Advisor has hit a plateau

Advisor: I had never thought of asking anyone for advice about my practice before because, quite frankly, it is pretty successful. We have approximately 200 clients representing about $100 million in assets, much of it in managed accounts. Between myself and my very capable team, the business runs quite smoothly. We hardly do any marketing and, although we bring on only a handful of new clients each year, our business is stable and provides me with an above-average income.

So, why am I writing to you?

I guess the answer is that I am 48 years old and, as I try to imagine what the next 10 years or so of my working life will look like, I really don’t like the picture that much. It’s not that I don’t enjoy my clients – I do. And many of them have become friends as well. And, although the markets will have their ups and downs, I am not worried that something awful is going to happen (again). If anything, I think my biggest fear is that nothing is going to happen.

I am reluctant to use the “B-word,” but I think I am getting bored. Much of my day is spent on administration and other matters that don’t leave me as much time as I’d like to spend helping clients meet their financial objectives. And even when I am working with clients, it seems I’m always talking about the same issues and offering the same solutions. After more than 20 years in this industry, I would have to say that, today, we are much more in the service business than in the sales or solutions business. And that’s not really why I chose to be a financial advisor.

So, when I try to visualize what I will be doing in the coming decade, all I see is more of the same. And, truthfully, that’s not how I want to spend the next 10 years of my life. I don’t want to leave the business because, as I said, I do enjoy working with my clients and, quite selfishly, there aren’t many other places where I could earn a similar income with such ease of effort.

Yet, I feel somewhat demoralized, and it’s starting to affect my mood at the office and at home. How do I get out of this funk?

Coach says: I doubt that it will make you feel any better if I simply say, “You’re not alone in feeling the way you do.” But the truth is that I meet advisors all the time who tell me that a lot of the fun has gone out of their business.

That might surprise some advisors who haven’t achieved your level of success. They would look at your business from the outside and say they want to be just like you – a good client base that’s easy to manage and profitable.

You, however, being on the inside, see repetition, few challenges and a less than exciting use of your time and talent. The rhyme for you goes something like this: “Lots of mon[ey] … but no fun!”

To begin with, what is happening is, in some ways, almost inevitable – as any enterprise grows, it tends to become more bureaucratic in order to cope with the increased complexity of its business. I am pretty confident you did not build your business to where it is today without some thoughtful strategic planning. Yet, I would not be surprised if you long somewhat for the days when you used to be able to do more of what you wanted, when you wanted and how you wanted, based on your gut feeling and your interest of the moment.

There is also a peculiar irony in being a good financial advisor, in that the better you become at your job, the greater the likelihood you will fall victim to those not so much fun bureaucratic constraints. If you are like most advisors, as your practice matured over time, you became more selective about the clients you accept. Today, you may even specialize in a narrowly defined market, such as small-business owners.

As a result, you have become an expert in solving these clients’ problems quickly and neatly. The depth and focus of your knowledge and experience benefits your clients, and it allows you to introduce more standardization into your workflow processes. That may leave less opportunity for you to be creative in how you approach client issues or make recommendations – again, less fun.

Finally, as you have experienced, the service component of your business can start to outweigh the business development or client solution activities over time. Often, this is the result of an aging client base, for whom much of the planning has been completed. (This is not to suggest in any way that older clients do not continue to have needs to be addressed. However, as a practical matter, those needs are often more service- than sales- or planning-related.)

The consequence is that you find yourself spending more time on administration than in practicing your craft as an advisor or business developer. Rebalancing a portfolio, for example, is less intellectually stimulating for many advisors than working with a client to determine the initial asset allocation.

So, what’s to be done to get you motivated again?

I’d suggest you start with a commitment simply to stop doing the things you don’t enjoy. Right away, you will have more fun – unless you panic about how those administrative activities in which you have allowed yourself to become entangled are going to get done.

If that is the case, look first to your team to see what they can do without your involvement. If they are fully engaged, hire someone.

“But that costs money,” you say. Yes, it does. However, the cost pales in comparison to the cost of having your core competencies as an advisor underutilized or you being demoralized for the next 10 years.

Second, discipline yourself to spend your time working on only three priorities that are fundamental to the success of your business. I refer to them as the “three Ps”:

– People. Spend as much time as you can in conversations and meetings with existing clients, centres of influence and prospective clients. Research has shown that top-performing advisors spend at least 50% of their time face to face with the people who can help build their business.

– Problems. Set aside a good amount of time just to think about the issues and strategies concerning your business and developing inspired opportunities to help your clients. This activity will keep your creative juices flowing, and you will be surprised at how quickly the time passes when you are engaged in such a stimulating exercise.

– Professionalism. Stay on top of your game and learn about new approaches and innovative solutions for managing both your business and your clients’ affairs through research, conferences, courses and peer dialogue.

If you aren’t sure how to achieve these three priorities, get help. There are coaches and trainers who can show you how to conduct productive client meetings, gain the attention of centres of influence and attract new clients. There are consultants who can guide you through the strategic-planning process and wholesalers or company representatives who have lots of ideas on creative applications of their products.

There are numerous industry conferences and other educational opportunities throughout North America. How much fun would it be to take a few days a couple of times a year to refresh your knowledge and yourself by learning from the industry’s best while socializing with like-minded advisors in some wonderful location?

Finally, I’d recommend you set your own standard of achievement. Some people define success in terms of income. For others, it’s about work/life balance, community support, personal development or whatever is important to them. Choose the measure that motivates you and commit to meeting your objective in that area. Even if you don’t always hit the peak, you will enjoy the journey along the way because you are working toward a target you value.

George Hartman is president of Market Logics Inc. in Toronto (www.marketlogics.ca). Send questions, comments and opinions on any aspect of practice management to george@marketlogics.ca.

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