Business Planning and Financial Planning - Financial Advisor Source

A Recordkeeping Checklist For Financial Planning Services: Proactive Documentation Of Service Delivery To Reduce Regulatory Scrutiny

Nerd's Eye View

DECEMBER 18, 2024

While state and Federal regulations clearly outline recordkeeping requirements for areas like financials, advertisements, and trading records, there is a notable gap when it comes to documenting the delivery of services – especially financial planning services – necessary to justify the fees charged for those services.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Compliance Advertising

A 3-Step Sales Process To Clearly Demonstrate Financial Planning Value To Prospects

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

Over the past decade, a growing number of advisors have expanded into offering comprehensive financial planning services, reflecting a shift that not only helps them stand out from (increasingly commoditized) portfolio management offerings but also supports clients' broader financial goals.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Sales Planning Retirement

#FASuccess Ep 412: 3X’ing The Business With No More Than 50 Great Clients By Hyperfocusing On Who You Can Add The Most Value For, With Anjali Jariwala

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

What's unique about Anjali, though, is how she has tripled her annual revenue from $250,000 to $750,000 during the past 6 years, while only adding a net of 10 client households (going from 35 to 45 clients in total), by hyperfocusing into her niches of physicians with complex tax needs and small business owners with $5M–$20M of revenue, offering (..)

Clients

Clients Financial Advisor Business Planning Taxes

Webinars

Book of Secrets on the Month-End Close

What Your Financial Statements Are Telling You—And How to Listen!

Are Robots Replacing You? Keeping Humans in the Loop in Automated Environments

Data Talks, CFOs Listen: Why Analytics Is The Key To Better Spend Management

MORE WEBINARS

#FASuccess Ep 425: Implementing A Financial Planning Quality Control System To Improve Both Client Outcomes And Referrals, With Sebastian Guerra

Nerd's Eye View

FEBRUARY 18, 2025

Sebastian is the President of Guerra Wealth Advisors, a hybrid advisory firm based in Miami, Florida, with nearly $15M of revenue and almost 60 team members, supporting over 1,700 client households.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Clients Planning Wealth Advisor

#FASuccess Ep 409: Adding 1,400 New Clients In A Year As An Extension Of Doing (Profitable) Student Loan Consulting At Scale, With Travis Hornsby

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Travis is the founder of Student Loan Planner, an RIA and student loan consulting company based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that serves nearly 1,400 households with ongoing financial planning (as well as consulting with over 15,000 clients on student loan debt).

Consulting

Consulting Clients Financial Planning Compensation Planning

Five “Self-Persuasion” Questions To Connect With Prospects Who Say They’re Interested… But Aren’t Moving Forward

Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 22, 2025

Instead, acknowledging their ambivalence as a natural part of the decision-making process can help create space for them to discover the value of financial planning on their own. One effective way to facilitate this self-discovery is through self-persuasion questions.

Financial Advice

Financial Advice Financial Planning Retirement Clients

Increasing Financial Planning Efficiency With A Systematized Annual Process

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 21, 2022

However, by creating a systematic annual process to monitor and update client plans based on seasons, not only can advisors save time and work more efficiently, but they can also communicate the value of ongoing financial planning services to prospects and clients more effectively.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Estate Planning Clients

Outsourcing (Parts Of) The Financial Plan Preparation Process To Boost Solo Advisor Capacity

Nerd's Eye View

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

a client service associate to handle various administrative and client communication tasks, or a paraplanner or associate advisor to work on more planning-centric issues such as building out drafts of financial plans).

