...For Advisors

Episode 40: Chris Wendt on Digital Web Based Marketing

“These digital efforts take some time. I just talked to a guy this week who just a year later was able to turn a lead, or prospect from Smart Assets into a client. Really, you have to have a bigger picture to understand what growing AUM digitally is like. It's really about building an audience. And one of the ways you do that on your website is by offering a free checklist or guide. Whatever the issue is on retirement, investing, etc., we develop, you know, guides around that.”

Have referrals started to dry up, is your pipeline of new business getting shorter and shorter, is it taking you longer to find and identify prospects? If the answer to any of these is “yes”, then this is the episode for you! Christ Wendt lays out digital web-based marketing tactics chapter and verse, digs in deep and shows you what’s needed to start reeling in new clients you’d never find any other way. Don’t miss this make or break half hour!

Chris is the founder of Midstream Marketing, a digital agency that delivers predictable quality leads for independent financial advisors.

 

Some of his current clients include Pinnacle Advisory Group, Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors, Alfa Fiduciary, and a dozen other firms across the country ranging from small startups to close to 1 billion in AUM. Christopher started his agency back in 2002 and first began to serve RIAs in 2010 when he took on the Pinnacle Advisory account. From there, one thing led to another and by 2016, he found that he wanted to serve RIA exclusively. He and his veteran team perfected their platform called Lead-Gen Formula, which is a unique multichannel approach to generating leads for advisors.

Christopher is a regular contributor to wealthmanagement.com and advisor perspectives. He also taught rhetoric and computer programming at Franciscan University in Steubenville and other liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. In addition to being president of the digital agency, Christopher likes to go hiking with his wife had nine kids, especially in the Smoky Mountains.

 

Episode 39: Bernie Kiely on Working with Industry Organizations

“ I spoke at the Financial Planning Association of New Jersey one day, and after I spoke, a young lady came up to me and she said, you know, "There's a remarkable difference between FPA members and members of NAPFA." She said, "FPA members are all salespeople. They are all competitors.” . . . “NAPFA members are completely different, we're mentors, helpers, we guide people. So, NAPFA is like one big family. We take care of our own.”

Bernie Kiely, highly respected and renowned advisor tells you how it is in the world of advisory practice and how to develop your practice through working closely with industry-oriented organizations. Bernie doesn’t pull any punches in this delightful half hour full of useful and valuable practice growth insights, you don’t want to miss this one.

Bernie Kiely is a NAPFA-registered advisor and principal of Kiely Capital Management, Inc. and RIA. He's also owner of Bernie M. Kiely, CPA, an accounting firm where he specializes in individual taxation. Bernie has been providing fee-only financial planning investment advisory and income tax services for individuals for over 30 years.

He was recognized by "Worth Magazine" as one of the best financial advisors in the nation four times in a row, and was profiled in the December 2000 issue of "Investment Advisor Magazine." "Accounting Today Magazine" has twice listed him as one of the CPAs to know in financial planning. Bernie was three times listed as a five-star wealth manager by "New Jersey Monthly Magazine." He's a former board member of the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Region and a member of the Education Committee for NAPFA, Bernie was the dean of the School of Taxation for NAPFA University as well. Bernie has been quoted by or written articles for "Money Magazine," "Investment Advisor Magazine," the "New Jersey Law Journal," "Financial Planning Magazine," the Newark Star-Ledger, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, "Accounting Today," Morris County Daily Record, and the Bergen Record, "Worth Magazine" included. In September 2006. Bernie was a guest on Maria Bartiromo's TV show Wall Street Journal report.

Episode37: Chris Winn on Regulatory Priorities

“Well, each year the SEC shares their regulatory priorities. In recent years, they've tried to make it not be a mystery of what they view as important. And we're waiting, for details for this year, but the core things that have been focused on include anywhere where there's a conflict of interest between the firm and the client, cybersecurity, and as you can imagine for 2020, business continuity . . . “

Yes, Virginia, there is a way to make compliance less onerous . . . Expert Chris Winn from Advisor Assist joins the show in this enlightening episode covering a wide range of compliance related topics, from audits, to SEC priorities to the new “Testimonial Update”. Don’t miss a minute of this vital information.

Chris founded AdvisorAssist in 2006 and has over 23 years of investment management industry experience with a focus on regulatory compliance, business transitions and operations and technology matters. Prior to founding AdvisorAssist, Chris was a co-founder and managing principal of MainStay Consulting Group, a strategy and compliance consulting firm serving investment advisors. He sold MainStay in 2009.

Before founding MainStay, Chris was the chief operating officer and chief compliance officer for Open Investing, a division of Navigant. There he led regulatory compliance teams and assessing the effectiveness of the design and implementation of compliance programs. Chris started his career focusing on operational and regulatory challenges for investment advisors, investment companies, and their service providers.

