IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE YOU

In a perfect world, according to Lucila, we would all be delivering advice for a fee and supporting full implementation for our clients. The Advice-Based Financial Planning (ABFP) model works. It aligns with our interests and is mutually beneficial to the clients and to our practices. What’s not to love!?

The reality is that many of you run very successful practices, and at this point in your career, despite your best intentions, it can be really hard to summon the motivation to reconfigure something that is working so well. I mean, one of the great things about this job is that once you build the base of clientele, it can allow you to maintain a fantastic work/life balance. Why overcomplicate things!?

You know what is really cool? This is one of those areas where you can have your cake and eat it, too.

If you are an advisor who has already built a successful practice, but sees the industry changing and realizes that something like Advice-Based Financial Planning will bring your practice into better alignment with the future, set it up for ongoing profitability and even scalability beyond yourself, you don’t have to be the one who implements it within your practice!

You have the opportunity to be the CEO of your practice, set the vision and trajectory, and allow others to do the implementation! And I would suggest that this is the secret to solving the Next Gen problem in the independent advisor space. Let me explain.

In a world where something in the realm of 80% of advisors are going to fail in the first 3-5 years, Next Gen Advisors need a different answer than they have been getting for decades.

According to our friend ChatGPT (and verified by my own experience), the key challenges Next Gen Advisors are facing are:

1. Client acquisition difficulties
2. High-pressure sales environments
3. Lack of mentorship or support
4. Income instability
5. Regulatory and compliance burdens

You, as the CEO of a successful practice, have the ability to hire a Next Gen Advisor and offer a meaningful solution to each of those five challenges through the implementation of Advice-Based Financial Planning.

You have the relationships that your Next Gen Advisor can offer comprehensive planning for a fee, too. You don’t have to become the subject matter expert; they can!

With the Discovery EXPERIENCE and the implementation process built into ABFP, high-pressure sales environments are unnecessary. The right clients will hire you/your Next Gen Advisor and follow the advice they paid for!

Your mentorship and support is what will increase client confidence and drastically improve your Next Gen Advisors likelihood of long-term success.

Advice-Based Financial Planning implemented in a successful practice with the full support of the senior advisor all but solves the income instability challenges that Next Gen Advisors face. They aren’t trying to sling products to strangers, and you aren’t paying a salary just for them to learn the business. They are a productive, revenue-generating part of your team in a way that will feel good to both of you. 

Advice-Based Financial Planning can’t remove regulatory and compliance burdens, but building a process-driven practice will make it significantly easier for both you and your Next Gen Advisor to meet the compliance obligations more efficiently and effectively. And your Next Gen Advisor can use those processes to make meeting those regulatory obligations less of a burden in your day-to-day practice.

We all know that our industry has a Next Gen problem. There aren’t enough young advisors coming into the industry, and with about an 80% failure rate, we aren’t keeping enough of them! That may not be your problem today, but eventually, each of us will need to solve for contingency and succession.

If Advice-Based Financial Planning appeals to you but sounds like a lot of work…just realize that it doesn’t have to be you that does it! You have to be the leader, the visionary that supports it, but your Next Gen Advisor can help you develop your ABFP model and would benefit from being the one to implement it in your practice!

I hope this serves you!

-Lucila

PS Just a reminder that I offer private coaching, and I would love to support you in the process of building out your Advice-Based Financial Planning model for your Next Gen Advisor to implement! Reach out and let's have a conversation.