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The ClientWise Blog

Building a Strong Foundation: 3 Critical Governance Committees for Larger Practices

Paraphrasing Michael Gerber, author of E-Myth Revisited, “Sooner or later, the day will come where the technical skills of your trade or profession are no longer enough;...

The Power of Co-Creating Goals: 4 Strategies to Help Move Beyond the Numbers

As an advisor, much of your day revolves around numbers—setting financial goals, managing portfolios, and ensuring the financial well-being of your clients. Although...

9 Trends That Will Impact the Future of Your Firm

Given the ever-evolving advisory landscape, staying ahead of the curve can be a difficult challenge. It will be essential to your continued success. As we look forward...

10 Must Listen Advisor-Led Podcasts for Wealth Wisdom

In today's fast-paced world, staying up-to-date with the latest financial trends, insights, and strategies is crucial—especially as you strive to offer your clients the...

16 Practice Management Podcasts to Elevate Your Business

Mastering practice management is an essential success driver as you build your enterprise. Effective practice management strategies not only help streamline your...

4 Steps to Delegate More Effectively

Every successful leader knows that delegation is essential to achieving maximum capacity. The key question, however, is whether or not you’re approaching delegation...

5 Tips for More Impactful 1:1 Meetings

When developing professional relationships, there's simply nothing quite as valuable or productive as a well-structured, one-on-one meeting. We’re all incredibly busy...

8 Benefits of a Five-Year Strategic Plan for Your Business

Recently, I was talking with one of our elite advisor clients (the CEO of a $2.4 billion firm), and he shared the notion that for all its critical importance, ‘strategic...

7 Essential Metrics for Your CEO Scorecard

7 Essential Metrics for Your CEO Scorecard Recently, I was coaching a group of larger ($1+ billion in AUM) advisory firm CEOs. Our objective was to develop a CEO...

Industry Disruptors—Challenging the Status Quo

As the leader of a dynamic, growing wealth advisory business, several times each year, you and your leadership team should engage with your strategic planning...

10 Tips to Fast-Track Team Goal Setting in 2024

As we embark on the journey of a new year, fully present, with clear heads and open minds, this is the perfect time to commit to a ‘growth restart.’ From carefully...

9 Creative Ways for Financial Advisors to Acquire Clients

Identifying high-impact clients. Helping them clearly understand the value you deliver. Building the necessary levels of trust to establish lasting relationships. And...

7 Tips for Creating a More Interdependent Team

At ClientWise, we often stress the critical importance of developing an interdependent team rather than an autonomous work group. But how do you objectively determine...

3 Important Areas of Team Productivity to Focus on

Time is the ultimate equalizer. A couple of years ago, I reviewed the results of a time management and productivity study conducted by Michael Kitces. He found that less...

12 Keys to Building an Enduring Firm

If building an enduring business – one that cares for future generations (of both clients and advisors) – is important to you, then now’s the time to start planning. But...

Memorial Day: Honoring Our Fallen Heroes

This weekend, we commemorate those who have fought for all we hold so precious and dear. Memorial Day is a day when we pause to give thanks to the people who fought for...

5 Ways to Create and Cultivate a Growth Mindset Culture

Carol Dweck, Ph.D. and author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, defines a growth mindset as believing “the hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for...

New Success in Succession™ Program Addresses Glaring Gap

We’ve all seen the sobering statistics. The average age of financial advisors is currently reported to be 55 years old, with roughly one in five age 65 or older. And...

Top 5 Key Insights for Business Continuity

Q1 2022 INSIGHTS During the first quarter of 2022 (Jan - Mar), we asked our clients a series of business-specific questions to gauge their perceptions as to how prepared...

5 Key Benefits of a Structured Team Recognition Program

“Don’t ask how we can motivate people. That’s the wrong question. Ask how we can provide the conditions within which people can motivate themselves.” — Edward Deci,...

