Recently, I was able to connect with a fellow advisor. Our topic of conversation was managing firm processes. “What is the best way to stay on top of a client task?” he asked. That’s an easy answer: a well-implemented customer relationship management (CRM) tool. It doesn’t matter if you’re using JunXure Cloud, Redtail, or even […]
Practice Management
Review: Kitces.com Member Section for Continuing Education (CE) Credit for Financial Advisors
In a pre-pandemic world, continuing education (CE) credits were easy to acquire. If you attend enough events, conferences, etc., it was impossible to not collect sufficient CE to renew your various certifications. That’s because CE credits to maintain one’s CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM (or other) designation were available at local and national Financial Planning Association (FPA) […]
FPA NexGen Gathering is a Must
All young financial planners need to go to the Financial Planning Association (FPA) NexGen Gathering. That’s just my opinion. But, bear in mind, I’ve been to a handful of conferences: Bogleheads® Conference Ritholtz’s Evidence-Based Investing (EBI) West FinCon FPA Minnesota Symposium JunXure’s conference many Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) events a handful of Fidelity events the […]
Onboarding New Clients from an Exit Plan
If buying a book of business from retiring advisor interests you, know that there are many stages in the Exit planning process: Prospecting for your target acquisition (i.e. go find an advisor looking to retire!) Agreeing to the terms of the sale structure Executing the terms of the deal (i.e. bringing the new clients into […]
Advice for New Financial Planners
I could never do as good a job as Michael Kitces, so I’ll just link his article on this very same subject here. I won’t bother to repeat the points he already made. I’ll just share something I wish someone had told me when I got into the field of financial planning. The Job Description […]
Annuity Rule of Thumb
As a fee-only financial adviser and fiduciary, much of what I do at Define Financial involves unwinding new clients from the garbage they were previously sold by commissioned salespeople. (Naturally, I have a strong opinion about this!) Sometimes, this means trying to figure out how to get a client out of a non-traded REIT. Other […]