Advisor Business Development

Fiduciary, Fee-Only Friends Found All Around the World

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A Wendy’s Wednesday Whimsy

As we reflect on the outcome of yesterday’s presidential elections, you may enjoy a reminder that, big picture, the world has a way of continuing to turn, come what may. My personal inspiration came last week when I took a little longer than usual to knock off for the day, scheduling a 6 pm Skype with a new friend I’d recently met: Phil Stockton of Private Capital Ltd.

BREAKING NEWS: As I was putting together this week’s whimsy, I was delighted to see that my British communications colleague and Evidence-Based Investor author Robin Powell published a podcast conversation between us. In “What’s With the Name?” we explore the origin and meaning of Evidence-Based Investing. I also happened to mention my conversation with Phil toward the end. I do hope you’ll give the show a listen. We’re all one, big happy global family!

Now, back to my own post: I was willing to delay happy hour last week, because my Wednesday evening was Phil’s Thursday morning, and another busy day for him as he and his partners Rick Adkinson and Mathew Bate are spreading the mostly unheard-of word on evidence-based investing to families sorely in need of hearing more about it – in Hong Kong.

Continue reading “Fiduciary, Fee-Only Friends Found All Around the World” →

Fred Reish’s Well-Rounded Angles on the Fiduciary Rule

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A Wendy’s Wednesday Whimsy

Fred Reish Interesting Angles on Fiduciary RuleAre you subscribed to Fred Reish’s Insights? If not, you should be.

Normally, when I seek legal counsel for anything, and I compare the hourly rate to my own, my first thought is, I am so in the wrong profession. In my next life, I intend to be an intellectual property attorney. Seriously, that’s how far gone I am; I think that sounds fascinating.

But back to Fred and his extended series, “Interesting Angles on the DOL’s Fiduciary Rule.” These are excellent legal opinions on a matter that either already is or is going to be of critical importance to you and your firm … and it’s FREE.

Continue reading “Fred Reish’s Well-Rounded Angles on the Fiduciary Rule” →

Motivating Marketing Ideas: If It’s Good Enough for Tara …

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www-web_optimizedA few months ago, I was privileged to be introduced to Tara Hunt of Truly Social, while collaborating on a Canadian evidence-based advisor firm’s marketing and communications (or “marcomm,” as we in the biz call it, because it sounds so much snazzier).

While you may or may not be in the market for a full-on engagement with a marketer of Tara’s stature, she shares a ton of excellent stuff for free on her YouTube channel. I encourage you to visit her channel and click on the “subscribe” button toward the upper-right corner of her page. You’ll then be notified whenever she adds new material.

Her most recent video, “Marketing is NOT an afterthought” was as insightful as usual.

In particular, as someone who generally prefers books over video (Shhh, don’t tell Tara!), I perked up at her recommendation of the fast-reading “Talking to Humans” by Giff Constable.

How fast? I watched Tara’s video earlier this afternoon, downloaded the $0.99 Kindle copy of Constable’s book immediately thereafter (or there’s a free PDF version), and am writing this post about an hour later.

Don’t let the attractive price or brevity fool you. If “Talking to Humans” is good enough for Tara, that’s certainly good enough for me … and you.

From my perspective, the book isn’t really about marketing as much as it is about understanding who your existing and would-be clients are, what they really want out of life, and how you may be able to best help them with that.

Client discovery, in other words.

“Here’s what customer discovery is not,” writes Constable. “It is not asking people to design your product for you. It is not about abdicating your vision. It is also not about pitching. A natural tendency is to try to sell other people on your idea, but your job in customer discovery is to learn.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Constable’s book should provide you with some worthwhile new ideas to spice up your practice development. It’s divided into two parts: A fictional case study to introduce the essential ingredients to client discovery, and a second part that is packed with practical tips on how to proceed.

All that, and Tara’s video will also treat you to a classic video clip of The Odd Couple’s Felix Unger parsing the word “assume.” Do you remember that one? Don’t assume you’ve got nothing to learn from “Talking to Humans.” Give it a read today.

Have You Met My Good Friend, TESS?

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Love it or hate it, every firm needs it. I’m talking about branding. Whether you’re building a fresh website, adding signage in your office or streaming out reams of corporate communications, the branding that accompanies it is to your firm what that “canstockphoto11443547-branding-cow-webresCircle-K” is on a steer’s butt. Your colors and fonts, your artwork, style guides, logo, firm name and more come together as your branding. “This is us and ours!” it says, loud and clear.
Your choicest words are also integral to your firm’s branding, otherwise known as your tagline. This is where I typically come into the mix. I love to corral the hours of conversation I hold and pages of notes I take when discovering a firm, into the select handful of words that magically embody the essence of who you are and what you stand for.