"What's in Their Wallet?" Part 2: Why Your Compensation Stack Matters

Your compensation stack is the combination of human capital tools which create a framework for fully compensating your team members and framing your firm as a desirable...

Random Acts of Kindness

The OED defines gratitude as “the quality or condition of being grateful or thankful; the appreciation of and inclination to return kindness; gratefulness.” But it’s...

7 Central Concepts to Shape Your Hiring

This week at the Barron’s Advisor Independent Summit, a group of self-made leaders gathered for an invitation-only event to learn and grow, sharing ideas and insights....

8 Ways to Better Frame Your Firm

Odds are you’ve created hundreds of pitch books over the course of your advisory career—PowerPoint presentations with your company brand, bulleted facts and figures,...

7 Leading and Lagging Indicators for the Health of Your Business

For better or worse, we’re bombarded by a constant stream of economic data. Looking closely at both leading indicators such as bond yields and housing starts as well as...

Top 10 Team Icebreakers

Recently, I attended a leadership meeting for one of our clients. As everyone was gathering in the virtual zoom room for the virtual meeting, it was clear there were...

"What's in Their Wallet?" Part 1: Why Your Compensation Stack Matters

In Part 1 of a two-part series, we will explore what factors to consider when putting together the compensation stack for your team members. Like a tech stack, your...

The Unintended Consequences of Growth: Why Elite Advisors are Always Recruiting

Why elite advisors are always recruiting Pick up any trade journal these days and you’re bound to see at least a couple of articles about the current ‘Great Resignation’...

Build It and They Will Come: Structuring your Compensation Philosophy

If you’re at all familiar with the film Field of Dreams, you know that it takes more than simply plowing the cornfield and building a baseball diamond to achieve your...

The Talent Crunch

The race for talent is heating up. Do you have a plan? According to a recent study conducted by Barron’s, advisor growth over the past two years has been off the charts:

Looking Beyond the Multiple

Not too long ago, financial practice values were just a simple multiple of revenue. Depending on the book of business, an advisor generally could expect 1x to 2x...

5 Impactful Ways to Scale Culture

We’re in the midst of a transitional time—not just because of the systemic changes that have been brought on by COVID. Advisory businesses are currently experiencing...

7 Key Considerations for Advisors Committed to Building Enduring Firms

Building an enduring business. For most of us, it’s one of the most important goals we have—to establish a firm that will care for future generations of both clients and...
M&A

M&A Considerations Part 2 - When the Seller is Staying

One of the critical factors you’ll need to consider as a buyer is whether you’re acquiring the business with the intent of having the acquiree exit the practice, or...
M&A

M&A Considerations Part I - When the Seller is Leaving

One of the critical factors you’ll need to consider as a buyer is whether you’re acquiring the business with the intent of having the acquiree exit the practice, or...

Happy Holidays! 2021

From our family to yours, we would like to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year! In this season of giving, we are most grateful for that which you give to...

Veterans Day 2021

Today, ClientWise celebrates and graciously thanks all of the men and women who have served in the United States Military.

How Good Teams Fall Apart

It’s rarely a cataclysmic event. Far more often, it’s a slow, cumulative effect – the impact of small, insidious behaviors that in and of themselves seem relatively...

Transfers of Trust

Whether in the context of the work we do with advisory firms looking to merge, or building structures to facilitate the move of clients from a founder to a next...

Quick Start For A New Year Ahead

We all have a vision of our future business. Too often, however, that vision is solely focused on some relatively far-off (5, 10, or even 20 year) end date. Don’t get me...

Scale Your Business More Effectively

Capacity and Productivity. Any advisory firm that’s serious about meaningful and sustainable growth must learn how to better control those two critical financial...

10 Essential Drivers of Enterprise Value

One of the biggest challenges for any thriving advisory firm is finding time (beyond day-to-day operations) to plan and execute on the activities which will most...

5 Critical Keys to Effective Compensation Planning

Ask any consultant who works on compensation in the financial services industry and they’ll probably tell you that retaining Human Capital should be the #1 cause of...

