As the global economic crisis disrupts the financial services business, money is in motion, clients are firing brokers, and opportunities abound for independent advisors. How can you seize the moment?

A key is systematically uncovering and addressing each individual’s unique financial habits and behavior and adapting your communication to each prospect and client. Based on empirical research, Hugh Massie of Financial DNA Resources has designed a process allowing advisors to uncover predictable behaviors that significantly influence financial decisions.

Learn how you can address hard-wired traits of financial personality to communicate and serve clients better and take advantage of opportunities presented by the current turmoil. Plus, this webinar has been approved for one continuing education credit from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. Just be sure to enter your CFP Board Number when you register and we'll take care of the rest.

Register for the webinar       Download presentation slides      Two-minute pre-webinar survey

Bruce Peters, CEO of CABHQ, a client advisory board facilitator, introduced attendees to client advisory boards (CABs) in this week's session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series. Client advisory boards help advisors understand the work that is most valued by clients and how to direct resources to those tasks while eliminating work that is not valued or noticed. CABs also help forge longstanding relationships because the client is investing time in helping to improve the advisor's business. Peters said that out of all of the advisory firms for whom he has facilitated advisory boards, no CAB member has left his advisor.
Download Bruce Peters’ slides

Remake Your Firm Amid The Crisis: Systematically Uncover And Address Financial Personality Traits
Our next webinar on February 6 will also focus on improving communication with clients, but will delve into how to identify your clients' unique personality characteristics and adapt your communication methods accordingly for more personalized service. Hugh Massie, Founder and CEO of Financial DNA Resources, will speak about the predictable hard-wired behaviors that significantly influence financial decisions and he'll show you how you can use this knowledge to take advantage of opportunities brought by the current market turmoil.
See more information on the Feb. 6 webinar.

Kevin Mahn, portfolio manager of SmartGrowth Mutual Funds, spoke at today's session of the Financial Crisis Webinar Series about investing in exchange-traded funds amid the global financial crisis. He explored the caveats of ETF investing and explained how his firm’s funds have used ETF investments to outperform the S&P 500 by more than 20 percentage points in 2008, despite the fact that 92% of ETFs lost money over the same time period. ETFs are growing faster than ever, in both number and investment volume, according to Mahn. Today there are thousands of ETFs, representing over $1 trillion in assets and invested over all major asset classes and geographical regions. Investing in ETFs is a good way to diversify client assets while incurring expense ratios that are often lower than mutual funds.

Download Mahn’s slides
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Financial Crisis Webinar Series
Friday, January 30, 4 p.m. EST
If you are wondering how you can best communicate with clients about the market fallout and what type of response clients expect from you, then you’ll benefit from attending our next webinar. Bruce Peters, CEO of CABHQ, a facilitator of client advisory boards (CABs), will talk about findings from recent client advisory board sessions he has led for financial advisory firms. He’ll tell you how you can alleviate client fears and how you should speak with them about the emotional stress they’re feeling after seeing their portfolio values tumble this year.

Mark Tibergien, CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, spoke about shifts advisors can make to recover from the stock market’s freefall, which has slashed revenue from AUM fees. To assure survival, advisors must reevaluate fee structures and aggressively cut expenses. “You have to begin thinking about what will truly make a difference in your business and what wouldn’t matter if you cut it,” said Tibergien. “And you need to act quickly to get your finances in line for a prolonged period of market turbulence.”
Tibergien said firms that adapt find independent financial advice in high demand. Investable assets in U.S. households are expected to grow $35 billion annually over the next four years, he said. Among the major trends Tierbergien suggested focusing on in the months ahead: using technology to increase efficiency, documenting your firm’s business and advice processes, and attending to internal security controls. He expects more mergers among independent advisory firms, as tighter profit margins push firms to seek economies of scale.

Download Tibergien's slides

Financial Crisis Webinar Series
Friday, January 23, 4 p.m. EST
SmartGrowth Mutual Funds, which invests solely in ETFs, has outperformed the market over the past 18 months by more than 20 percentage points and declined one-fifth as much as the S&P 500 in 4Q09.
Kevin Mahn, the funds' portfolio manager, will speak about how his funds select ETFs and which ETFs are most attractively positioned for 2009.

We asked advisors registering for last week’s Financial Crisis Webinar to tell us the single most important thing they are doing to respond to the global economic and market meltdown. Below are their responses.