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Recruitment Clients

Kitces & Carl Ep 106: Sharing ‘Real’ Examples Of Your Work To Show The Value Of Financial Planning

Nerd's Eye View

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

The increasing popularity of financial planning has led to a growing awareness of how important managing finances and planning for the future can be. For most financial advisors today, a website is a critical tool that allows them to market their services and communicate their fees to potential clients.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Financial Planner Financial Advisor

Are Financial Plans Getting Too Comprehensive: How The ‘Sledgehammer Of Value’ Isn’t Actually Paying Off

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 23, 2023

Many financial advisors take pride in the comprehensive nature of the advice they provide to clients and use the variety of services offered as a point of differentiation between themselves and other types of advisors.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Clients Financial Planner

#FA Success Ep 359: Building A Financial Planning Assessment To Show Clients Progress And Value Over Time, With Eric Miller

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

What's unique about Eric, though, is how he leverages a custom-built financial planning assessment he calls their Financial Prosperity Index, which he gives to both prospective and ongoing current clients so that they can better understand their financial health, target the financial planning domains where clients need the most help, and even more (..)

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Clients Planning Financial Advisor

#FASuccess Ep 423: Expanding Across The Household By Helping (Affluent) Sandwich Generation Kids With Their Parents’ Financial Needs, With Cristina Livadary

Nerd's Eye View

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

What's unique about Cristina, though, is how her firm supports clients in the so-called "sandwich generation" by both creating a financial plan for the clients' personal financial needs and goals, and by addressing (often with a separately paid add-on financial planning engagement) the financial issues facing their aging (and frequently less financially (..)

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Clients Financial Planning Planning

Fix, Fine, Flourish: A Framework To Take Clients From (Just) “Fine” Staganancy To Being Engaged Again

Nerd's Eye View

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

This transition is a core element of the "Fix, Fine, Flourish" financial planning framework. In this model, clients begin in the Fix phase, addressing immediate challenges and stabilizing their financial situation.

Clients

Clients Financial Planning Planning Management

How Outsourcing Marketing Can Unlock Growth Potential For Advisory Firms: Key Steps For Choosing The Right Provider

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 11, 2024

To sustain firm growth, financial advisors often face a dilemma: to focus on what originally drew them to the profession – like financial planning – they often must first do an extensive amount of business development.

Marketing

Marketing Marketing Communication Engineering

From New-Hire To Confident Advisor: Structuring A First-Year Associate Advisor Onboarding Plan To Develop Technical And Client Skills

Nerd's Eye View

MARCH 24, 2025

For smaller firms – especially those with little to no experience onboarding new advisors – creating a well-paced financial plan can feel daunting. First, clarity: both the advisor and manager should be able to clearly define the core financial planning skills that a new hire is expected to develop in their first year.

Planning

Planning Clients Financial Planning Communication

Building An Inclusive Hiring Process To Decrease Bias And Find Your Firm’s Ideal Candidate

Nerd's Eye View

DECEMBER 16, 2024

When a financial planning firm is hiring a new employee, it naturally wants to find the best candidate to fill the role.

Advertising

Advertising CFP Financial Advisor Financial Planning

AI Meeting Notes Tools For Financial Advisors: Solo Productivity Vs Associate Advisor Development?

Nerd's Eye View

MARCH 17, 2025

In addition, AI Notetakers are increasingly popular as advisors' financial plans get increasingly comprehensive; not surprisingly, the more detailed financial planning conversations happen in client meetings, the more there is to capture and share out.

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Clients Financial Planning Professional Services

#FASuccess Ep 421: Integrating Tax Preparation Without Hiring In-House CPAs To Bring More Tax-Focused Value, With Daniel Friedman

Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 21, 2025

In this episode, we talk in-depth about why Daniel decided to outsource tax return preparation (rather than hire someone to do it in-house) to be able to access the expertise of the CPAs his firm uses (particularly for clients with complicated equity compensation plans), how Daniel views these CPA relationships as mutually beneficial from a financial (..)

Taxes

Taxes Tax Planning Financial Advisor Compensation Planning

#FA Success Ep 385: Unblocking Clients That Won’t Implement With A Journey Of Financial Health, With Danielle Howard

Nerd's Eye View

MAY 14, 2024

Values, Purpose, Action: A 3-Part Approach To Establish A “Statement Of Financial Purpose” And Unlock Deeper, More Meaningful Planning Conversations With Clients

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

In the early days of financial planning, serving clients often meant developing transactional relationships focused on facilitating trades and selling insurance. Over time, advisors shifted toward more analytical approaches, such as investment management and retirement planning.

