile playing the role of "money manager."

We encourage every advisor to make up their minds on this fundamental issue first, "do you want to be the Trusted Advisor, or would you prefer to be a Deliverables Team Member (like a money manager working with other Trusted Advisors)?" If you want to be Trusted Advisor, then we recommend you pick someone to make those more "granular" money managment decisions (individual investment picks and sell strategies).

In some cases your financial planning Subject Matter Expert (SME) can play both roles. In other cases you may have to hire a money managment Subject Matter Expert (SME) to take the finacial planner's allocation & then manage the details. If you need to acquire someone, the search may not be as hard as you think. If you work with private money managers, we've found that some of the more "independent" ones are willing to entertain a conversation about providing this service on a contract basis for your clients. Another fabulous option is to connect with the association of Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA's). Within this group you will find many candidates to interview. Your goal is to find a highly skilled, Best-in-Class CFA who will agree to a flat-fee per client to do this work for your community of ideal clients (paid by either you or billed by them to your client). For them it's pretty easy, simply establishing a sensible buy, sell & hold position for everything currently in the client's portfolio & establishing a systematic plan for moving the assets into the new (more suitable) allocation worked out between the financial planner & the CFA (Money Manager). An elegant solution for the client (and much more due diligence safety for the client).

My advice to you would be to get out of that "first violin" (money manager) chair as soon as possible and focus your energies on building and leading the best Deliverables Team possible. As I'm sure you know, that is a full-time job my friend!

My best, - Mark

Mark,

My big question/concern is this:

My job is to be the quarterback of this high touch, fully comprehensive financial services team. Most likely I will only be able to handle, at most, 100 clients because I'm meeting with each of them 3 times a year. Yet, I'm outsourcing the money management, the financial planning, insurance, tax planning, and estate planning. So, how can I still make this business model scalable for me in terms of compensation when I need to pay all the other SME's? Is raising the average AUM per client the only answer? I'm curious as to how the compensation model works among all the SME's and what the bottom line looks like for me, the Trusted Advisor. Don't get me wrong, I want to add value to the client and deliver the best service possible, but I need it to be scalable enough for my personal financial goals as well. I would love your feedback.

Best, -John

Hi John,

I would say your job is not quarterback since they are actually in the game playing. The metaphor I would use for you is Head Coach and let your financial planning Subject Matter Expert be the quarterback.

But to your question, I know it's annoying to hear this but... it depends! I'll tell you how I make this business model work and then I'll share how most other advisors have set up a successful business model.

At our firm we have two separate agreements bundled into our "Professional Services Agreement" with our clients. This agreement spells-out how we charge a percentage of assets (for money management) and, included in that, is a (separate) portion which pays for The Ten Client Deliverables™ (comprehensive financial services). The "business model thought process" started with firmly establishing the fixed costs of the comprehensive financial services piece (what all the Subject Matter Experts would cost). We then established a minimum fee of $12,500 per year, which would cover our costs plus give us a reasonable margin. So this could, hypothetically, be described to a client this way, "we handle all your financial affairs for a 1% annual fee on the assets under our care, with a minimum annual fee of $12,500." We then pay all the Deliverables Team Members for The Ten Client Deliverables™ out of our single simple fee (which is up front and fully disclosed to our clients within our agreement).

This is NOT how most financial advisors have implemented comprehensive financial services using our methods.

Many advisors require a minimum annual compensation ranging anywhere from $3,000 - $7,000 per year, substantially less than our minimum. So, then, how does all the work get done for that fee? Easy. You take the approach that, unlike the way our firm does it, your job as Trusted Advisor is NOT (necessarily) to do all the items on the Annual Deliverables Checkpoints™ (or your own checklist) every year. Rather, your job is simply to make sure IT ALL GETS DONE. So whether that means recruiting an outsourced Best-in-Class Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts who bill the client directly from their own businesses, or it means you are the "keeper of the checklist" who simply hounds the Dickens out of the client until they get everything done (professional nagging) through their own professionals (CPA, Estate Attorney, etc, etc), at least the list is getting done every year and you're the Trusted Advisor who makes sure of that.

