Author Archive | Susan Kornegay

Simplify Your Client Segmentation & Recognition

By Susan Kornegay on June 11, 2019 in Client Recognition, Clients, Segmentation

Last week, we examined how to establish your client service standards, which we defined as the basic standards for service you commit to providing to all clients. These standards would typically include administrative and operational items, as well as client communication and educational opportunities that are delivered on a one-to-many basis. Beyond your basic client service standards, you probably want to recognize your best clients in ways that might be difficult or too expensive to provide to everyone. Client recognition items include cards and gifts for special occasions, as well […]

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How to Establish Client Service Standards

By Susan Kornegay on June 4, 2019 in Client Service, Clients, Messaging

If someone were to ask about what you do to ensure great client service, how would you respond? No doubt you would be able to tick off a few things that you do regularly such as quickly returning phone calls & emails, sending a newsletter, and reaching out to make sure your clients know you haven’t forgotten them between progress review meetings. But how much better would it be if you had well-defined and clearly communicated standards for the service you provide? Let’s begin with some principles for defining great […]

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How to Simplify Your Client Meeting Process

By Susan Kornegay on May 28, 2019 in Clients, Productivity, Progress Review

Like many planners and advisors, you may be eager to find a better way to simplify your client review meeting process. Are you still printing out reams of paper for their client review meetings? Prepared to provide performance information, these reports typically cover multiple accounts and often include each of the investment positions, along with fact sheets or other information. Do clients really need or want this amount of data? After all, they probably hired you for your knowledge and analytical skills so they wouldn’t have to do it themselves. […]

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How to Track Your Ongoing Advice

By Susan Kornegay on May 21, 2019 in Growth

Whether you use our suggested agenda for ongoing review meetings or one that you have created, it is likely that some of your time at these meetings is spent reviewing various financial or wealth planning topics, such as retirement income planning, tax mitigation strategies, charitable giving plans, and beneficiary designation reviews. From a planning perspective and since your clients are likely paying for your advice on an ongoing basis, it makes sense to track these conversations so you can stay on top of any action items that you’ve agreed on, […]

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Preparing for Review Meetings

By Susan Kornegay on May 14, 2019 in Clients, Progress Review

Assuming that you have your clients sorted out and coded in your Client Relationship Management (CRM) system so you can meet with them at intervals appropriate for their situation, let’s take a look how to prepare for those meetings. The first item is your agenda. Your life is a lot easier when you have an agenda template that you can use for most, if not all, your client review meetings. Email it to them when your meeting is confirmed, suggesting that they take a few minutes to jot down anything […]

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Challenged by Review Meetings?

By Susan Kornegay on May 7, 2019 in Clients, Progress Review

Some advisors schedule their clients’ next review meeting before they leave the office from the last one. Others can’t remember the last time they had a review meeting with some of their clients. Many know they should be better organized for review meetings but feel overwhelmed by the whole process. Our focus for the month of May is helping you better manage your review meeting process. The first step is getting organized, and the first question is, how frequently should review meetings be held? Many planners and advisers tie frequency […]

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Helping Families with Special Needs

By Susan Kornegay on March 26, 2019 in Clients

Many years ago, our lives were changed when we learned that Jason, our 18-year-old, college student son, had been in thrown from a car driven by a friend who fell asleep at the wheel. His traumatic brain injury led to six months in 2 different hospitals, including several weeks in ICU, followed by a year at an out-of-state rehab center. He had to relearn how to eat, walk, talk, and just about everything else. The next seven years were eye-opening for us. We had to navigate securing good medical care, […]

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Addressing the Concerns of Seniors

By Susan Kornegay on March 19, 2019 in Clients

Led by baby boomers, the number of Americans age 65 and older is expected to more than double by 2050 to a projected 88.5 million. As a financial planner or advisor, you know that strengthening relationships with your aging clients and their family members will enable you to retain and grow assets that might otherwise be lost as clients die or become incapacitated. What can you do now to provide guidance and resources to help older clients organize their financial lives so that they and their loved ones can face […]

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Helping Clients Teach Their Children

By Susan Kornegay on March 12, 2019 in Clients, Communication & Education

Did you see the recent Investment News article Financial literacy: An epic fail in America? Although 78% of financial advisors strongly agree that financial literacy is a serious problem in the U.S., only 4 in 10 advisors are doing anything to address the problem. Yet, according to the 2018 Survey of the States: Economic and Personal Finance Education in Our Nation’s Schools, only 17 states require that high school students take a personal finance course. As a financial planner or advisor, what can you do to help your clients and their […]

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