Before reading the answers, please register for today’s webinar at 4 p.m., when Mark Tibergien, CEO of Pershing Advisor Services and an expert on how to run an efficient advisory practice offers 10 Steps To Recover From The Market Cataclysm.  

Please take our 60-second poll before the webinar.

Last week, we asked advisors what the most single most important thing they did in 2008 to improve their business. Below are answers from 132 advisors.

Advisors who attended this past Friday’s Financial Crisis Webinar heard about techniques for gaining new clients during the crisis.
Linda Strachan, senior vice president at EISI, talked about the upheaval in the economy and the specific financial problems it is causing for clients. Strachan, CFP licensee who holds a Ph.D. computer science, said that the need for financial planning is greater than ever. With clients worried about losses in their nest egg, she encouraged advisors to use planning engagements to deepen relationships and gain new clients. With just 62% of Americans saying they have saved enough for retirement, only 22% of pre-retirees saying they have a retirement plan, a need exists. Yet she said just 23% of financial advisors say they provide financial planning services.
Scott Farnsworth says advisors can increase sales dramatically by using story-telling and listening techniques. Farnsworth, an estate planning attorney, CFP licensee, and certified Time To Think Coach, is the author of several books and president of Sunbridge Legacy Network, which has coached hundreds of lawyers and financial advisors. Farnsworth says your clients relate to stories about people, and it makes financial and estate planning ideas easer to understand and act on. Farnsworth says his communication tactics not only increase sales but build authentic, meaningful relationships with your clients.
See Replay Of Strachan-Farnsworth webinar     Download presentation slides

On Friday, January 16, at 4 p.m. EST, Mark Tibergien, Chief Executive Officer of Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, will be the speaker at the Financial Crisis Webinar Series. Tibergien for years has studied how advisor practices can run more efficiently. Hear his ideas about how to run your business during this time of turbulence.
Register for that session.

In preparation for our webinar today at 4 p.m. EST about how you can better run your practice through the globally financial crisis, we conducted a survey in the last three days. Of the 287 advisors registered for today’s webinar, 147 responded to the survey and virtually all of them answered every question. Below see the poll questions exactly as they appeared in the survey, the statistical results, and my commentary.

Many advisors are having a difficult time, with, 43% saying the financial crisis has been bad or very bad for business. However, 16.5% of those polled say the crisis has been good or very good for business. The remaining large group of advisors (41%) say the financial crisis has been neither good nor bad for business.

While 44% of advisors surveyed said they are not cutting any expenses, more than one in five say they will be taking a pay cut. Half that number say they will be cutting staff salaries. (Keep in mind that many of those polled could be sole practitioners.) With 20.3% of advisors saying they are cutting expenses across the board and 44.2% saying they are cutting nothing, most advisors for now seem to be trying to ride out the crisis before slashing expenses.

Of the expenses we asked about, the second largest expense advisors say they will reduce is marketing. Keeping in mind that I own a marketing company serving advisors, most smart business owners would say that cutting marketing expenditures now would be a mistake. For independent advisors, cutting expenses on marketing now, when the Wall Street giants have been discredited, makes little sense. The large firms on Wall Street, which have always had by far the greatest market share in the retail advice market, are likely to see their clients leave en masse because so many clients have suffered devastating portfolio losses. It’s a great marketing opportunity for independent advisors who articulate how they are different from Wall Street brokers.

My strategy for recouping revenues lost due the decline in asset values under management is:

To seize the opportunity created by the financial crisis, 92% say they know they must acquire new clients, offer additional products and services, or do both. The challenge will be differentiating yourself from Wall Street’s legions. Our speakers at today’s webinar have specific ideas about how you can differentiate your business from other advisory firms. Scott Farnsworth's approach uses story telling. “Using stories to sell and to learn your clients’ stories can revolutionize professional selling,” says Farnsworth. “It uses a complete sequence of story exchanges between professional and prospect to sell—to sell more and to sell more often.

I know how I can use financial planning to increase my firm's revenue and grow my business.

One of the most important ways to differentiate your practice and provide real value is to offer more than just investment management advice. Offering financial planning advice deepens client relationships. Yet 25% of advisors polled admit not knowing how they can use planning to increase revenue. Our other speaker today, Dr. Linda Strachan, a senior VP at EISI, the largest planning software company in North America, will provide insights into how advisors can integrate planning into client engagements.