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By Jeff Thorsteinson

I didn’t know what I signed up for when I launched into a career as a financial advisor. Well, that’s not entirely fair. I obviously knew I would be speaking to clients about things with “dollar signs” in front of them. I knew we’d discuss insurance, cash flow, and retirement planning. As I progressed in my career, I realized that I was more than just a financial advisor. In fact, when analyzing this notion, I realized that I wore, we wear, many hats.

As advisors, we carry out many roles in the lives of our clients, and these roles significantly impact their long-term financial success:

Listener: Market volatility can create significant emotional swings in client moods. Top advisors listen. They identify client fears and anxiety, try to understand the issues driving those feelings, and then provide a plan that will work for them.

Calibrate: Active listening helps to avoid misunderstanding and improve your long-term client relationships. Start by asking an open-ended question, then carefully listen to their answer. Paraphrase and summarize what you heard. When we show we’re listening, it’s much more rewarding for clients.

Educator: Top advisors educate clients about the relationship between risk and return, asset allocation, rebalancing, diversification, and investor discipline.

Calibrate: Source or create financial concepts for those meetings so you have a story to tell about the benefits and pitfalls of a strategy. These concept pieces help you explain why you thought of the strategy for the client and empower them to decide either way.

Caretaker: Advisors are likely among the few professionals who take a long-term view of a client's financial health and welfare. In this role, advisors look long into the future for things that may impact the client’s wealth and keep them abreast of such news.

Calibrate: Reflect on your client’s short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals. Map it out on a continuum, demonstrate what you do with this information, and reiterate why you take this "caretaker" custodian position.

Wealth Coach: It’s human nature to doubt a plan when circumstances begin to attack it. This is when the mentor role kicks in. In this instance, the advisor puts on the “wealth coach” hat and reinforces why staying the course is essential and what is needed to do so.

Calibrate: Your clients hired you to be their overall wealth manager. You have short-term, medium-term, and long-term focus. When clients call with irrational decisions during volatile times, you put the “Coach” hat on and help them get back to rational, fact-based decision-making. Much like an athletic coach, you help educate clients about the discipline of investing.

Architect: Once the advisor has everything needed to create a plan for the client, plan construction commences. Working with the client, a long-term strategy emerges that matches the client's specific goals and risk profile.

Calibrate: Once you’ve gathered all your discovery information and materials, it’s time to design the overall plan for clients. This is when the Architect hat is worn: Your task is to ensure the plan delivers on the client’s needs and is functionally sound and well-articulated.

Expert: In a world of free and easily accessible information, clients need the wisdom and experience of their advisor. They need an expert to help them understand what’s happening in their country and worldwide and develop strategies to meet goals. They need someone to filter the “news” and stay the course.

Calibrate: In your practice, clients rely on your expertise to assist them in getting where they want to go. Your expertise is put to work to help them. Feel confident that you have a perspective based on facts and past history despite market volatility and uncertain times. Experts also reveal your process for filtering the “news” to ensure your clients get accurate, unbiased information.

These roles, which we play in the service of our clients, combine our technical knowledge and experience of how dollar signs relate to our client's lives.

How we carry ourselves when wearing these various hats creates our unique advisor brand. We uniquely guide clients through their specific financial journey. And it’s this that will have clients speaking about you, your process, and your accomplishments.

Enthusiastically yours,

Grant Hicks and Jeff Thorsteinson
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

How about your goals for your practice in 2024? Our Practice management resources  

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We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation

For elite practice management resources to manage and grow your business
Tel 778-628-3165

Email jeffthorsteinson@hotmail.com To book a NO obligation appointment with me to discuss practice management or coaching click the following link https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm and let’s talk 

Grant at grant@ghicks.com or click on the link to set up a no-obligation 20-minute discussion https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

Advisor Practice management combined clients manage over $8 billion AUM and earn over $80 million annually. 

STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY The information contained in this email message and any attachments may be confidential and is intended for the use of the addressee(s) only. If you are not an intended recipient, please: (1) notify me immediately by replying to this message; (2) do not use, disseminate, distribute or reproduce any part of the message or any attachment; and (3) destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.

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Are you confident in identifying with your ideal client profile?

If you want to discuss adapting to a fully client-centric advice model, call Jeff Thorsteinson for a free, no-obligation discussion about creating winning relationships with prospects and clients.

Our Practice Management resources - Comprehensive Practice Management checklist

https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/

Updated Technology Checklist for Financial Advisors 

This checklist is five years' worth of research on the best processes elite financial advisors and their teams implement to acquire and service ideal clients while running an efficient practice. 

https://technology-checklist.getresponsepages.com/ 

We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk

Jeff Thorsteinson

www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

For elite practice management resources to manage and grow your business 

Tel 778-628-3165 

Email jeffthorsteinson@hotmail.com

To book a NO obligation appointment with me to discuss practice management or coaching click the following link  https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm and let’s talk. Get a copy of our “ 21 page comprehensive practice management checklist”   

https://practicemanagement.getresponsepages.com/  or join our blog  https://www.advisorpracticemanagement.com/blog 

Connect with me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeffthorsteinson

Take our Marketing course https://advisorpracticemanagement.thinkific.com/courses/marketing

Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation by contacting Jeff at  jeffthorsteinson@hotmail.com regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.

Jeff Thorsteinson and Advisor Practice Management's combined financial advisor clients manage over 8 billion AUM, and earn over $80 million dollars combined! 

Enthusiastically yours,

Jeff Thorsteinson
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

PS Where do you want your financial practice to be at the end of 2025? AUM, Revenue, and time off? 

STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY The information contained in this email message and any attachments may be confidential and is intended for the use of the addressee(s) only. If you are not an intended recipient, please: (1) notify me immediately by replying to this message; (2) do not use, disseminate, distribute or reproduce any part of the message or any attachment; and (3) destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.

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Grant Hicks,

you have received this message because you requested resources associated with Grant at Advisor Practice Management. 

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Grant Hicks
Advisor Practice Management
http://advisorpracticemanagement.com