All That Goes Into a Practice

Jamie Worrell: Perseverance is a big part of being an adviser because it’s a numbers game. Many times you get up to bat but you don’t hit a home run, and you’ve got to just keep swinging. I love coming into a situation, seeing where there are areas needing improvement and then working with the client to execute on that. Sometimes it takes creativity, sometimes openminded thinking, and many times it takes coordinating several viewpoints, each making a persuasive case for doing something a certain way. The alignment toward a successful outcome is what’s fun.

What I like about our business is it has a mixture of all these things. There’s a communication element, plus behavioral finance comes into play where you have to get people to think about something far down the line or doing something they don’t want to do. People don’t like saving. People don’t like to think past today to when they’ll need this money.

Then there’s the legal/regulatory/fiduciary side, which is challenging and interesting. How does the regulatory environment apply to a situation your client is facing? And then the investment part of it is fascinating. Being able to combine the human element, the technical element with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act [ERISA], and the investment element is a skill that is needed. Another key ingredient is being disciplined and structured about what you are doing.

John Barry: Hard work goes without saying. For me it’s been the ability to manage a good work/life balance. My family has always come first. I’ll never have the biggest practice, because that’s not who I am. It’s been much more important, especially when the kids were younger, to be able to coach their games and be there. This business allowed me to do that.

I also had to recognize that I wouldn’t get every plan and every client as a result, and I’m OK with that. It’s also most important to do what’s in the best interest of participants and plan sponsors at all times. It’s not that complicated. Just do what is right.

If you do things in your client’s best interest, the business will come to you. I feel like I can make a difference with people. Not everybody. But you can actually get somebody on track. The most satisfying thing is when somebody listens to you so they either stay on track, get on track or reallocate their account. Before the 2008 crisis, I had a couple come in—one was a participant in a plan I advise. They were 100% in equities, and he was a year away from retiring. I said, “We really have to change this allocation. And they hemmed and hawed because they were making so much money. But they did, and I got a call a year or two later and the woman was in tears thanking me. “We wouldn’t have been able to retire …” Those are satisfying times.

Matt McLaughlin: I’ve seen so many vastly different traits in successful advisers over the years, which makes it an interesting question. I’ve seen advisers, from engaging extroverts to analytical introverts. Those with great market knowledge to those who pay little attention to daily market events. I think what they all have in common is resourcefulness to solve problems, confidence, and the ability to engage and lead clients. One thing I tell younger advisers is that you need an opinion. Clients don’t expect you to always be right, but they expect you to do the research and come to a conclusion. But sometimes a less experienced adviser hesitates in fear of being wrong; they don’t realize they know much more than they probably recognize.

I’m more extroverted. I like to have conversations to know what motivates people. And what I’ve been told about our team is that clients really trust us. Because we’re trying to help people—to solve problems. We’re not “sales-y,” so that tends to resonate with people.

I come from an engineering background. So I try to take an analytical approach and then make things easy to understand. Some people want to hear a story, and some want to hear facts and data, and you try to meld the two.

Worrell: Energy, attention to detail, integrity, character, curiosity, a genuine caring for clients and for helping people.

Barry: My right-hand person is Renee Martinez, who handles client services. She’s been with me for 25 years. And my wife works part time. She is also licensed and does our books and creates our marketing materials. When we’re working on a project or a prospect, she’ll work on the proposals. We never plan to hire another employee; we still have extra capacity. Renee and I are each very content with our work/life balance.

To me, the biggest change during my career has been the development of FI360 types of computer programs: having all of the funds’ analysis in front of me for my 70 plans by pushing a few buttons. Before that, it could take months to get one report for a client. I can see exactly where we stand with a particular client. I can customize, based on how much detail it wants.

McLaughlin: The saying that your people are your most valuable asset is true, so we focus on hiring high-quality, creative people who show they’d be passionate for client service and will gel within our team. And we also look for diversity in gender, race and age. We have three women and six guys, two interns who are younger and four members who are 30 or younger. We want to get more diverse as positions open up.

Worrell: I just made a big presentation to a big committee, and it pretty much consumed me for three days while preparing. That said, your clients are the ones who are with you, and you have to take care of them first. But you can find pockets of time to balance and manage both. You can put things aside briefly that are more about operating the business. Many advisory firms are set up so that roles are distinct: You’re either client service or new business. With some firms, people’s only job is to bring in new clients and then someone else manages them. That’s not how we do it. Striking a balance is a constant challenge.

Barry: I need to grow, because if I don’t, I’ll contract. But my clients come first, and my prospects come second until they’re clients. Prospecting is not the most important thing to me. But we do want to grow—no question about that.

I’ve never marketed. It’s always been referrals. I bought some leads early on, but my networking is what got me going. If I can put on four or five clients a year that are B-plus, A clients in terms of their size—north of 7 million to 8 million—then I never have to do anything else. Being in the small-plan market, I’m going to lose clients. Usually that’s when they get acquired by a bigger company we don’t have a relationship with. I can count on one hand the clients I’ve lost that either I didn’t know why we lost them or because we didn’t do something they wanted.

McLaughlin: We have about 40 institutional clients that we service. We’re not a team that has a volume strategy. We have fewer clients and service them very well. So when we grow, we try to bring on two or three new relationships per year. Those are good years.

Our priority investment has always leaned toward setting the standards for servicing existing clients, and that has consistently produced our referrals. But we’ve also invested in developing staff and training so we can expand our service model to more organizations. We’ve done that through appointing dedicated people, but also coordinating the sales effort among the team leaders and leveraging technology such as Salesforce and LinkedIn.

That’s probably one of the team’s biggest challenges: to be able to service, and to spend time cultivating new relationships. We’ve done that by investing in new people and bringing them on board with specifically that as their primary role. They are in charge of executing the business and the new development business plan, bringing the senior team members in whenever that makes sense. There’s a lot of coordination and communication. You have to be very active to make it all work.

Worrell: Good, loyal, healthy clients and a happy professional team that is growth-minded, excellent at relationship management and is known for excellent service and expertise. You have to have good clients who are doing well and not in a dying industry where they’re producing the proverbial buggy whip. The other things are having a team that can manage and cultivate those relationships and also help you grow. [Our sales representatives] do well in a sales situation, but we bring in the relationship managers as part of that sales presentation.

Barry: For me, it’s making a more-than-average living and doing what I enjoy—but it’s different for everyone.

McLaughlin: Every strong team needs great leadership. And I’ve been fortunate to have two outstanding partners for over 15 years. And just as every corporate client needs to step back from its business plan for the future, every retirement advisory practice needs to do the same. The opportunities and challenges are constantly in flux for advisory teams, so assessing the landscape and adjusting the plan is a key step toward that sustainability. I work with Al and Pete each year to come up with an annual plan, and then we work with the entire team to execute it. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you follow this simple process and have everyone working together. A lot of teams get by without doing this step, but the top teams do the essence of the process I just described.