PracticeLab

From their footprint in the Deep South, Rhonda and Scott Ferguson have developed a strong niche by focusing on employees at regional outposts of some of the country’s biggest companies. Working out of a small home in downtown Columbus, Mississippi, the two serve as a bridge between those large corporations and their small-town workers.

In this episode, hear how the mother-and-son duo built Financial Concepts, with $775 million in assets under management, using their local roots and hometown authenticity to win clients planning for retirement from big-name organizations. The key, they say, is understanding the benefits packages of those companies better than anyone in town — including the companies themselves.

For more, visit PracticeLab.

Jonathan Freeman and Brian McCarver of Stonebridge Financial Group began their careers when cold-calling and a focus on commissions dominated financial services. When they first met 20 years ago, they agreed that the industry’s future lied instead in emphasizing teams and personalized client services — important common ground between two founders with otherwise opposite personalities. Founded in 2013, their firm now has 19 people in two offices in central Pennsylvania, managing $1.3 billion in assets.

In this epiode, they talk about why team management is the bedrock of their growth, how they’ve leveraged centers of influence (COIs) to create a robust client referral pipeline and why spending resources on marketing helps fuel organic and sustainable growth.

For more, visit PracticeLab.

Financial planning is about more than money. Money is used as an exchange for feelings, but personal values get at the heart of what people really want. That’s how financial advisor Jay Wheeler starts each client relationship. His team uses the principals of behavioral finance (plus a deck of cards) to help clients determine exactly what their personal values are.

In this episode, hear Jay talk about how his firm, Wheeler Financial in Wilmington, Delaware, with $215 million in assets under management, serves the “millionaire next door” types with this values-first approach to planning. He also discusses the consultants he’s used to help him become a better advisor and business owner. For more, visit PracticeLab.

If you want a succession plan to work, start building it years before you retire. That’s the strategy of the team behind Weber Wealth Advisors in Yorba Linda, California. Founder Mark Weber has taken a whole-team approach, in which everyone has the same client and investment information, and everyone shares in the revenue. The strategy helped make Weber Wealth a top 10 firm within Woodbury Financial Services, a group with 1,500-plus offices.

In this episode, we talk to Mark’s son, Kyle Weber, and fellow advisor Nick John about how the team approach to succession, branding and personalized client service has helped the business grow while supporting the next generation of advisors. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Heather Ettinger learned firsthand how the “money messages” women receive early on can impact how they view money and engage, or don’t, with financial professionals. At her firm, Luma Wealth, her goal is to meet women where they are and show them the power they have to use their financial resources to build the lives they want, nurture their families and give back to their communities.

In this episode, Heather discusses how she side-stepped the typical approach wealth management takes toward women — adjuncts of a husband or father — to see women as whole people whose views and priorities matter. She said Luma’s “learn, connect, celebrate” model focuses on money being the tool to women’s life’s goals, not the goal itself. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Do one thing and do it well. For advisors Joe Schoenhardt and James Hinchsliff, that thing is retirement distribution. They partnered more than 30 years ago, aiming to become retirement specialists without a lot of prospecting. They focused outreach on a few corporations, offering to educate employees about time-release retirement funding. This model has led to strong bonds with organizations, stronger client relationships and steady practice growth without marketing. Today, their Chicago-area firm, Infinity Financial Concepts, manages more than $330 million and gets up to four referrals a week.

In this episode, Joe and Jim describe their unique business model, the “aha!” moments in investor seminars, and playing retirement Santa Claus. For more, visit PracticeLab.

For Renee Wolgin, making the leap from certified public accountant to director of family office at Telemus — a registered investment advisor firm with offices in Detroit and Chicago, managing more than $3 billion — was all about adding value to clients and being more integrated with their finances. “The goal is to promote full financial-life management,” she says.

In this episode, Renee talks with Wealth Strategist Leslie Geller about her role as a “virtual family CFO,” the customized services she can offer and the “one-stop shop” value that she brings to clients. Renee also explains how her team uses software that serves as a “digital vault” for client information — and why it becomes a kind of heirloom for clients.

For more, visit PracticeLab.

Greg Mendoza saw the opportunity in retirement plan consulting at the start of his career 20 years ago, when he was one of more than 100 candidates in his training class. “What differentiated me is everyone else went to the phone book,” he said. “I went to business owners.”

Today, Mendoza runs Integrated Wealth Management, a $5 billion practice specializing in retirement plan consulting in Hartford, Connecticut.

In this episode, Mendoza shares how he got into retirement plans, how his wealth management business helps grow the retirement business (and vice versa), and how a Pink Floyd lyric describes why advisory practices need to be efficient. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Life happens … plan for it! It’s the motto of Karen DeRose and DeRose Financial Planning Group, a comprehensive planning firm in Chicago, and it perfectly captures how she approaches clients, business and everything else. A passion for making connections and a strong marketing and sales background have helped DeRose become a leading voice in the industry, as well as Lincoln Financial’s top female financial planner. 

A second-generation financial professional, DeRose’s practice has transformed in the past decade with the addition of her two sons. Learn how DeRose found a niche working with multigenerational families, and how social media marketing drives 20% of her new business.

Listen, and you’ll be asking yourself, “How referable am I?” For more, visit PracticeLab.

Advisors are always looking for ways to be more productive to free up time to focus on their clients. In this episode, Ray Evans of Pegasus Capital Management in Kansas City, Kansas, describes how his firm uses resources such as Pareto Systems and implements standard operating procedures to keep everyone in the firm focused on what they do best. He and his team of six associates manage just over $470 million, working with clients in the construction industry.

In this episode, Evans shares his firm’s team-of-teams approach, which has helped him grow and added energy and new ideas to his business. Hear how he tracks different measures of efficiency and productivity and then incorporates that into a dashboard for weekly meetings. For more, visit PracticeLab.