A Prime Commonwealth Advisor on Driving Productiveness

Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, based her unbiased advisory agency, SullivanKreiss Monetary, in 2004. Having spent the earlier 13 years as an advisor on workers with a publicly traded firm, she needed to go away massive company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was desirous to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary accountability to shoppers.

As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve all the time primarily based my enterprise on the basic principal of treating others as I want to be handled. My goal is absolutely quite simple: to place our shoppers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the individuality that every shopper brings to our follow.”

Throughout our conversations, the power of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined by means of. The profitable progress of her agency may very well be seen as emblematic of the depth with which Sullivan-Kreiss engages with shoppers. It additionally highlights her extremely environment friendly use of time. To offer the customized concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has develop into a grasp of time administration. She has realized tips on how to function effectively and collect the mandatory sources to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.

When you’re seeking to go unbiased or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the facility of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions may enable you to chart the best way towards optimizing your time and setting your agency up for long-term progress.

Constructing One thing Particular

For Sullivan-Kreiss, constructing shopper relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every particular person you serve. With the intention to develop a high quality follow, you must make every shopper really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, however it’s vital to maintain high of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for shoppers by means of on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to supply assist, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout tough instances.”

A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary shoppers shouldn’t get voicemail once they name, and follow-up to requests and issues should be speedy and correct. However concierge service is greater than that: it’s being proactive versus responsive, going above and past what’s anticipated. Sullivan-Kreiss focuses on long-term, complete monetary planning; she isn’t considering “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common critiques to maintain abreast of adjustments in shoppers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when creating a plan for a brand new shopper.

The end result? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged group of long-term shoppers. For her, that’s what makes the advisory enterprise rewarding and enjoyable. And there’s icing on the cake: in keeping with Sullivan-Kreiss, “The vast majority of my agency’s new shoppers come from referrals from current shoppers.”

Spending Extra Time with Shoppers

As you possibly can see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is instantly tied to her spending as a lot time as attainable with shoppers. Notably, like lots of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in shopper conferences than different business advisors. That’s in keeping with a 2020–2021 research carried out by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 % extra time in shopper conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and unbiased corporations.

In truth, primarily based on additional evaluation of the information, Commonwealth’s Observe Administration group decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the high decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, primarily based on gross income, progress price, and period of time spent with shoppers. This statistic speaks to the vital work Sullivan-Kreiss undertakes day in and time out with the people she serves.

Attaining Scale and Effectivity

So, how is Sullivan-Kreiss capable of spend a lot time with shoppers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored by means of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the best workers and agency associate may help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.

The ability of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will be able to deal with client-facing work. With three full-time workers members (a director of shopper relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is evident on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My group is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes allows me to be good at my job and spend as a lot time as I can with my shoppers. Their strengths permit the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personalized effect we commit to each shopper.”

Based on Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular progress has been pushed by her group’s stability of competencies. And that progress has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place further workers is important. To deal with the amount of labor and maintain her productiveness excessive, Sullivan-Kreiss plans so as to add an funding supervisor and a further advisor to the group.

When requested about recommendation for advisors seeking to develop, she states, “One of the vital productive issues you are able to do is empower your folks and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the best folks on workers, notably those that have complementary abilities units to yours.”

The affect of your agency associate. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has all the time acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency associate. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . you must domesticate the best relationships with the best folks. You want to have a associate behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”

Like different unbiased advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to be to her agency associate for a big selection of back-office sources and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, resembling Commonwealth’s Superior Planning group, available to speak by means of a fancy planning or retirement downside.

As for funding administration, Sullivan-Kreiss acknowledges that this function is an ongoing problem for any unbiased agency. She prefers customized portfolio administration and, with the help of her monetary analyst, does a substantial amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a shopper is on the lookout for a selected funding technique, she desires to have the ability to depend on her agency associate for specialised data. She receives that assist from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis group.

Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency associate should have the ability to present a “phenomenal stage of assist” that’s tailor-made to your wants.

Cementing the Cornerstones of Success

Being an unbiased advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to fully align her agency along with her values and shoppers’ finest pursuits. She’s been capable of construct the agency she’s all the time dreamed
of, one primarily based on placing her shoppers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s targeted on the fun of the current and accelerating much more progress sooner or later. Something is feasible along with her imaginative and prescient, a robust group, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.

When you’re an advisor desirous to go unbiased, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you possibly can. As for contemplating a agency associate, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however actually not least, all the time remember that you wish to go the place you possibly can develop, even when it’s one step at a time.

FREE DOWNLOAD

The Impression Your Agency Associate Can Have on Effectivity

Discover how choosing the proper agency associate can put time again in your day.