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Why your assistant is your ticket to success

If there's one dominant theme in the advisory world these days, it's the transition under way among thousands of advisers. Their role is shifting from one of being primarily a rainmaker and investment decision maker to being primarily an owner and manager of a business providing financial advice.

If there’s one dominant theme in the advisory world these days, it’s the transition under way among thousands of advisers. Their role is shifting from one of being primarily a rainmaker and investment decision maker to being primarily an owner and manager of a business providing financial advice.
That transition is a long, difficult process in which some advisers choose to become registered investment advisers, while others become independent hybrids, and still others stay where they are but change the way they do business.
Advisers struggling through this transition would benefit from keeping one person in the forefront of their thinking: their assistant.
More than the custodian or clearing firm or software an adviser chooses, and even more than the investments they select for their clients, the person or people handling an advisory firm’s administrative functions will determine the success of that business. And whatever title an adviser selects for the person serving as lead administrator — chief administrative officer isn’t a bad title, by the way — that person is just as important to the firm’s success as the adviser.
I realize you probably think I’ve gone a little overboard with this.
Maybe. But remember, most advisers started out as stockbrokers, insurance agents or salespeople in some shape or form. Sure, a few were analysts, researchers or managers, but most advisers are people with a sales orientation and an affinity for investing, coupled with a desire for workplace freedom.
Obviously, an advisory business cannot exist without rainmaking. But besides employing people who bring in business, a firm must also hire those who do it. And this is where the administrative person comes in.
In the days when “doing” consisted of writing sales tickets or filling in the blanks on cookie-cutter financial plans, an adviser could do most administrative tasks alone. If the business grew, all that was needed was an assistant with good phone skills and a pleasant manner to funnel the work to the adviser.
But if the business grew beyond a certain point, there was no way the rainmaker-doer could keep up. Without someone to schedule meetings, handle the requisite paperwork and actually get to know clients through regular conversations, the business would stall.
Today’s advice business is more complex than it was a decade ago. It requires systems and procedures to insure a high level of service delivery. And having the skill set and interest level to establish and execute such systems and procedures are precisely what most advisers don’t have.
That’s not an accusation. It’s more, I believe, a matter of brain chemistry. If you’re the kind of person who gets excited about meeting people and convincing them they need your help, creating the 12-step checklist and schedule that ensure that the helping actually gets done is not going to turn you on.
For that, advisers need someone for considers administrative tasks a labor of love and an exciting challenge — not a chore.
Survey after survey of the affluent finds that wealthy investors desperately seek advisers who communicate with them and pay attention to their needs. To deliver that kind of service, an adviser needs an ace administrative/service team to transform a sales office into an advisory business. These people are not overhead; they ensure that contrary to Gertrude Stein’s view of Oakland, Calif., there’s actually a “there” there when clients and prospects come calling.
So find yourself someone who loves to organize, pay them royally and watch your business grow.