Happy Holidays! 2020

On behalf of the entire ClientWise team, we would like to wish you Happy Holidays from our family to yours! In this season of giving, we are most grateful for that which...

Give in the Time of Corona

First off, my sincerest apology to author Gabriel Garcìa Màrquez for butchering the title of his remarkable novel Love in the Time of Cholera just to come up with a...

The time to repair the roof…

…is when the sun is shining. That was the clarion call of JFK in his 1962 State of the Union address – a challenge to the nation to use current times of prosperity to...

Giving thanks by giving back 11/25/2020

To say that 2020 has been a challenging year could perhaps be the greatest understatement of all time. It’s honestly been a year of unimaginable struggle. The loss of...

A Heartfelt Thank You to Our Veterans!

On behalf of the entire ClientWise team, we wish to express our deep appreciation to those of you who have served (or perhaps are still serving) in our nation’s Armed...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 10/28/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Micro-Segmentation

An opportunity to test and learn new acquisition strategies Lately, whenever I talk to one of our clients, I make it a point to ask them what their year-to-date new...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 10/01/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Zoom Your Way to Loyal Client Advocates

Sit down at a lunch table during any advisor conference, and I can pretty much guarantee you that sooner than later, the topic of conversation will gravitate to client...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 09/15/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Why Aren’t You "Board"?

Late last year, I led a working session of sixteen advisory clients – all but one of them managed in excess of $1B in assets (with at least two firms north of $2B in...

Are Socially Distanced BBQs a Thing?

The very first Labor Day was celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882. And on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 9/01/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of August 31)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Opportunity's Knocking

New clients and new talent have never been more accessible Perhaps all this industry buzz and talk about entering “a new normal” is legitimate, and that the way you...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of August 24)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 08/18/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of August 17)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Rethinking Your Personal Productivity Tech Stack

Moore’s Law states that every two years the number of transistors on a microchip will double while over the same period the cost of computers will halve. Rather than a...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 08/05/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Best Practices in Creating a Distributed Workforce

When it comes to returning to the workplace, there’s no shortage of conflicting viewpoints in the marketplace in general – nor among advisors and their teams in...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 07/27/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Why and When Should You Hire a COO?

If you’re like most successful firm founders, you’re probably either a tremendous relationship manager, rainmaker and/or investment technician. And as your firm has...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 07/20/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of July 20)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 07/15/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of July 10)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Coaching? Now? Are you serious?

You’re the CEO of a successful RIA. You’ve grown the business from a fledgling operation to a thriving firm with a talented team of skilled planning and investment...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team July 7, 2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

24 Tips for Team Members When Working From Home

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them these 24 tips that will help them stay focused and organized while working from...

Online Collaboration Tools

Bringing the best out in your team during challenging times. While compliance requirements may limit some financial advisory firms from using certain technologies,...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of June 29)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

8 Essential Qualities of Successful NextGen Leaders

At ClientWise, we talk at great length about the critical importance of cultivating the NextGen owners and partners who will guide your firm into the future. It’s not...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of June 22)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Managing your OWN fear and uncertainty

If you’re not experiencing any; you’re not human! Assuming you’ve ventured onto ThinkAdvisor, FA-Mag, InvestmentNews or any one of the many other online information...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 06/15/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of June 15)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team.

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 06/05/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Moving the Right Financial Levers

Moving the Right Financial Levers Avoid permanent outcomes to temporary problems Unlike countless retail, manufacturing and hospitality businesses, financial advisors...

Curated Content for Financial Leaders (Week of June 1)

Each of these important articles and podcasts have been thoughtfully curated, timely, and helpful for you and your team. HBR Podcast: Staying Agile Beyond a Crisis...

The Anatomy of a Client Review

By now, you’ve reached out to check-in with all of your clients -apprising them as to your operating plan during the pandemic, as well as addressing any initial fears...

