Provide good numbers and exceptional service and you’ll have a satisfied client. Create a personal connection, and you may be surprised at the results.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain speak with financial advisor Brendan Frazier, founder of Wired Planning and host of The Human Side of Money podcast. Brendan offers three simple steps to help you exceed mere ‘satisfaction’ in your client relationships.
Brendan discusses:
Why customer satisfaction is no longer enough
A new 80/20 rule that can bring immediate results
The striking benefits of emotionally connected advisor/client relationships
Brendan Frazier is the founder of Wired Planning and the host of The Human Side of Money podcast. Recently named a top-100 financial advisor by Investopedia, Brendan helps advisors enhance the trajectory of their businesses through more meaningful client interaction.
Most advisors recognize that, when it comes to making investment decisions, a client’s emotions can derail a plan.
Equipping yourself with knowledge on behavioral finance and financial personas could be the key to a more successful approach to ensuring your clients stick to their plan.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain talk with Michael Pompian, CFA, CAIA, CFP, an author and authority on behavioral finance, about his research on the topic and his practical experience understanding how client emotions can impact your practice, your clients’ experience and their investment outcomes.
Michael discusses:
What drove him to research behavioral finance
The crucial distinction between investors’ cognitive and emotional biases
Michael Pompian, CFA, CAIA, CFP, is the founder and chief investment officer of Sunpointe Investments, an investment advisory firm to entrepreneurs, corporate executives and multi-generational families, based in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the creator of the Pompian Behavioral Model of investor classification, as well as the author of five books on behavioral finance, including his latest Behavioral Finance and Your Portfolio (Wiley, 2021).
As an experienced advisor, author, and pioneering researcher on the topics of behavioral finance and emotional investing, his books have helped thousands of financial advisors across the globe build better relationships with their clients. His newest work is designed to help individual investors recognize and better manage their investing biases, either independently or with their financial advisors.
Is your firm seeking new talent? Are you a student seeking a career in wealth management? Consider introducing yourself to the growing number of Financial Planning directors at universities in your area (and beyond).
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain speak with Steve Schiestel, CFA, the Head of the Financial Planning and Wealth Management Program at Michigan State University.
Steve talks about what he did to start and grow the University’s CFP program, and how firms can reach out to him for help with finding the right talent for what they need — for both Internships and permanent employees.
Steve discusses:
Why and how he built the MSU Financial Planning program
How he promotes the program internally
His approach to job placements
The most sought-after skills for financial planning
Stephen Schiestel is a passionate educator and financial advisor dedicated to improving personal financial education and financial decision making. He has worked in three distinct careers: commercial lending, wealth management, and college teaching. Stephen started his career in commercial banking as a commercial credit analyst and commercial lender. In wealth management, he was an equity analyst, portfolio manager, financial planner, investment research director, chief investment officer all at a regional bank and now an owner of Grand Capital Advisors – a fee-only fiduciary financial planning and wealth management firm. In addition to helping clients at the firm, he also teaches finance full time at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business.
Women just want advisors who recognize their concerns, appreciate their perspective, and respect their ability to make smart choices.
Join Laura Gregg and David Partain as they talk with Dr. Barbara Provost, Founder of Purse Strings, LLC and an accomplished educational consultant to the banking and insurance industries. They discuss the often overlooked opportunity that exists with women and why faulty assumptions about women continue to be made by advisors.
Barbara explains why she founded Purse Strings and its mission to connect women
with top-tier professionals.
Barbara discusses:
How her work with the World Bank further ignited her passion to help women get
the wealth management experience they deserve
Why she created Purse Strings
The resources available to both investors and advisors at Purse Strings
About Our Guest:
Dr. Barbara Provost has 20+ years’ experience as an educational consultant to the banking and insurance industries. Over the years, she watched these male-dominated sectors consistently shape their sales messaging and resource development solely for target audiences of men, blatantly ignoring the $20 + Trillion in annual spending that women alone are responsible for. Barb took action in 2015
by launching Purse Strings, a company for and by women boasting a unique dual business model. Purse Strings features a new business development service introducing women who seek financial advice to service providers who understand their unique needs. They simultaneously offer a breadth of free educational resources designed to help every woman, whether they have a little money or a lot,
get smart and protect their financial future. Barb’s life motto is: be financially fearless.
Virtual meetings are one of the lasting impacts of Covid. While you may have mastered them when everyone was remote, now it’s time to master hybrid virtual meetings. Consider these ideas to make them more comfortable – and productive – for all involved.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain speak with Lauren Sergy, the author of Unmute: How to Master Virtual Meetings and Reclaim Your Sanity. They discuss key protocols and best practices to optimize your hybrid workplace.
Lauren Sergy discusses:
Why a consistent experience for all participants is so important
3 key elements for hybrid success
How to build more effective team and client relationships in a hybrid work environment
Lauren Sergy is a published author of the bestseller, The Handy Communication Answer Book, from 2017 and her most recent book, Unmute: How to Master Virtual Meetings and Reclaim Your Sanity. She is a sought-after public speaker and interpersonal communication expert who has helped thousands of professionals from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe become better communicators. Lauren teaches business communication seminars with the University of Alberta and currently continues public speaking and workshops about communication, helping professionals.
What makes “The Ask” so awkward and even counterproductive?
FlexShares recently surveyed high-net-worth investors across the country to better understand what drives their decision to allocate assets to and among advisors. The results are in, and they provide some valuable insight.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain talk with Beverly Flaxington, Human Behavior Coach, a three-time bestselling author, and Founder of The Collaborative. They discuss how advisors can better understand their clients motivations to build trust and better manage their experience.