Clients

Clients Planning Financial Planner Financial Planning

#FA Success Ep 355: Scaling Worksite Financial Planning As An Employee Benefit For The Average Worker, With Brad Arends

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 17, 2023

What's unique about Brad, though, is how he built a multi-billion-dollar advisory firm not by moving 'upmarket' to gather multi-millionaire clients, but instead leveraged his 401(k) retirement plan advisory firm to begin offering comprehensive financial planning to the employees of large companies as an added employee benefit, and in the process scaled (..)

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Wealth Management Retirement Planning

#FA Success 303: Pivoting From ‘Robo’ Investment Management To Financial Planning In South Africa, With Louis van der Merwe

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 18, 2022

What's unique about Louis, though, is how he and his partner (in anticipation of a shift in the financial advisory industry to more automated client services nearly 10 years ago) developed a robo-advice technology prototype to help clients have their investments managed at a very low cost… which then struggled to gain traction with consumers, (..)

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Management Investments

#FASuccess Ep 401: One-On-One Advice Through Financial Wellness Programs To (Profitably) Expand The Reach Of Financial Planning, With Zack Hubbard

Nerd's Eye View

SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

Welcome to the 401st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! Welcome everyone! My guest on today's podcast is Zack Hubbard.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Planning Retirement Planning Financial Advisor

Quantifying (More Accurately) The Real Impact Of A Financial Advisor’s Costs On Their Clients’ Nest Eggs

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 23, 2024

Though in practice, while a 1% AUM fee is a common 'starting point' in the industry, the actual fee structure can vary based on the firm's approach; for example, some firms may reduce the fee for high-net-worth clients, or charge an additional fee for separate and additional services (from deeper financial planning to add-ons like tax preparation).

Clients

Clients Financial Advice Financial Planning Financial Advisor

#FA Success Ep 356: Scaling To (Nearly) $2M Of Revenue As A Flat-Fee, Advice-Only Firm, With Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Welcome to the 356th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! Sarah-Catherine is the founder of Aptus Financial, a fee-only financial planning firm based in Little Rock, Arkansas, that is approaching $2M in revenue and works with over 480 client households.

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Financial Planning Planning Clients

#FA Success Ep 336: Showing Prospects An (Asset) Map To Generate More Advice Engagement, With H. Adam Holt

Nerd's Eye View

JUNE 6, 2023

Welcome back to the 336th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! Adam is a principal with RubinGoldman and Associates, and the Founder and CEO of Asset-Map, a financial planning tool that helps financial advisors create a visual representation of their clients’ financial situation, reaching over 1.25

Assets

Assets Financial Advisor Financial Planning Insurance

#FA Success Ep 368: Getting Real Social Media Marketing Results By Focusing On Your (Ideal) Client’s Desire To Learn, With Thomas Kopelman

Nerd's Eye View

JANUARY 16, 2024

Welcome back to the 368th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! My guest on today's podcast is Thomas Kopelman.

Media

Media Financial Advisor Financial Planning Planning

3 Question Types To Go From (Just) Retained To Highly Engaged And Happier Clients

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 17, 2024

And while all may appear well on the surface – the client rarely contacts the advisor with problems but they show up for every annual meeting – they may actually be feeling quite disengaged with the financial planning services being provided. Questions such as "What is different from the last time we met?"