Stay social, my friends!

By now, we’re all more than a little burned out on Zoom meetings, virtual client reviews, and the seemingly endless litany of daily and weekly online check-ins and team...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 05/14/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Keeping Your Team Productive in a Virtual World

Dare I say that just a few months ago, none of us could possibly have fathomed the world we currently find ourselves trying to navigate?! Not only is the human toll of...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 05/07/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

Twelve Positive Ways the Crisis Will Impact RIAs

This weeks research insights, best practices, and fresh ideas on how to lead your clients and your team... Twelve Positive Ways the Crisis Will Impact RIAs General James...

Stay Connected Recommendations - For You and Your Team 04/30/2020

Looking for ways to keep your team and your clients focused and engaged? Share with them some of the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, etc. that have helped lift your...

How to alleviate Zoom fatigue

This weeks research insights, best practices, and fresh ideas on how to lead your clients and your team... Demonstrating Corporate Purpose In the Time of Coronavirus How...

How the CARES Act Impacts Your Clients’ Taxes

Harold Evensky’s musings on the Coronavirus McKkinsey & Company: The Future is Not What it used to Be - Seven Elements for Business Leaders to Consider as They Plan for...

Effective Investment Charts for Communication with Clients

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill The Most Beautiful Virtual Choir For This Holiday Week On...

Adversity Gives Rise to Great Leaders

Sometimes it’s at the turbulent center of a monumental crisis where true leaders discover their inner strength. Individuals who despite incredible fear and uncertainty...

A Guide to Working From Home

Controlling What You Can, Learning From What You Can’t How to Make the Most of this Nationwide Timeout - Diamond Consultants: Financial Advisor Recruiting Firm Financial...

Staying Centered and Focused in a VUCA World

Yesterday I exhumed a white paper that was published on Leadership Development by the Center for Creative Leadership in 2011 thinking it might be relevant to our current...

Keeping Your Team Effective While Working Remotely

Some offices have already closed, and others may do so in the future, so knowing how to organize yourself and your team to continue to provide exemplary service is...

Giving Thanks

At this reflective time of year, I remind myself that while gratitude is important, it’s in the giving (of our time, talent and treasure) that we best demonstrate our...

Polonius Never Tried to Grow a Practice

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend.” Hamlet; Act 1, Scene 3 It’s one of the most recognizable and oft quoted lines in all of...

Capacity and Productivity - The keys to unlocking future growth

For any enterprise that’s serious about meaningful and sustainable growth, getting a grasp on how to better control these two critical financial metrics is essential. As...

Rainmaking Matters

One storm is no longer enough... When it comes to fueling meaningful growth in your enterprise, the days of succeeding by doing one thing very well are quickly becoming...

Who’s your Practice Management Champion™?

Every enterprise needs one; here’s why

Celebrating Independence

If there’s one holiday that should especially resonate with financial advisors, it’s the 4th of July – a celebration of our nation’s unyielding and relentless desire for...

Motivation Beyond Money

Finding Your Personal Satisfaction Drivers In our work over the years with hundreds of advisory teams, nearly every phenomenally successful team leader has shared ONE...

Empty Chairs - The looming NextGen advisor crisis

The statistics paint a pretty bleak picture. The average financial advisor today is age 51, with nearly half (43%) over the age of 55 and therefore inside of a decade...

Proclamation on Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2019

Regardless of political persuasion, whether red state or blue, there are some messages that transcend politics and provide a rare opportunity to begin salving wounds and...

Engaging the NextGen client

The clock is ticking We’ve all seen the statistics. The probability that your firm will be able to retain your current clients’ assets once they transfer to the next...

What’s My Job Again?

Why clearly defined roles and responsibilities matter Remember when you first started your firm? Not only were you the owner of the business, you and your original team...

Rewarding Performance - Human capital is an asset, not a liability

As a strategic business leader, you recognize that your team – your human capital – is your most important asset. You invest in them in a variety of ways and, in turn,...

