The Wealth Consigliere

The wireless headphones have saved Apple and the Podcast Industry. This month I will summarize the best podcasts I listen to everyday. They are long, but my wireless headphones help. Long but worth a listen! https://brettroberthall.podbean.com/ https://www.annieduke.com/the-alliance-for-decision-education/ https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/podcasts Put on your wireless headphones and spend some time with these great podcasts. 

  Large firms make frequent changes to senior managers. These changes have significant impact on the advisory business. The new managers will usually implement a new strategy. The changes might not resonate with you and the new managers will also bring in their own people. Change is binary. We need to choose a lane.   Dear John AI AI seems to be the solution to all of our business problems. I have personally experienced AI in my new job search. The AI endpoint is typically a Dear John email telling me I’m not a good fit. The AI program is written by young professionals. I’m not young. My experience does not show up on AI screens but my age does. A Dear John email is still painful.  Press Release 2.0 We need to inform others about our company. Historically we have issued a press release. The internet has reduced the cost and the effectiveness of press releases. Social media is free but bad social needs to be improved. Press releases only told half of the story. The balance...

Our human interactions remain the most important component of successful wealth management. The early firms realized this reality and called the client advisors relationship managers. The underlying component of good relationships is trust. A relationship manager is someone we can trust. Ironically they started in the Trust Department.  When I read my book out load it sounds like a disgruntled ex-employee. As I reach my 30 year anniversary I start to take an honest view of the solutions we offer clients. Most solutions have been proved erroneous. The managers and regulators have helped shine a light on the issues. The best solutions are mundane and essential. The solution we all need to adopt are planning or better defined budgeting.  We all know we can do a better job budgeting. Unfortunately we don’t want to budget and we need guidance. A good advisor will provide stern budgeting guidance. We will be better off if we follow her guidance.  We default to our initial indus...

Writing is the new selling. I’m planning to write my second book. The title will be Money Myths. My writing teacher Seth told me I would write numerous books before I retire from writing. It is a title I learned from my longtime colleague and friend Ken.  He always asked prospective clients why money was important to them ? The answer promotes a meaningful conversation. My experience is that advisors impose their personal beliefs on the answer. In this book I will examine questions and answers that are based on experience and facts. The book will be short and organized in two sections. Myths and Solutions*    Sales We always need to be on the lookout for new clients and advisors. The challenge is what each want to be charged. The clients demand a low fee and the professionals want to be paid a high wage. The conflicting needs are exasperated by the companies desire to scale. Is it possible for us to meet all of the demands of our clients, investors and our professionals? ...

  Once we experience success we start to export our process to others. This is successful until the world changes and makes our process obsolete. Democracy has been questioned and our next process choice has been the China controlled economy. We have already experienced that communism isn’t a good solution. The grass seems better at our competition. The reality is that the grass is brown everywhere. This week we will examine where we should stretch our beliefs.  Surveys   Voting and surveys are tools used by most companies. Unfortunately both deliver faulty messages. The leadership and boards need to have the power to override the decisions. We have found that the people who vote and take surveys register their support for personal items that will benefit them or are opinions shared by people they respect. Steve Jobs and Henry Ford do not believe in surveys. They believed that the customers were biased by the status quo.  Expiration Dates Our skills need an expiratio...