“What Keeps You Up At Night”
By Stefan Greenberg, CFP®
What keeps you up at night? If you’re a financial advisor in today’s market, there’s no shortage of answers, especially when it comes to your clients and prospects. But what about you, your business and your career? The volatility of the markets is matched only by that in the job market. Lots of smart people (clients and advisors) have been or could be right-sized, down-sized, re-engineered or re-fabricated.
In light of all the markets’ turmoil, professional self-evaluation can be very helpful in determining what’s going well and what you may be missing. I’m not talking about those internal, human resources, navel-gazing evaluations, with pages of whether you’re a leader, take the initiative, and demonstrate the professionalism to succeed in your current place of employment. No, I want to ask:
1. Is your practice growing?
a. Are you happy with your level of clients?
b. To you have a plan to increase that level?
2. How do your clients view you?
a. Are you truly an advisor or your clients’ money butler?
b. Are you part of a comprehensive wealth management firm or just an adjunct to something else?
3. Are leads provided to you as part of a larger organization or do you have to develop them yourself?
a. With customized products only you can provide?
4. Are you reaching your full potential?
a. Are you making the amount of money you want?
5. Are you your own infrastructure?
a. What kind of support do you currently enjoy—
i. Accounting?
ii. Facilities?
iii. Compliance?
iv. Human Resources?
v. Technology?
vi. Marketing?
6. What kind of professional development can you access?
7. Are there mentors available to you?
a. Are they top-tier performers themselves?
8. To what type of planning platform are you currently selling?
a. Is full-service financial planning one of the services you can offer clients?
9. Does your practice enjoy big-company branding and marketing support?
a. Do you have the resources of a bigger parent company behind you?
10. Are you having fun?
How about that last question? Has that ever been on one of those internal evaluation forms? Hmmm, probably not. The point here is the healthy exercise of looking at the big picture every once in a while and where you fit in. If you like the way the picture looks, outstanding. If you don’t, and you’re kept up at night by some nagging questions like those above, do something about it.
Mr. Greenberg is a Managing Director at Lenox Advisors, Inc. He can be reached through the company website; www.lenoxadvisors.com
Fee-based financial planning services offered through Lenox Advisors, Inc. Lenox Advisors, Inc., offers access to securities and asset management services through MML Investors Services, Inc., 530 5th Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10036, 212-536-6000, member SIPC. Investment adviser representatives of Lenox Advisors, Inc. offering fee-based financial planning services may also be registered representatives and investment adviser representatives of MML Investors Services, Inc. for purposes of offering securities and asset management services, as applicable. Lenox Advisors, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Financial Partners Corp. (NFP). Lenox Advisors, Inc and NFP are not affiliates or subsidiaries of MML Investors Services, Inc. Services offered through Lenox Advisors, Inc. as an Independent Registered Investment Advisor are not sponsored or offered through MML Investors Services, Inc. CRN201110 - 127103