The Case for OKRs

Odds are, at some point during college or in the early years of your career, you were introduced to the acronym “SMART” as it relates to creating business goals and...

Happy Holidays - from our family to yours!

On behalf of the entire ClientWise team, we would like to wish you Happy Holidays from our family to yours! In this season of giving, we are most grateful for that which...

A History Lesson in Gratitude, Living and Laughing at it All

As we take time to give thanks and reflect on the relationships for which we are most grateful, we invariably recall certain history lessons that serve as important...

Happy 4th of July

Four Fun Historical Facts for Financial Advisors on the 4th of July Happy Belated Birthday! In actuality, the real Independence Day, is on July 2nd. This is the day that...

15 Tips for Financial Advisors Who are Networking on LinkedIn

Expand client marketing via LinkedIn As the premier professional network on the Internet, LinkedIn is a great place to make professional connections and network for...

Happy Memorial Day: Let Us Honor Our Fallen Heroes

Thanksgiving is a day when we pause to give thanks for the things we have. Memorial Day is a day when we pause to give thanks to the people who fought for the things we...

Growing a Financial Advisory Business thru Mergers and Acquisitions

How three unique firms found common purpose in coming together Rick Kent (founder of the suburban Atlanta-based Merit Financial Group) was actively seeking to grow his...

How are you acquiring clients today?

All businesses need a sound marketing strategy, particularly in acquiring new clients. It’s not enough to be an expert in your field or provide outstanding service. If...

The NFL will donate 5$ if you RETWEET! #SaluteToService

This past weekend the NFL announced for every Re-Tweet they will make a $5 donation. @NFL will donate up to $5 MILLION! Here's the article but before you go be sure to...

Hurricane Harvey

Nearly a week after Hurricane Harvey slammed into the southeast Texas coast, thousands of residents remain stranded without food or water. And the dangers arising from...

What is My Future Company?

I often ask advisors I work with to describe their future company to me. With very few exceptions, the responses I get overwhelmingly revolve around incremental change....

Continue Your Education with Coaching Skills

Most successful financial professionals possess the technical skills and qualifications necessary to help their clients and colleagues maneuver in a fast-changing market...

10 Key Marketing Elements for Successful Financial Advisors

It's always a good time for financial advisory teams to fine-tune their marketing plans. It’s vital that the team remains focused on reaching defined marketing and...

Your Most Important Clients? It's Your Team. 

If we only had a dollar for every time we’ve heard an advisor say “I’d really prefer not to add new team members because I just don’t like managing people.” Mind you,...

Developing an Emotionally Intelligent Team

The best in the business know that a critical part of their role is mentoring, coaching and developing their team. It's extremely important to gain the skills and...

Advisory Team Leader Non-Negotiables

You didn’t become the founder of a successful financial advisory practice without having a host of extraordinary talents – from strong rainmaking and relationship...

Good Stewardship Begins with Your Team

Whether you call it outcomes-based financial planning, goals-based wealth management, or some other moniker, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s an essential...

Imagination: A Critical Tool for Business Growth

In general, entrepreneurs are successful because they can see a future that nobody else sees, and imagine things that others simply can’t bring themselves to envision....

Capabilities Decks: A Financial Advisor Marketing Necessity

Understandably, very few advisors are natural marketing or branding experts. After all, there are only so many hours in the day, with client and operational demands...

How Successful Wealth Transfers are Built

It’s a statistic you’ve all heard repeatedly and one that understandably sends a shudder through most firms: 90-95% of inheritors fire their parents’ advisor once the...

Advisor Growth Strategies Pt. 2: The Hunt for New Relationships

In my last blog, we explored strategies that can help drive a greater share of wallet from your existing clients. Now, we will take a look outside at some potential...

Veterans Day: 21 Patriotic Quotes Honoring Our Heroes

Veterans Day is an incredibly important day for our nation. It is designated as a day to honor all who have served in the military and to celebrate the sacrifices of our...