Clients

Clients Financial Planning Planning Compliance

From Unprofitable To $115M AUM: Reinventing A 2nd Generation Advisory Business By Finding The Right Niche

Nerd's Eye View

JULY 10, 2023

As owners of financial planning firms approach retirement, some may decide to sell to an external buyer, while others may plan for an internal succession. Sometimes, this succession plan can include the owner's child, providing an opportunity to keep the business in the family.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Retirement Planning Clients

Kitces & Carl Ep 116: Getting Training As (Or For) An Associate Advisor To Talk More In Client Meetings

Nerd's Eye View

JULY 13, 2023

Establishing successful client relationships as a financial advisor relies on good communication skills not just to present information persuasively and with confidence, but also to establish client rapport that allows meaningful and engaging relationships to be built.

Clients

Clients Financial Planning Financial Planner Communication

#FA Success Ep 325: Building Success In The Financial Advice Business From A Financially Challenged Upbringing, With Brenda Hiscock

Nerd's Eye View

MARCH 21, 2023

Brenda is a financial planner with Objective Financial Partners, an advice-only advisory firm based in Ontario, Canada, that works with clients on project-based financial plans, and also offers outsourced paraplanning to other Canadian advisory firms. My guest on today's podcast is Brenda Hiscock.

Financial Advice

Financial Advice Insurance Financial Advisor Financial Planning

#FA Success Ep 312: Resetting Your Work/Life Balance By Getting Paid For Expertise Instead Of (Just) Effort, With Emily Rassam

Nerd's Eye View

DECEMBER 20, 2022

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how, as Emily progressed in her career from working on 401(k) plans to focusing on financial planning, she faced challenges and eventual burnout while building a successful financial planning offering in a firm that was still primarily focused on 401(k) plans first and foremost and didn’t want to allocate (..)

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Financial Planning Planning Financial Planner

#FA Success Ep 295: Systematizing A Planning Process To Maximize The Return On Life For Clients, With Shari Greco Reiches

Nerd's Eye View

AUGUST 23, 2022

What's unique about Shari, though, is how after a life-changing experience she went through in trying to get clear in articulating her own most important values, she created a 5-step “Maximize the Return on Life” framework to use with her clients, and then created what she calls her “CFO Family Checklist” as a form of living (..)

Clients

Clients Planning Financial Advisor Financial Planning

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (March 2023)

Nerd's Eye View

MARCH 6, 2023

Welcome to the March 2023 issue of the Latest News in Financial #AdvisorTech – where we look at the big news, announcements, and underlying trends and developments that are emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisors!

Compliance

Compliance Financial Planning Planning Clients

#FASuccess Ep 429: What It Takes To Really Help (HNW) Business Owners Navigate Their Wealth With Purpose, With Ali Nasser

Nerd's Eye View

MARCH 18, 2025

What's unique about Ali, though, is the path of how he built an advisory business by helping (high-net-worth) business owners achieve their financial goals while being true to their entrepreneurial mindset and drive (which can sometimes conflict with ‘standard' financial planning advice), which was so successful that he eventually sold his advisory (..)

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Clients Financial Planning Taxes

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (October 2022)

Nerd's Eye View

OCTOBER 3, 2022

Read the analysis about these announcements in this month's column, and a discussion of more trends in advisor technology, including: RightCapital launches a new ‘Blueprint’ feature to create an Asset-Map-style visualization of the client’s financial household.

Commission

Commission Financial Planning Ethics Planning

Optimizing Virtual Client Meetings To Make Them More ‘Real’ And Less Exhausting

Nerd's Eye View

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Traditionally, financial planning meetings have been held face-to-face in an advisor's office, and over the years, a body of research has emerged showing that how the advisor's office is laid out can have a significant impact on how clients perceive the advisor, their mood during the meeting, and even their resulting financial planning decisions.

Clients

Clients Financial Planning Planning Communication

#FA Success Ep 352: Finding Personal Scale By Leveraging Yourself Through Outsourced Delegation, With Bridget Venus Grimes

Nerd's Eye View

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

What's unique about Bridget, though, is how, as a solo advisor, she found herself overwhelmed with the pressures of having to manage different aspects of her business while also providing great service to her clients as she quickly grew to $77M of AUM in 7 years, and has decided to not to "scale" her firm by hiring more advisors but instead leverage (..)

