Relationship Selling

For retirement plan advisers hoping to distinguish themselves, a strategic relationship with an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) attorney or CPA can be helpful. Strategic relationships let advisers equip clients with a broader range of information necessary to run their plans properly, comments Jim Merklin, Partner at accounting firm Bober Markey Fedorovich in Akron, Ohio.  

Shared Values. One thing to remember is that you don’t need many relationships if you have a handful that are good. Jessica Ballin, Managing Partner, 401k Plan Professionals in Edina, Minnesota, says, “It is more valuable to have a small group of core ambassadors.” 

One place to start when evaluating CPAs or ERISA attorneys for relationships is cultural fit, says David Kulchar at Oswald Financial in Cleveland, Ohio. That involves understanding what values are important to you as the adviser and ensuring they are shared by the potential relationship partner—things such as putting the client first, ethics, integrity, a commitment to the community, as well as being an expert and specialist. Making sure these qualities are aligned at the outset allows an adviser to be comfortable that referred clients will receive good service. 

One way to find the right relationship is to look in your local benefits community, says Dale Vlasek, an attorney and the Head of the Employee Benefits Practice Group at law firm McDonald Hopkins LLC in Cleveland, Ohio. When he was looking for companies with which to form relationships, Paul D’Aiutolo, a consultant with UBS in Rochester, New York, reached out to law firms to ask whether they had ERISA practices and to CPA firms to determine whether they had a primary business working with qualified plans, then focused on those that appeared to be influential in his geographic area. Advisers also can reach out to those firms that already are working with existing plan clients, D’Aiutolo says.  

Kulchar cautions that it is not a quick process to evaluate those potential relationships. In fact, in his case, it generally involves a series of interactions: an introductory meeting, a partners meeting, a social meeting with partners, and a meeting of individuals at both firms to ensure cohesiveness. 

One key to finding the right partner is to make sure there is no potential conflict in overlapping services, sources agree. There are an awful lot of CPA firms that have investment advisers and recordkeeping capabilities within their own firms but “our firm chose a number of years ago to focus on CPA activities,” says Merklin.  

More than Referrals. “When an adviser comes to me, he’s not coming to try to get all my clients,” Vlasek explains. “I give them something additional to sell. I can add value to an adviser by doing more sophisticated work,” he says. A strategic relationship is a combination between bettering an adviser’s service model and client referrals, he continues.  

Advisers may have to be patient in waiting for ­referrals. Each client that asks me for a referral,” Merklin says, “I can’t just give them one name, I have to give them multiple.” 

Even if he does wind up with a direct referral, D’Aiutolo says, he is looking for the silent endorsement. “When a plan sponsor calls a CPA or an attorney to ask for help or information, I know they’ll say we’re OK,” he says. 

Getting Along. Everyone involved in the relationships wants to know that the other is taking care of the client. No one wants the client to come back and be unhappy, Kulchar says. Sources agree that these relationships need not be formal. In fact, Kulchar says he would be uncomfortable with any formalized arrangement because it might call into question the notion that he is unbiased. He instead picks a referral based on geography or specialty.  

Personality is often the reason things might go wrong, notes Merklin. Finding people you get along with and who work with your clients the way you are comfortable is key. “When it’s working right, it’s working as a team,” Merklin says.