I realized ten years ago that the greatest value my ideal clients placed upon me was that I kept their financial house in order by ensuring all their financial professionals communicated effectively with each other regularly (Tax Preparer, Money Manager, Estate Attorney, Financial Planner and Insurance Agents). This was not the case before I started pulling their advisors together to consult each other. I provided leadership, pulled the group together & the client realized I had a very thorough checklist to make sure nothing fell through the cracks by anyone on the team.

So, whether you charge big fees and do all the work for the client, or you decide upon less minimum compensation, you are still the "master of the annual checklist," the financial orchestrator who holds each client accountable to show up for 3 progress meetings a year (one every four months), to extract from them those things that only they know, and holds their Deliverables Team accountable for accomplishing all the items on the annual list of Deliverables Checkpoints™. Your Ideal Clients will view you as indespensible either way.

You're simply taking a leadership role in their lives and saving them much time which frees them up to focus on things that matter more to them in life than money. - Mark

Mark...Thanks for your explanatation. I will ponder your response some more.

I signed up for your service on Saturday. I thought I would have access to your web site so that my team could look around as we are figuring this out. when will I get a user ID?

thanks

John

Hi John,

Our sites have been open only to a closed beta-test group for nearly a year...

BUT, the official "launch date" of our online practice management operating system will be announced on the Webinar Tue Sep 1st.

Space is limited, but you may still register at:
http://tinyurl.com/webinarSep1

Title: "Ramping It Up: How to be Worthy of Higher Compensation"
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM PDT

Mark,
I have implemented your program for my clients and they are very excited about the comprehensive services using my SME's. I am getting more qualified referrals as a result of this change in my practice.

I met with each SME and established the ground rules for being on my team. I wondered if you have some SME agreements to more formalize my relationships with the SME's I now work with.

As a wealth management firm, we have been in a continual process of broadening our service offerings while trying to convert from what Hurley refers to as a "silo" firm to a team concept. As a smaller company, we cannot afford to layer on specialists and have been working on strategic partnerships. Anything that will help us in this process would be terrific.

King

Requesting the latest study.

Great information. It is a comfort to have a strategy to fall back on as I work towards building a "World Class Financial Planning Practice." It is a lot of work and it involves a lot of change but by letting go, I am trying to, and following the steps provided I feel more confident that I will actually realize my goal. All be it may take a little longer than I originally hoped.

Mark,
Is your comprehensive model adaptable to be implemented in a large wirehouse. Are compliance issues addressed where a client's asset management fee covers the cost of their other deliverables?

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Short answer... Yes!

I love Bill Bachrach's line about "The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth... should NOT be three separate things." Isn't that a great line? The whole truth to your answer varies a bit from firm to firm. Here's what I've observed:

Sometimes they have to think about it, but most wirehouses have no problem with an advisor implementing any of the following things we teach.

1. Establishing an annual meeting cycle (The Three Meeting Process™) where you meet with every ideal client in the office once every four months. I have never seen a problem with this one.

2. Installing documented processes to improve consistency of your client interactions & service. Some (most) firms may require you to submit all your processes and they may get sensitive as your processes involve sharing client information with outside professional (such as a CPA, a CFP, an estate planning attorney, and an insurance expert on your Deliverables Team). They may well require "hold harmless" agreements before client info is shared.

3. Your seeking-out highly experienced experts in complementary financial services fields is generally acceptable (such as an outside CPA, CFP, estate planning attorney, and insurance expert). Usually there is no problem with your providing leadership for these outside professionals to serve your clients in a more comprehensive mannter. There may be "issues" if you attempt to sign formal agreements with these outside pros or try to participate in compensation with them in any way. Easier for a wirehose to agree to let their advisor simply provide a "leadership role" coordinating conversations between outside professionals who do business with your clients separately on a contract basis.

All of this will allow for an advisor in a large wirehouse to implement the practice management operating system we teach. Your role, then, is to hold each of your ideal clients accountable for showing up for 3 meetings per year (The Three Meeting Process™) and you hold your Deliverables Team Members accountable for doing all the tasks on the check-list (Deliverables Checkpoints™) for The Ten Client Deliverables™. Voilà! With these in place, you have sucessfully implemented the practice management platform we support and your clients enjoy fully comprehensive financial services orchestrated by you, as Trusted Advisor (or whatever you are allowed to call yourself), and delivered through a Best-in-Class (outside) Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts hand-picked by you.