Advisor Growth Strategies: Part One

Ask any advisor about their strategy for growth and nine times out of ten their response will focus on the acquisition of new clients either through loyal client...

Is Your Next-Gen Talent Here to Stay?

With nearly half of the advisor population (43% according to Cerulli) over the age of 55, it raises two critical questions. Who’s going to take care of all your clients...

Unlocking the Door to Acquisitive Growth

It’s a well understood reality that there is a veritable army of advisors in today’s marketplace who covet the idea of super-charging the growth of their business with...

When’s The Right Time to Sell Your Business?

A mere 3% of today’s advisors have a written continuity plan to protect their business (and more importantly their clients’ best interests) in the event of their death...

Finding the Right Buyer for Your Business

We’ve all seen the statistics that there are roughly 30-50 buyers lined up for every advisory practice that comes onto the market. It certainly seems to bode well for...

5 Lessons from the Wisdom of Steve Jobs

As we approach the 5-year anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs, he continues to remain one of the world’s most respected business visionaries and innovators. A...

Benchmarking the Beach House

As an industry, we’ve made great strides over the years towards aligning compensation with client interests – steadily migrating from transaction-based to fee-based...

Preparing Your Practice for NextGen Clients

While they may currently only control 4% of the nation’s wealth, there’s absolutely no doubt that if you’re not preparing your firm to address the needs and preferences...

Want to Attract New Female Clients?

Over the last few years, there have been many articles published about the increasing economic power of women both here in the U.S. and globally. By 2020 (essentially...

4 Ways to Take Team Leadership From Good to Great

There’s an old adage that states, “Great leaders don’t tell you what to do; they show you how it’s done.” It’s a point we try to strongly emphasize anytime we work with...

Hiring for Fit: Why character can matter more than capability

You sit at your desk and review a pile of resumes. For the most part, you can quickly make a determination as to whether or not individual candidates have the requisite...

Putting the ClientWise Conversation™ to Work

The subtitle of my book You’ve Been Framed is “How to reframe your wealth management business and renew client relationships.” Before you can effectively undertake that...

Unlocking the Gate: 5 Key Referral Criteria

Why is it that some advisors seem so successful at building a Professional Advocate Network of attorneys, CFPs and estate planners, while other equally capable advisors...

The Most Overlooked Fiduciary Duty

Imagine sitting down with one of your clients for a financial planning meeting and focusing exclusively on their short-term financial needs and concerns. When the client...

Designing an Advisory Team that Adds Enterprise Value

In order to achieve your defined measures of financial reward now and upon exit from your practice, you must design and hire a team that is: 1. Capable of all aspects of...

How to Operationalize Your Wealth Management Vision

It’s an incontrovertible fact that the majority of wealth management advisors vision statements never effectively drive firm success for the simple reason that they’re...

6 Questions to Help Envision Your Future Team

It goes without saying that the support of a highly-skilled team is essential to achieving the future firm you’ve always envisioned. It shouldn’t come as any surprise...

Think Outside the Platform and Get New Clients

If you’re like many advisors, you probably associate certain social networking sites with specific functions. Facebook is the platform you turn to for attracting new...

4 Behaviors to Better Leverage Your Advocates and Team

Many successful financial advisors out there have found ways to cultivate centers of influence and build momentum with their wealth management team. Here at ClientWise,...

Shared Values and Diversity – More Than Just Buzzwords

The simple truth is that people will both join your team, as well as quit your team, usually for the exact same four reasons: 1. The nature of their personal...

Profit or Purpose: What Truly Drives You?

People work for three reasons: to create safety, to create freedom of choice, and to create meaning in their lives. Yet all too often, we tend to wrap all three of these...

Wealth Management Advisors: Identify Your At-Risk Clients

Lately, in talking with financial advisors, I’m getting a sense that clients have finally settled down a bit after the heightened volatility that ushered in the New...

