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 wished to go away massive company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was wanting to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary accountability to purchasers.

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

Throughout our conversations, the drive of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined via. The profitable progress of her agency might be seen as emblematic of the depth with which Sullivan-Kreiss engages with purchasers. It additionally highlights her extremely environment friendly use of time. To supply the personalised concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has turn out to be a grasp of time administration. She has realized the right way to function effectively and collect the mandatory assets to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.

If you happen to’re trying to go unbiased or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the ability of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise selections might aid you chart the way in which 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 individual you serve. With a view to develop a high quality apply, it’s important to make every shopper really feel particular. That will sound elementary, nevertheless it’s vital to maintain prime of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for purchasers via on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to offer help, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout tough occasions.”

A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary purchasers shouldn’t get voicemail after they name, and follow-up to requests and considerations have to 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 enthusiastic about “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common opinions to maintain abreast of adjustments in purchasers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when creating a plan for a brand new shopper.

The outcome? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged group of long-term purchasers. 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 purchasers come from referrals from present purchasers.”

Spending Extra Time with Purchasers

As you may see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is immediately tied to her spending as a lot time as attainable with purchasers. Notably, like a lot 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 performed 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.

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

Attaining Scale and Effectivity

So, how is Sullivan-Kreiss in a position to spend a lot time with purchasers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored via fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the suitable workers and agency companion can assist facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.

The facility of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will give attention to client-facing work. With three full-time workers members (a director of shopper relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is obvious 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 purchasers. Their strengths permit the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level help—the personalized effect we commit to every shopper.”

In accordance with Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular progress has been pushed by her group’s steadiness of competencies. And that progress has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place further workers is critical. To deal with the amount of labor and preserve 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 trying 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 suitable folks on workers, significantly those that have complementary abilities units to yours.”

The impression of your agency companion. 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 companion. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . it’s important to domesticate the suitable relationships with the suitable folks. That you must have a companion behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”

Like different unbiased advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to be to her agency companion for a wide selection of back-office assets and help. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, equivalent to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning group, available to speak via 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 an excessive amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a shopper is in search of a selected funding technique, she needs to have the ability to depend on her agency companion for specialised information. She receives that help from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis group.

Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency companion should be capable to present a “phenomenal degree of help” that’s tailor-made to your wants.

Cementing the Cornerstones of Success

Being an unbiased advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to utterly align her agency along with her values and purchasers’ greatest pursuits. She’s been in a position to construct the agency she’s all the time dreamed
of, one primarily based on placing her purchasers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s targeted on the thrill 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.

If you happen to’re an advisor desirous to go unbiased, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you may. As for contemplating a agency companion, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however actually not least, all the time take into account that you need to go the place you may develop, even when it’s one step at a time.

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