Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, based her impartial advisory agency, SullivanKreiss Monetary, in 2004. Having spent the earlier 13 years as an advisor on employees with a publicly traded firm, she wished to go away huge company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was desirous to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary duty to shoppers.
As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve all the time based mostly my enterprise on the elemental principal of treating others as I want to be handled. My goal is basically quite simple: to place our shoppers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the individuality that every shopper brings to our apply.”
Throughout our conversations, the pressure of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined by means of. The profitable development of her agency could possibly be seen as emblematic of the depth with which Sullivan-Kreiss engages with shoppers. It additionally highlights her extremely environment friendly use of time. To supply the customized concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has develop into a grasp of time administration. She has realized learn how to function effectively and collect the required assets to maintain development and construct economies of scale.
When you’re trying to go impartial or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the ability of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions may enable you to chart the way in which towards optimizing your time and setting your agency up for long-term development.
Constructing One thing Particular
For Sullivan-Kreiss, constructing shopper relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every particular person you serve. In an effort to develop a high quality apply, you need to make every shopper really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, but it surely’s necessary to maintain prime of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for shoppers by means of on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to supply assist, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout tough occasions.”
A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary shoppers shouldn’t get voicemail after they name, and follow-up to requests and considerations have to be speedy and correct. However concierge service is greater than that: it’s being proactive versus responsive, going above and past what’s anticipated. Sullivan-Kreiss focuses on long-term, complete monetary planning; she isn’t desirous about “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common critiques to maintain abreast of adjustments in shoppers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when creating a plan for a brand new shopper.
The consequence? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged group of long-term shoppers. For her, that’s what makes the advisory enterprise rewarding and enjoyable. And there’s icing on the cake: in line with Sullivan-Kreiss, “The vast majority of my agency’s new shoppers come from referrals from present shoppers.”
Spending Extra Time with Purchasers
As you’ll be able to see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is instantly tied to her spending as a lot time as doable with shoppers. Notably, like a lot of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in shopper conferences than different trade advisors. That’s in line with a 2020–2021 research carried out by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 % extra time in shopper conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and impartial companies.
In actual fact, based mostly on additional evaluation of the info, Commonwealth’s Follow Administration workforce decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the prime decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, based mostly on gross income, development fee, and period of time spent with shoppers. This statistic speaks to the necessary work Sullivan-Kreiss undertakes day in and time out with the people she serves.
Reaching Scale and Effectivity
So, how is Sullivan-Kreiss capable of spend a lot time with shoppers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored by means of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the correct employees and agency accomplice may also help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.
The facility of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will concentrate on client-facing work. With three full-time employees members (a director of shopper relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is obvious on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My workforce is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes permits me to be good at my job and spend as a lot time as I can with my shoppers. Their strengths permit the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personal touch we dedicate to every shopper.”
In accordance with Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular development has been pushed by her workforce’s steadiness of competencies. And that development has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place further employees is important. To deal with the amount of labor and hold her productiveness excessive, Sullivan-Kreiss plans so as to add an funding supervisor and an extra advisor to the workforce.
When requested about recommendation for advisors trying to develop, she states, “Probably the most productive issues you are able to do is empower your folks and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the correct folks on employees, notably those that have complementary expertise units to yours.”
The affect of your agency accomplice. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has all the time acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency accomplice. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . you need to domesticate the correct relationships with the correct folks. You should have a accomplice behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”
Like different impartial advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to her agency accomplice for a wide selection of back-office assets and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, comparable to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning workforce, available to speak by means of a posh planning or retirement drawback.
As for funding administration, Sullivan-Kreiss acknowledges that this position is an ongoing problem for any impartial agency. She prefers customized portfolio administration and, with the help of her monetary analyst, does a substantial amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a shopper is searching for a selected funding technique, she desires to have the ability to depend on her agency accomplice for specialised data. She receives that assist from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis workforce.
Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency accomplice should be capable to present a “phenomenal stage of assist” that’s tailor-made to your wants.
Cementing the Cornerstones of Success
Being an impartial advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to utterly align her agency along with her values and shoppers’ finest pursuits. She’s been capable of construct the agency she’s all the time dreamed
of, one based mostly on placing her shoppers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s targeted on the fun of the current and accelerating much more development sooner or later. Something is feasible along with her imaginative and prescient, a robust workforce, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.
When you’re an advisor eager to go impartial, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you’ll be able to. As for contemplating a agency accomplice, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however actually not least, all the time remember that you wish to go the place you’ll be able to develop, even when it’s one step at a time.
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