Is Your Kid the Right Succession Plan for Your Business?

Perhaps no generation is as misunderstood as millennials – the people who represent the future of our financial services business. We tend to haphazardly paint their...

How Top Financial Advisors Can Better Serve Clients' Heirs

While the statistics vary slightly, time and again they all point to the fact that unless you change your process, the likelihood of holding onto your current clients’...

Top 10 Secrets of the Best Financial Advisors in the Business

What is that “secret sauce” that enables Advisor A to take a $10MM AUM solo practice and build it into a $1+ billion multi-advisor business, while Advisor B with the...

I'm on Social Media, Now What?

From time to time, I write about the growing relevance and importance of social media. Unfortunately, for many of you affiliated with broker-dealers, the topic has...

Keeping Your Wealth Management Team Fully-Engaged

At the beginning of the year, you and your team were fired up and ready to rock-and-roll, committed to 2016 being your firm’s best year ever. Like straight-A students on...

Will the Fiduciary Rule Open the M&A Floodgates?

Over the last two weeks alone, I’ve had no fewer than eight clients say to me that they’re throwing in the towel as a result of the DOL’s new Fiduciary Rule. “You know...

How to Avoid Benchmarking Your Way to Mediocrity

Ours is an industry seemingly obsessed with benchmarking – whether it’s the performance of our investment portfolios or the performance of our businesses; we want to...

Short-Term Comp = Long-Term Headaches

In just the past few weeks alone, I’ve come across no fewer than a half-dozen situations where highly successful advisors suddenly find themselves hamstrung by...

Wealth Advisors: What is Your Business Really Worth?

Every advisor – whether thinking about selling their firm or not – wants to know the value of their business. It’s simply human nature to be curious about how much your...

The Biggest Inhibitor to Your Firm's Growth? It May Be You.

Frequently when I speak at advisor events, I’ll ask attendees what they believe to be the greatest impediment to their firm’s future growth. More often than not, the...

8 Accelerators for Transformational Change

I recently came across a terrific older article in the Harvard Business Review that articulated in very specific detail an optimal organizational structure to empower...

Creating a Positive Wealth Management Team Culture

We focus so much on acquisition, portfolio management, client issues and day-to-day operations that we rarely have time to sit back and take stock of the state of our...

Don’t Fear the DOL Rule, Embrace It!

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Open any financial advisor trade publication these days, and that pretty much sums up the prevailing sentiment. Yet despite all...

Why Your Networking is “not-working!”

Whenever I have a conversation with an advisor client about his or her professional advocate network, invariably they begin to discuss the number of client referrals...

How to Justify Your Value So Price Doesn't Matter

As the advisor industry continues to churn with speculation regarding the scope and extent of new forthcoming DOL guidance around the transparency of client fees, all...

Financial Advisor Client Events: Making a Lasting Impression

Intimacy and engagement: those are the qualities that separate truly memorable client events from the merely enjoyable; they’re the qualities that resonate at a deeply...

How to Master Your Business Financials

“Revenue is vanity, cash flow is sanity, but cash is king.” It’s an age-old business maxim that too few independent advisors ever fully embrace. As firm owners, many of...

Team Development Exercises for Wealth Management Advisors

Successful wealth management is a team concept and not an independent function. In order for the client’s work to get done, you need a team that willingly engages in the...

Quantifying the Value of Elite Wealth Management Teams

Here at ClientWise, we often talk about the vital importance of “teaming.” We believe teaming is the future of the financial advisory business – allowing you to better...

How Much is that Advisor in the Window?

Perhaps more than any other industry, the financial advisory business is keenly attuned to benchmarks. You carefully watch major indices, craft investment portfolios to...

The Clock is Ticking: Succession Planning for Advisors

Let’s start with a few irrefutable facts. Today, the average age of financial advisors in this country stands at 50.9 years old. According to Cerulli Associates, over...

The Art of WOW: Improve Your Client Engagement Process

“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou That’s the genuine essence of...