 

Episode 36: Dave Poulos on Nurturing Leads

“ . . . your CRM should be able to give you reports on each and every client and prospect that are consistent, current, and accurate. Once that happens, you can now select and target sectors of prospects, provide them with content that will resonate with them, that they will find valuable at the right intervals so you don't saturate them or annoy them, but will keep them present in the “find an advisor” file in their mind.

The best part of this automated and segmented follow-up approach is that you can do it all ahead of time and schedule the release in advance. What that allows you to do is to write all the follow-up messages, related content ahead of time, all at once, and release it whenever it's appropriate automatically. Your CRM is working for you while you eat, sleep, drive, do whatever. That's the best part.”

Want to close more business? Seeing good leads but not ramping up the AUM fast enough? Tired of chasing prospects for meeting times and dates? This is the episode for you! Dave Poulos lays it all out for you on how to drive leads and nurture them so that they convert and drive growth – it’s a quick tutorial that can jump start your practice growth curve, don’t miss it!

David Poulos joined Pinnacle as the Director of Marketing in 2018. He is responsible for developing strategies that drive growth and create media and industry awareness through the effective use of events, print, direct mail, radio, video, Internet, social media, and e-mail.

Dave has over thirty years of marketing experience, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing Communications from Northeastern University. Through his consulting firm, he served as a marketing and branding consultant to a host of clients, including American Airlines, Coca Cola, and MasterCard. He is also the author of the award-winning book, The Marketing Doctor’s Survival Notes, and has published over 30 articles on a variety of marketing topics in nationally-published news magazines and websites.

Episode 35: Chris Wendt on Websites for Advisors

“You know, a website is a first impression. I mean, really, it's all about building trust. And before a prospect ever calls an advisor, they check you out on your... They check your website out. They see what you look like, who you are on Facebook. They do a lot of what's called stalking. They look you all over. And I had one advisor say that before they had their first initial intro call, the prospect said they read every word on the website. So, they don't even wanna talk to you until they feel like they know you. I mean, if you have a website that's not together, you know, it looks like it was built in the '90s or it doesn't really speak to them and build trust, then they're gonna go somewhere else and you won't even get that call.”

An advisor’s website has to do a lot of heavy lifting if it’s going to drive inquiries and leads to grow the practice. It’s the consumer’s “go-to” when finding out about you and your firm and how you approach your practice and what you off and how you charge. Chris Wendt has websites down cold, and offers some very actionable, common sense advice on how advisors can make this critical marketing element work it’s hardest for an advisor. Don’t miss this information packed episode.

Chris Wendt, founder of Midstream Marketing, a top shelf website development and marketing firm in Pittsburgh. It specializes in working with financial advisors and building their practice through digital marketing. Chris will be walking us through the critical elements that should be included in any functional advisor website in order to accomplish the goals in the digital world, whatever they may be. Chris is the founder of Midstream Marketing, a digital agency that delivers predictable quality leads for independent financial advisors. Some of his current clients include Pinnacle Advisory Group, Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors, Alpha Fiduciary, and a dozen other firms across the country, ranging from small startups to firms close to a billion in AUM. Chris started the agency back in 2002 and began to first serve RIAs in 2010 when he took on the Pinnacle account.

From there, one thing led to another, and by 2016, he found he wanted to serve RIAs exclusively. He and his veteran team perfected their platform called lead gen formula, which is a unique multichannel approach to generating leads for advisors. Christopher was also a regular contributor to wealthmanagement.com and Advisor Perspectives. He also taught rhetoric and computer programming at Franciscan University of Steubenville and other liberal arts colleges in the Northeast.

Episode 34: Carl Noble on Inflation

“the way economists look at it, you can have demand pull inflation, which is essentially when the economy is running hotter, demand is picking up, and that there's too much demand chasing too few goods, and that can cause the price levels to increase. The other way is a cost push inflation, which typically involves supply constraints. So one of the classic examples is looking back to the 1970s and the oil embargo, and OPEC, which created a huge bottleneck with energy prices and caused, those prices here in the U.S. to skyrocket.”

If you’re working with pre-retirees to build a long-range financial plan, and your methodology doesn’t include a way to account for different levels of inflation, this is the episode you don’t want to miss . . . Carl Noble digs into the details of how various inflation rates can come to be and how they affect your client’s long-term financial health and their retirement future.  It’s 30 minutes that could save your clients a lot of money . . . Don’t miss it!

Carl Noble is chief investment officer for Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia, Maryland. Carl joined Pinnacle in 2001 after graduating with honors from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in finance.  Carl helped develop Pinnacle’s tactical asset allocation investment strategy from its inception in 2002. Carl was appointed chief investment officer in 2020 and is responsible for all of Pinnacle’s portfolios operating within the platform.

Happy Holidays from ...For Advisors

I think we can all agree that 2020 was not the most placid year, in terms of the markets or our lives or the lives of our clients – if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that you never know what to expect.

Now, looking forward, it’s up to us to live up to that gift of trust, to grow into that more fulfilling role, to continue to provide the level of interest, engagement, and attention that our clients surely deserve.