Beverly discusses:
Five unique client personas
How adapting your strategies by persona can result in getting more of their wallet
The potential shortfall of the 80/20 rule
A common, mistaken assumption advisors make with clients
For the last 17 years Beverly has worked as a corporate consultant. She is also an adjunct professor at Suffolk University currently teaching “Leadership and Social Responsibility”, a course which uses her trademarked change model. She has previously taught “Small Business Management”, “Organizational Behavior” and “Dealing with Difficult People”, a course she created for the University. Beverly is a Certified Hypnotist, Certified Hypnosis Trainer, Reiki Master Attunement Practitioner, Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA). She uses the DISC and PIAV tools frequently in her work with individuals and organizations. Bev holds a BSBA and an MBA from Suffolk University.
She is an expert in human behavior and change management, sales, marketing, stress management, hypnosis, time management, life and career change, teambuilding, communication and business building.
Beverly D. Flaxington is the author of 30 Days to Understanding Other People: A Daily Approach to Improving Your Relationships and Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior, which won the gold award from Readers Favorite for best new book on relationships. She is also an author of four other books focused on creating change and improvement as a financial advisor.
Understanding Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) criteria points and how they relate to investment portfolios is critical for helping your clients navigate ESG issues.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain talk with Michael Young, Manager of Educational Programs at US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. They discuss ESG investing and how you can better educate yourself and your clients on the topic to generate new conversations and investment strategies.
Michael discusses:
How US SIF has created tools and programs to support advisors in selling sustainable investments
Growing your understanding of ESG alongside your client
Tools and resources that can jumpstart your learning and the integration of ESG data points
How you can begin to measure impact investing to enhance your client conversations
Michael Young is the Manager of Educational programs at US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment. He is responsible for education initiatives, all US SIF course offerings, and private training services.
He continually develops existing courses, creates educational materials for the US SIF Foundation, and contributes to new materials and resources to advance the field. He presents frequently on sustainable investing at industry events and enjoys sharing the work of US SIF and its membership on podcasts and radio programs.
Michael’s comments have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investment News, and Bloomberg, among other publications. Prior to joining US SIF, Michael worked in mutual funds, separately managed accounts, closed-end funds, and exchange-traded funds. His clients ranged from registered investment advisors and financial planning firms and broker-dealer firms to registered investment companies and hedge funds.
While at AdvisorShares, Michael helped launch the first actively managed fossil fuel free ETF in 2012
Delta expresses the amount of price change a derivative will see based on the price of the underlying security.
In this marketplace, personalized service is what separates a financial advisor from an app. Knowing your ‘niche’ and your Ideal Client may be the key to a more prosperous —and satisfying — practice.
In this episode, Susan Danzig, a Certified Business Development Coach for financial advisors, joins David Partain to discuss the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of narrowing your client focus.
Susan discusses:
Refining your focus to create impactful niche marketing
7 Simple Steps for Financial Advisors to Reach, Attract, and Convert More Ideal Clients
The importance of knowing and communicating your personal brand
Shifting your prospect screening process for your benefit and theirs
Susan Danzig is an experienced Business Development Coach for financial services professionals. She leverages a 20+ year career guiding financial advisors to achieve greater business success. She is a catalyst for growth with a long track record of helping clients communicate their value, define their specialization, and create effective marketing strategies that attract ideal clients and grow firms consistently.
She is a Certified Business Development Coach who is shaping the industry’s future as a National Board Member for the Financial Planning Association (the FPA) and former President of the East Bay Chapter of the FPA.
As sustainable investing grows in popularity, so do the misconceptions about its framework.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain speak with Kiley Miller, Director of ESG Investment Solutions at Envestnet.
Kiley is a passionate leader in the ESG investment space. She shares how she is working to help advisors better understand underlying value of ESG information, its various applications, and what it brings to an advisory practice.
Kiley discusses:
The differences between ESG aware and ESG focus
How the industry falls short in helping advisors appreciate sustainable investing
Simple answers to common objections
The value proposition sustainable investing brings to an advisory practice.
Kiley leads ESG product development and ESG product management for PMC’s suite of investment products and service offerings. This includes PMC’s ESG focused managed portfolios and ESG due diligence within manager research. Kiley also oversees ESG and impact data relationships and strategic development of ESG and impact reporting initiatives. Prior to joining PMC in 2019, Kiley was a senior client advisor at Sustainalytics, an ESG research, ratings and analytics firm. There she supported U.S. asset managers to integrate ESG research into the investment process. Kiley also previously worked at the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. Kiley holds an MS in Sustainability Management from Columbia University. She also holds a BS in Environmental Sustainability with a double minor in Business and Environmental Economics & Law from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kiley is a CFA Level III Candidate.
Workers and consumers are holding businesses to higher standards. Why wouldn’t investors do the same? As awareness of environmental, social and governance issues grows, more people are saying ‘I want an investment that’s going to help me reach my financial goals, but I’d like the more sustainable version, please’.
In this episode, Laura Gregg and David Partain speak with Jon Hale, Ph.D., CFA, Director of ESG Strategy at Morningstar. A widely recognized leader in the ESG and sustainable investing field, Jon addresses some persistent misperceptions and explains why he sees ESG becoming a permanent component of investment analysis.
Jon Hale, Ph.D., CFA, is Director of ESG Strategy at Morningstar. Hale focuses on ESG thought leadership and product strategy. Prior to 2021, Jon was Morningstar’s head of sustainable investing research. He directed the company’s research initiatives on sustainable investing, beginning with the launch of the Morningstar Sustainability Rating for funds in 2016.
He has been named to Barron’s list of the 20 most influential people in ESG investing (2018), and in was included in the InvestmentNews’ 10 Leaders of ESG & Impact Investing (2019).