How to Convert the Right Clients into Advocates

What exactly constitutes a “client advocate?” Advisors are often rather liberal in their definition, including those clients who, from time to time, provide an...

Build Better Client Relationships: 5-Step Client Engagement Process

With tax season right around the corner, this is a time of year when many advisors are focused on annual and quarterly client reviews. The challenge, however, often lies...

Take the Quiz: How Good Are Your Communications Skills?

Communication skills are the most important skills that you need to be successful in any industry. For financial advisors specifically, being able to effectively...

3 Key Ways to Maximize Your Financial Advisor Marketing

Far too many advisors view their firm website with the same sort of fear and trepidation that results in dated, uninspiring advisor websites that say very little and...

Why You Need a NextGen Advisor on Your Team

Let’s get one thing perfectly clear – millennials are NOT the lazy, self-absorbed narcissists who expect you to hand them a VP title and a six-figure salary. About the...

Social Media for Advisors: Silence is NOT Golden!

No matter how capable of a writer you are, the simple truth is that it’s vital you have an opinion and are willing to share it. Your clients are counting on that. If you...

What Skills Does Every Leader Need to Master?

Love 'em or hate 'em, there’s no arguing that in an industry structured to create franchise parity through salary caps and free agency, the New England Patriots have...

Durability, Profitability and Sustainability: What's the Difference?

These are perhaps the three most important benchmarks by which wealth management practice success is truly measured. Yet, many advisors struggle with drawing clear...

The Best Present to Give Your Family in 2016

On behalf of the entire ClientWise team, I would like to wish a Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family! While traveling recently, I took some time to reflect on...

The 9 Elements in Every Successful Financial Advisor Business Plan

In our last blog, we focused on the turning of the calendar as an ideal opportunity to revisit your business plan, with an eye towards capturing more meaningful business...

Pt 1. Elevate Your Financial Advisor Business Plan

You spend your days counseling clients as to the critical importance of careful and proper planning. Yet a great many of you either don’t have a business plan, or...

Why Women are NOT a Niche Market

I can’t begin to tell you how many financial advisors, when asked to identify their target niche market, will list women as one of their targets. How exactly can a group...

7 Sure-Fire Ways to Fail as a Leader

It’s a simple fact – most attempts at building a highly interdependent team end in failure. Not as a result of bad people or lack of effort, but rather, because the...

It Pays to Know Your Type

Building Better Team Cohesion and Communication Why do you do what you do? What motivates you and what causes you stress? How do you respond to conflict? How do others...

Oh Baby! ClientWise Announces Newest Team Member

It is with great happiness and joy that ClientWise welcomes new team member, Brooke Suarez (Age: 12 hours). There will be a hefty onboarding process of diaper changing,...

Growing Your Business with Purpose and Intent

Ask a large group of advisors to list their primary business goals, and odds are “growing my business” will be at or near the top of almost every list. But ask the same...

8 Ways to Get More Out of Your Business Meetings

We continually champion the concepts of “partnering” and “collaborative conversations” because they are such critical components to the future success of your business....

Succeeding at Succession for Financial Advisors

As a conscientious advisor, you take your fiduciary duty to your clients quite seriously. Your entire raison d'être is to serve as their voice of fiscal reason, advising...

Keys to Running a Successful Internship Program

An internship program offers your team tremendous means of enhancing productivity while ensuring the continuity of exemplary client service. The challenge for many...

Honoring Veterans Beyond Just the Day

This day is an incredibly important day for our nation. Today marks an opportunity for us to celebrate the sacrifices made by those individuals who protect our country...

4 Tools to Help Boost Team Productivity

As your team and business expand, managing productivity quickly becomes a monumental challenge. You wake up one morning and realize that what you could once manage with...

Laying to Rest the Ghost that Haunts your Team

Many people mistakenly look at the world and think that what they see is reality. In fact, what they see is merely their perception of reality. Unfortunately, these...