How Many Clients Does Your Advisor Work With?

Originally Posted By:
J. Patrick Collins Jr., CFP®, EA
05/27/2016

“Last month Barron’s published their annual Top 1,200 advisors in the country.  This list recognizes the largest “producers” from the large Wall Street firms.  Even the terminology at those firms is interesting.  Producer implies that you are creating something…in this case it’s revenue from selling products and services to your clients.  One specific paragraph really resonated with me and reminded me why it was so important to leave that environment.”

ON AVERAGE, our Top 1,200 and their teams manage $2.27 billion in client assets. That’s down from $2.42 billion for last year’s group and is, in part, a testament to how challenging the markets have become. At the same time, the advisors are serving more clients: This year’s Top 1,200 serve 521 households on average, compared with 496 for 2015’s crop.

“521 households!  That’s the average.  Think about that for a moment.  How can an advisor effectively serve 521 families?  There are approximately 250 business days in a year.  If you wanted to meet with each of your clients just once a year, you’d have to have more than 2 meetings a day and not take any vacations.  That leaves no time for managing portfolios, doing financial planning, or just time to think strategically on behalf of your clients.  The truth is, serving that many clients works with a certain type of model- product sales.  It is easy to call 30 clients a day and talk to them about selling or buying a particular investment.  Or put them in an advisory account where someone else will manage it on the client’s behalf.  Or unfortunately, just overall neglect of a client’s portfolio.  Where it doesn’t work is a true comprehensive planning relationship.  There is just not enough time in the day to understand and advise on a client’s cash flow, insurance coverage, estate plans, retirement objectives, tax projections and investment management needs.”

“For the client’s sake, we hope to see the number of clients per advisor move down over the years.  Instead of judging advisors based on how much they produce or manage, it would be a breath of fresh air if these types of awards focused on the impact they are having in their client’s lives.

THE MATH:

*There are 10 key components to achieving WorkOptional. Wall Street / Financial advisors want you to believe that wealth is built on only 1.

THE BOTTOM LINE: You are paying 10 times more and getting 10 times less.

Margaret Leto September 9th, 2017

Posted In: Uncategorized

Tags: Fiduciary in Plymouth Excelsior Minnetonka, Financial Planing in Plymouth Excelsior, Financial Planners in Plymouth Excelsior, Wealth Management in Plymouth Excelsior