New Member and New Company

Jersey33 wrote: OracleofMN wrote: Ted this is good information and I am interested in learning more about cold calling and how to do it right. OracleofMN #1 get used to this board guys on here are pretty tough on newbies, trust me I know. In any rate, there is no real way to cold call and do it right other than pick up the phone and just dial. Don't worry about how you sound because that's really irrelevant. Just make the dials. As SF mentioned before you can call 10,000 people and ask to fuck their mother and 10 people will say yes and you might get another 10 maybes and others might try to find you and kill you and then let you try to fuck their mother. But just make the dials.

A guy in my office is pretty successful at it with 200 dials and some need 500 dials a day to get a appointment. It really depends on what you are pitching. Honestly, you are searching for interest and then you qualify and then you set the appointment. Make no mistake about it, you need to do it to build a business. I'm not very good at it all but I keep plugging away at it.

GreatPlains – thank you for your earlier comments about focusing on education and experience despite my age.   This is great “Being a CFA, like most mutual fund managers, I speak their language but more importantly I can vet them and make sure that they are well-qualified teams to be held by my client's portfolios.”  But what comments about are you referring to regarding age?

 Iamlegend – As for your bond example. If we assume only what you have laid out that a client purchases one bond and holds it for 20 years then of course they would be better off paying 2% up front – considering no other factors.  However, the question is that the right (best) investment for the client or was it sold (and perhaps traded later on) because of the commission.  As well, the value lies in the financial plan, not the investments.  So the RIA charging 20% over 20 years may have added a lot of value by continually updating the financial plan and tracking the client’s goals.  In this situation the fee-only advisor has an incentive to stay up to date on the client’s situation.  The broker who sold the bond does not necessarily have the same incentive.

 To All: I am not going to say anymore about Fee-Only versus Broker/Dealers.  We each have our compensation models and have our reasons for each.  I am afraid this conversation will only end up being an online shouting match if we go back and forth about each other’s compensation structures.  I would, however, encourage others to look into switching to fee-only planning, as you know I think it is the better model. Ultimately it is for you to decide what is best for you and for the client.

OracleofMN wrote: GreatPlains – thank you for your earlier comments about focusing on education and experience despite my age.   This is great “Being a CFA, like most mutual fund managers, I speak their language but more importantly I can vet them and make sure that they are well-qualified teams to be held by my client's portfolios.”  But what comments about are you referring to regarding age?

Miss a few days when the latest know-it-all moves into town and you miss all the fun!

Ted wrote: As others have said, you need something other than Internet marketing to grow your business. You are either spending money on things like seminars and radio shows, or you are doing it the way most on this board have done at one time. Picking up the phone and making the calls. There are some exceptions on this board, but not many. Prospecting/marketing is 80% of the job when you get going.

I'm going to have to disagree.  Seems like the one man shop, fee-only RIA is the ideal business to use social media for prospecting. I have a lot of clients that are set up like this, and they are making a pretty good living.  You almost have to target a micro-niche (or carpet bomb everything).  I have clients that focus only on high-earning women, others only go after Teachers (not Iceco1d), and another one that only focuses on people at a very specific point in their life. They are seen as the "experts" in these fields because they put out soo much free content on these topics.  Plus, they generate ad revenue from their blogs.  One of my clients has a very good RIA firm going, but he and his wife make the most money on ad revenue.

Oracle - Thought I would add my $.02:

Your name is pompous. On here people do not like pompous. You had the odds against you from the beginning. That said, there is great info and people on here.

Just because there is a commission does not mean there is a conflict of interest. There might be a potential, but then again there is for you as a fee-only as well. How we get paid is a preference between us (the advisor) and our clients. Nothing more. Anyone saying otherwise is an idiot. IAL pointed this out with the bond example but you choose to give a nonsensical response. A $5mm client who needs $100k in income does not need to pay you $25k+ a year to do a tax-free bond latter and updating a plan.

Being young and intelligent, you feel you know what is the best way to do this business, and cannot understand why others aren't doing it your way. I know, because I have been there (and still am to an extent). You hopefully will grow up. If you want to do business a certain way, great. But don't try and argue/convince others that your way is better (especially on here where you will get your ass handed to you). Just find the people who want to do business your way.

As was mentioned before, the internet is a secondary form of prospecting (passive). It can yield business, but should by no means be your sole, or even primary, form of prospecting right now. You want lowest common denominator - cold call. Buy a list of people and call. Ask if they are looking to do retirement planning and then schedule the meeting.

You are partnered with a CPA (I am assuming young too). Where are his clients from? Was he at a big firm where he is going to pull over clients?

Oh and welcome to the forum. Hopefully the place to check your ego has opened back up. You can go drop it off and get your ticket, and then return to the party.

Hack, I disagree that he should cold call. If I were him I would lead with tax prep all day long. Far easier to get those people in the door. Once they're tax clients then you can drop on them month after month. It's a fucking goldmine.

B24 wrote: City1134 wrote: And for the most part people here do not have a high opinion of CPA's, for what it's worth. People here get pissed because CPAs don't fawn all over them. If they were getting referrals from them, they would love them.

Not just that, but the fact that CPA's often give wreckless investment advice, yet are seen as all-things-financially-related-experts and are often pompous as hell.

OracleofMN wrote: Cold calling might be a good strategy to fill the gap between tax season.  No one is looking for tax prep after April 15th.  I'm not sure if I want to advertise to our tax clients every month.  Maybe if it was an informational outreach rather then pushing the financial planning.  A newsletter type of touch might work for this. hacksaw - my partner did work for one of the big four accounting firms but switched to private industry before we started our practice so he did not bring any contacts over I have known him for years and we both have a history with investments and accounting.