When it comes to winning high net-worth clients, Jason Webster, portfolio manager with TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice in London, Ont., has two words for advisors: heroics lose.

Rather, he says, the key to gaining and retaining million-dollar clients is building and strengthening relationships, not trading stocks.

“Many advisors attempt to win clients by being ‘sophisticated’,” Webster says, “when it’s really a simple, consistent approach that wins the game for you and, more important, for investors.”

Webster warned advisors at the 2009 Top Advisor Summit in Toronto last month that it is unwise to try to be a hero by hitting home runs and recommending risky investments. Instead, advi-sors should focus on whether a client is a good fit with the advisor’s business. It’s also important to have a business plan that clients can understand and that is consistently applied to every client.

Webster became involved in the financial services industry at the age of 26, after spending two years working in his family’s business. He was instantly attracted to the role of advisor because it begged the question: what do clients really want?

The answer, he figured, was simple: “They wanted personal and financial peace of mind. And that comes from having a trusted advisor who understands them on a personal as well as a financial level. The ultimate solution is a financial and emotional equilibrium for everyone.”

That approach has enabled Webster to build a sizable book of high net-worth clients over the course of the past 14 years. Today, he manages $150 million in assets for 150 households.

That’s not a huge book of business by today’s standards, he admits. But having a relatively small number of client households averaging $1 million each makes for a profitable client roster and enables Webster to provide all clients with high-end service.

“Wealthy clients are looking for more than just institutional money management,” Webster says. “We want to be able to have some good discussions with them about what they hope to accomplish financially.”

Webster and his partner, Doug Holiday, have developed a process they call “financial stewardship.” The goal of the strategy is to build a long-standing relationship with each client over time. Webster and Holiday — both of whom joined TD Waterhouse four years ago and work as a team with one assistant associate — hope the process will set their team apart from other practices and eventually be their brand.

The strategy consists of eight steps, each representing a stage in the client relationship, that carries the client through his or her first year with the team. The first step aims to provide an overall picture of what the client wants. Webster starts with what he calls the “60 Minutes meeting,” a nod to the renowned CBS investigative journalism program.

Webster got the idea for this 60 Minutes meeting while watching an interview on television with Don Hewitt, the creator and producer of 60 Minutes. Hewitt explained that the guiding principle of the program and its interviewers came down to four simple words: “Tell me a story.”

Webster thought that same concept could be applied to his discussions with financial planning clients.

“We want people to share their stories with us and then, in turn, we want to share our story with them,” Webster says. “This is one of the first steps to building that trusted relationship with our clients.”

Webster’s 60 Minutes meeting consists of seven areas of discussion, including business beliefs, financial opportunities, referral options and, most important, questions that may be on a client’s mind before that client chooses an advisor.

Webster also incorporates a concept developed by New York-based Pusateri Consulting Inc. called the “value ladder.” This consists of a list of questions posed from the client’s point of view, including: Why should I do business with you? What makes you different? How do you do what you do?

These questions are addressed in the initial meeting — to help the client better understand what the team has to offer.

“People already know your title. But what they want to know is how are you different from all the others they have met,” Webster says. “You want to ask the questions that no one has ever asked them before, and I believe that there is no question too personal to ask.”

@page_break@Other stages in the financial stewardship process are: matters of the mind; the investment plan; bringing it together; estate planning; tax planning; risk management; and partnership review meeting.

“We looked at advisor brochures and they were fine,” Webster says. “But we wanted to develop a program that shows how to speak to clients and how to present to clients in a way that is appealing to the clients.”

What million dollar clients are looking for in an advisor



Part 6 of a series shot on location at the 2009 Top Advisor Summit. Jason Webster, a portfolio manager at TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice, whose team manages $150 million in assets for 200 client households in London, Ontario, discusses his eight step process ‘Financial Stewardship’ and how it can help retain and gain million dollar clients.

IE