Among others, wirehouses often have "issues" (problems) with the some of the following:
- How you hold yourself out to clients (such as the title you call yourself)
- The service commitments implied to clients (such as the creation of a financial plan or reviewing a client's taxes, etc.)
- Any claims utilizing hyperbole (such as "we help our clients ensure they accomplish their financial goals").
- Outside business activities you may be engaged in (especially undisclosed business activities, such as participating in planning fees or other compensation "around" the wirehouse's knowledge and approval)
- Agreements with Deliverables Team Members which implies any agency relationship or suggests that one of your Deliverables Team Members is linked to or endorsed, in some way, by the wirehouse.
- Any attempt to establish a relationship with a Deliverables Team Member or institution enabling the movement of financial assets out of a client's account.

So the obvious advice is... don't do any of these no-no's.

Wirehouses are great places to offer fully comprehensive financial services under our practice management platform. Often you have many Deliverables Team Members and extensive services at your fingertips all within the firm. Best, - Mark

Mark,
Can you direct me to where I can find a comprehensive step by step action plan or checklist for the implementation of the VBFP Office as you teach it either on your website or in the 30 day quick launch guide? Thanks so much.

Hi Randy,

You currently have access to The TrustedAdvisorToolkit.com™ (TATK) Site and can find The Implementation Plan™ (which, at our firm, we call The Greatest Probability Strategy™) at http://trustedadvisortoolkit.com/[…]/delivering_on_the_promise

This step-by-step plan of action is fully documented for you and, more importantly, your administrative support person. As with most of these tools as a member of TrustedAdvisorToolkit.com™ this document has:

* Downloadable MS Word template
* Audio description of The Implementation Plan™ (TIP)
* A PDF example, which may be emailed to various members of your Deliverables Team (DT) to illustrate the types of recommendations you are seeking from them.
* Video screencast tutorial where I show your administrative support person how to update and utilize the template after they download it.

The "bread crumbs" for this link is: Home → Processes → Delivering On The Promise. You will need to page down until you see The Implementation Plan™ (TIP).

10-4 Good buddy, Mark

Mark,

I am sure you addressed this elsewhere, but I am in the process of creating a new Comprehensive Wealth Management firm. I am interested in evaluating your process further as it aligns with what I am attempting to do anyway. Unfortunately your site does not allow me to register at this time, and of course I am on a pretty tight deadline as far as getting my processes up and running to open fairly soon. In came here because of a video promising pretty much what I was looking for with some of the initial tools to evaluate for free.

Anyway, my question is, do you have any word on when registration will re-open?

I would like to start considering these tools more rigorously as soon as possible.

Many thanks,

Lance

Lance, the official "launch date" of our online practice management operating system will be announced on the Webinar Tues

Space is limited, but you may still register at:
http://tinyurl.com/webinarSep1

Title: "Ramping It Up: How to be Worthy of Higher Compensation"
Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM PDT

Mark, there is no doubt that having a process and a discpline to follow the process not only simplifies our lives but that of our clients. What is this worth? Only a client can truly answer when they acknowledge that having the peace of mind knowing that their Financial House is in order is worth every dollar, quarter, dime, nickel and penny that they pay our firm!

Mark

Somewhere I read this...

"It doesn't matter that the road's been rough, that you now have challenges, or that uncertainties loom on the horizon.

None of these change the fact that for every worthy effort, possibilities will come tumbling into existence. For every word you speak, legions will be called into action. And for every step you take, make it worthy of your best work."

Once we commit to fully serving our clients in a way that's all about them... help "shows up." Help from talented Deliverables Team Members you invite onto your team, help from your administrative support person who "sees the vision" and help from clients who won't let anyone they care about talk to anyone but you.

As advisors, we should all be grateful for the impact we can have,

Mark

Mark,
As always, your effort and insights are useful and meaningful. thanks for you tireless work and dedecation to helping advisors and the industry.

Karl

I can't imagine trying to develop all of processes to run a financial services business without your help!

When I started with Bill and you I ran a CPA firm. That was it. I have spent several years just learning how to run a financial services business. I also know nothing about marketing. Unfortunately I am a subject class expert. The transition has been a challenge to say the least. Yet Bill and you have come to my rescue by not only providing expertise in the marketing but in addition by teaching me how to efficiently set up and run a full service Financial Services Business. Thanks Mark.

... Our pleasure Chris.