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Financial Advisor Clients Planning

Kitces & Carl Ep 93: Getting An ROI From Your New Associate Advisor (In Less Than 6 Years)

Nerd's Eye View

AUGUST 25, 2022

Historically, the career path for newer financial advisors has followed a commission-based model that was focused on sales and business development first and learning the technical aspects of financial planning along the way.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Clients Planning Commission

#FA Success Ep 335: Systematizing Succession And New Partner Transitions In A $1.5B Ensemble Enterprise, With Timothy Wyman

Nerd's Eye View

MAY 30, 2023

Welcome back to the 335th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast ! Tim is a Managing Partner for the Center for Financial Planning, a hybrid advisory firm based in Southfield, Michigan, that oversees $1.5 My guest on today's podcast is Tim Wyman. billion in assets under management for 1,000 client households.

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Financial Planning Clients Planning

Offering Tax Preparation As A Solo Advisor: How To Attain Designations And Create A Schedule By Next Tax Season

Nerd's Eye View

MAY 8, 2023

In this post, Kitces.com Senior Financial Planning Nerd Ben Henry-Moreland writes about how he went from being hesitant to offer tax preparation at his solo RIA (given how common it is for tax preparers to work long hours throughout tax season) to embracing it as a core part of the business’ service offering.

Taxes

Taxes Financial Planning Financial Advisor Clients

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (February 2024)

Nerd's Eye View

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

This month's edition kicks off with the news that financial planning software platform RightCapital has launched a workflow management tool called RightFlows to help advisors manage and assign steps in the financial planning process to team members and clients – which on the one hand capitalizes on advisor demand for workflow solutions tailored (..)

Estate Planning

Estate Planning Financial Planning Planning Wealth Management

Kitces & Carl Ep 93: Getting An ROI From Your New Associate Advisor (In Less Than 6 Years)

Nerd's Eye View

AUGUST 25, 2022

Historically, the career path for newer financial advisors has followed a commission-based model that was focused on sales and business development first and learning the technical aspects of financial planning along the way.

Financial Planning

Financial Planning Clients Planning Commission

Highlights From The 2023 T3 Advisor Conference

Nerd's Eye View

APRIL 10, 2023

Additionally, MoneyGuide rolled out a new "Plan Pulse" dashboard allowing advisory firms to look across all of their clients’ plans and identify those who have fallen behind.

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisor Financial Planning Planning Consulting

A Recordkeeping Checklist For Financial Planning Services: Proactive Documentation Of Service Delivery To Reduce Regulatory Scrutiny

A 3-Step Sales Process To Clearly Demonstrate Financial Planning Value To Prospects

Webinars

Trending Sources

#FASuccess Ep 412: 3X’ing The Business With No More Than 50 Great Clients By Hyperfocusing On Who You Can Add The Most Value For, With Anjali Jariwala

Webinars

#FASuccess Ep 425: Implementing A Financial Planning Quality Control System To Improve Both Client Outcomes And Referrals, With Sebastian Guerra

#FASuccess Ep 409: Adding 1,400 New Clients In A Year As An Extension Of Doing (Profitable) Student Loan Consulting At Scale, With Travis Hornsby

Five “Self-Persuasion” Questions To Connect With Prospects Who Say They’re Interested… But Aren’t Moving Forward

Increasing Financial Planning Efficiency With A Systematized Annual Process

Outsourcing (Parts Of) The Financial Plan Preparation Process To Boost Solo Advisor Capacity

Kitces & Carl Ep 106: Sharing ‘Real’ Examples Of Your Work To Show The Value Of Financial Planning

Are Financial Plans Getting Too Comprehensive: How The ‘Sledgehammer Of Value’ Isn’t Actually Paying Off

#FA Success Ep 359: Building A Financial Planning Assessment To Show Clients Progress And Value Over Time, With Eric Miller