This Holiday season, be sure to take some time for yourself, to reflect on the rich, fulfilling life your clients have provided you, and to be humbly grateful for them and their families.

Episode 33: Chris Pierson On Cybersecurity and The Dangers of Working Remotely

“A firewall is not a be all and end all. It isn't a “hey we have one, so now you're cyber secure.” But in a person's home environment, the router . . . the network modem, your AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, whatever, having that set up correctly is critical. But then the next piece of appliance next thing that happens after that, the router, sometimes it's two in one, but usually it's more separated. Having that device secure, making sure that is blocking other adversaries, making sure that simple things can't be found out about your home network, making sure the Wi-Fi is secure and all the rest – so important. That is where it starts. So, the router, the firewalls, absolutely where it starts from a cybersecurity perspective, when you're talking about the employees' home and home network.”

COVID-19 mandates and company lock-downs have caused a huge chunk of the workforce to continue to work from home. Study after study have shown that this needn’t negatively affect productivity, but it can easily affect corporate cybersecurity. All those remote workers logging in to company servers, all those new passwords, all those erratic emails, sometimes from unfamiliar sources, can create havoc when trying to secure the corporate network from outsiders, especially those with nefarious intent. You can’t miss  this fact-filled and fast moving episode that could very well save your corporate network from harm.

Dr. Chris Pierson is the founder and CEO of BlackCloak, which specializes in protecting its customers from financial loss, cybercrime, hacking, reputational damage, privacy exposure, and identity theft. Dr. Pierson serves as the Department of Homeland Security's data privacy and integrity advisory committee, DHS's cybersecurity subcommittee, and as a distinguished fellow at the Ponemon Institute. Chris has been fighting cybercrime for over 20 years with DHS as president of the Federal Bureau of Investigations Arizona InfraGard. And in other roles as chief information security officer for various financial companies. Chris was a founding executive of Viewpost, a FinTech payments company serving as their CISO and general counsel. He was the first chief privacy officer as VP for the Royal Bank of Scotland's US operations, leading its privacy and data protection program. Chris was also a corporate attorney for Lewis and Roca re-established its cybersecurity practice, representing companies who were hacked and fell victim to data breaches. Chris is a globally recognized keynote speaker and cybersecurity thought leader, board advisor for startups, and is frequently quoted by the media on cybersecurity and privacy.

Happy Thanksgiving 2020 from ...For Advisors

Today's show is gonna be short and sweet. No guest, just a few words about the upcoming holidays and what they can mean for you and your practice. The 2020 has been an unusual year, could probably win awards for understatement.

Despite the forced distance between the masks and the virtual meetings via Zoom or other platform, there's still a strong need to connect with clients regularly. Perhaps more than ever, you need to reassure them that no matter how crazy the markets get, how strange the pandemic and its associated restrictions make our daily lives, you've still got their back, you have their best interest in mind.

If there's anything that advisors can be thankful for this year, it's their ongoing relationship with their clients. Most advisors started in their careers with the underlying purpose of helping others with their financial lives. Help them manage their lives in a way that prepares them for a successful and happy retirement. Times like these are a terrific excuse to revisit that original reasoning, to re-engage with those original goals, to re-energize your practice with a client-centric outlook that serves both you and the clients well.

Episode 32: Diane MacPhee on Rightsizing Your Practice

“ [Right-sizing] . . . also unleashes significant staff capacity previously expended on these folks, thereby providing you the opportunity to delegate more to your staff. This sets you up to focus on business development and growth. Targeting ideal clients becomes much more clear for the entire firm once the client roster is scaled down, keeping those clients who support the firm. And with this knowledge, the team and the owner can create a specific marketing plan to follow in a disciplined manner.”

Diane MacPhee returns to the show for the second time to reveal all the positives and pitfalls of “right-sizing” your practice to boost profitability and build a solid niche practice that can grow and flourish. Don’t miss this fast-paced episode with a top business coach in the advisor space.

Diane MacPhee is a business coach with DMAC Consulting. Diane is a professionally certified business coach working primarily with financial advisors. Ms. MacPhee earned her certified financial planner designation in 1989. Diane had operated a successful sole proprietorship for 16 years from 1989 until she sold her private fee-only financial planning practice in January 2006. She served in 1993 as the president of the Northern New Jersey chapter of the FPA and served three years on the national board of NAPFA.

She was the conference chair for the Northeast Mid-Atlantic regional 2006 conference as well. Diane has been on CNBC a number of times as a repeat guest and on CBS for Wall Street week. She's also featured in "Wall Street Journal," "Cosmopolitan," "Consumer Reports," "More," "Fortune," and "Ladies' Home Journal." Diane has been featured in a number of conferences over the years, presenting on a variety of practice management challenges that many advisors face on how to approach them with a plan.

In her consulting work, Diane focuses on attaining higher levels of efficiency, productivity, and revenue. She offers advice on the nuts and bolts of managing your business as well as navigating the challenges of continuity and succession planning. As a practice management consultant, Diane strives to enable her clients to attain results with their definition of success.