#FASuccess Ep 423: Expanding Across The Household By Helping (Affluent) Sandwich Generation Kids With Their Parents’ Financial Needs, With Cristina Livadary

Fix, Fine, Flourish: A Framework To Take Clients From (Just) “Fine” Staganancy To Being Engaged Again

How Outsourcing Marketing Can Unlock Growth Potential For Advisory Firms: Key Steps For Choosing The Right Provider

From New-Hire To Confident Advisor: Structuring A First-Year Associate Advisor Onboarding Plan To Develop Technical And Client Skills

Building An Inclusive Hiring Process To Decrease Bias And Find Your Firm’s Ideal Candidate

AI Meeting Notes Tools For Financial Advisors: Solo Productivity Vs Associate Advisor Development?

#FASuccess Ep 421: Integrating Tax Preparation Without Hiring In-House CPAs To Bring More Tax-Focused Value, With Daniel Friedman

#FA Success Ep 385: Unblocking Clients That Won’t Implement With A Journey Of Financial Health, With Danielle Howard

Values, Purpose, Action: A 3-Part Approach To Establish A “Statement Of Financial Purpose” And Unlock Deeper, More Meaningful Planning Conversations With Clients

#FA Success Ep 355: Scaling Worksite Financial Planning As An Employee Benefit For The Average Worker, With Brad Arends

#FA Success 303: Pivoting From ‘Robo’ Investment Management To Financial Planning In South Africa, With Louis van der Merwe

#FASuccess Ep 401: One-On-One Advice Through Financial Wellness Programs To (Profitably) Expand The Reach Of Financial Planning, With Zack Hubbard

Quantifying (More Accurately) The Real Impact Of A Financial Advisor’s Costs On Their Clients’ Nest Eggs

#FA Success Ep 356: Scaling To (Nearly) $2M Of Revenue As A Flat-Fee, Advice-Only Firm, With Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez

#FA Success Ep 336: Showing Prospects An (Asset) Map To Generate More Advice Engagement, With H. Adam Holt

#FA Success Ep 368: Getting Real Social Media Marketing Results By Focusing On Your (Ideal) Client’s Desire To Learn, With Thomas Kopelman

3 Question Types To Go From (Just) Retained To Highly Engaged And Happier Clients

From Unprofitable To $115M AUM: Reinventing A 2nd Generation Advisory Business By Finding The Right Niche

Kitces & Carl Ep 116: Getting Training As (Or For) An Associate Advisor To Talk More In Client Meetings

#FA Success Ep 325: Building Success In The Financial Advice Business From A Financially Challenged Upbringing, With Brenda Hiscock

#FA Success Ep 312: Resetting Your Work/Life Balance By Getting Paid For Expertise Instead Of (Just) Effort, With Emily Rassam

#FA Success Ep 295: Systematizing A Planning Process To Maximize The Return On Life For Clients, With Shari Greco Reiches

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (March 2023)

#FASuccess Ep 429: What It Takes To Really Help (HNW) Business Owners Navigate Their Wealth With Purpose, With Ali Nasser

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (October 2022)

Optimizing Virtual Client Meetings To Make Them More ‘Real’ And Less Exhausting

#FA Success Ep 352: Finding Personal Scale By Leveraging Yourself Through Outsourced Delegation, With Bridget Venus Grimes

Kitces & Carl Ep 93: Getting An ROI From Your New Associate Advisor (In Less Than 6 Years)

#FA Success Ep 335: Systematizing Succession And New Partner Transitions In A $1.5B Ensemble Enterprise, With Timothy Wyman

Offering Tax Preparation As A Solo Advisor: How To Attain Designations And Create A Schedule By Next Tax Season

The Latest In Financial #AdvisorTech (February 2024)

Kitces & Carl Ep 93: Getting An ROI From Your New Associate Advisor (In Less Than 6 Years)

Highlights From The 2023 T3 Advisor Conference

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