Given the labor of love an excellent tagline entails, it’s well worth taking two important steps as you prepare your precious words: Continue reading “Have You Met My Good Friend, TESS?” →

An Evidence-Based Investing Conference Discount for EBA Group Members

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A Wendy’s Wednesday Whimsy

This week’s post is dedicated to killing two birds with one stone. If you are an advisor who really should be (or already are) a member of our Evidence-Based Advisor’s LinkedIn group — and you are interested in attending the inaugural Evidence-Based Investing Conference in New York City on November 15 —  have I got a deal for you.

Given the similar names, there’s naturally some synergies to be explored between our EBA group and the EBI Conference, don’t you think? The event’s hosts did, so they have extended a special invitation to our group, along with a $400 DISCOUNT off the regular registration rate. Any advisor who is an EBA group member can attend for the reduced rate of $1,095 (regularly $1,495).

To find out what code to use to receive the discounted rate:

(1) Request to join the EBA group.

(2) Look for the featured post with the discount code included.

(3) Register for the EBI event by September 30.

Boom, see you there.

Why might you want to attend? Because we’ve carefully curated this EBA group as a forum of relatively like-minded advisors, we’d like to see a strong showing of us at an event that is, after all, celebrating a term we’ve collectively embraced as our own.

Continue reading “An Evidence-Based Investing Conference Discount for EBA Group Members” →

Evidence-Based Investing: Peace, Love and Chaos

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Join us on the magic bus to the Nov. 15 Evidence-Based Investment Conference in NYC. (http://bit.ly/2c8DmRd)

A Wendy’s Wednesday Whimsy

“There’s something’s happening here | What it is ain’t exactly clear …”

If you’re an American flower-power child from the 60s or 70s (or have similar musical tastes), you’ve probably now got a certain classic protest song injected into your head, which you may be humming all day. You’re welcome.

The song’s title, “For What It’s Worth,” is less familiar. Even less well known is its intent. I was surprised myself when I read on Wikipedia that, despite its 1966 “man with a gun” lyrics, it was apparently not another anti-war song. It was composed in reaction to a 10 pm curfew aimed at clearing out the music-loving party-goers who were congesting Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip. Who knew? Based on the crowds that remain there to this day, I’m guessing that curfew thing didn’t go so well.

Evidence-Based Investing: The Movement

What’s this got to do with evidence-based investing? There’s been something happening here too, baby, in a big way. Any of us who have been part of the movement for a while can’t help but notice it. After years of playing the role of the anti-establishment protester, we’ve recently picked up a mass of followers in the U.S. and around the globe. The crowds are spilling out into the streets.  Suddenly (or so it seems), we pacifist protestors have become the Man, the Establishment, the status quo to rail against.

Continue reading “Evidence-Based Investing: Peace, Love and Chaos” →

Free Stuff, from Me to You

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You know those “free offers” we get deluged with daily? My common refrain for 99% of them is: Just because something is free doesn’t mean it’s worth the price.

That said, I’d like to think that my free stuff is the 1% exception – worth every penny and more.

Several of you who read last week’s Whimsy, figured out that you could retweet or share my post among your social media connections, and come as close to a (probably) compliant investor testimonial as a Registered Investment Advisor firm can ever hope to get.

www-web_optimizedYou can still do that if you haven’t yet.

Retweet it on Twitter

Share it on LinkedIn

Share it on Facebook

Plus, I’ll do you one better. For this week’s Whimsy, I’m pleased to share a newly created, non-branded PDF handout based on last week’s post, for you to reprint and share with your peeps. Visit my website’s new Free Stuff page, and you’ll be able to download a copy from there.

There is one catch. I’ll ask you to subscribe to my e-newsletter to complete the download. That way, when I offer more worthy free stuff in the future, you’ll be sure to hear about it.

That’s it. Otherwise, it’s free, $0.00, nada. (If you’re already subscribed to my e-newsletter, go ahead and fill out the sign-up form anyway to proceed to the free download; don’t worry, you will not end up receiving duplicate e-mails.)

Oh, and one relatively non-whimsical but critical caveat: Please consult with your compliance team on proper use for your firm.

A Hat-Tip to Stuart Zimmerman: “Every 100 Documents Count!”

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Stuart Visits Us in Oregon - Oct. 2014
Stuart Visits Me in Oregon – Oct. 2014

Wendy’s Wednesday Whimsy:
“Every 100 Documents Count!”

Read on for a nifty Content-Sharing Library discount offer.

Back when I was director of communications at an energetic young financial firm, I was privileged to work alongside one of its co-founders, Stuart Zimmerman. Others at this relatively small start-up firm may have had it over Stuart on nitty-gritty number-crunching skills, but nobody could beat him on cheerleading optimism. His “the best is yet to come!” enthusiasm was a virulent contagion; few were immune.

Stuart started our “Good News Friday,” for example, where we swapped tales of good deeds that had happened that week, whether it was launching a major new service or helping a family finally get its portfolio on the right track.

One of my favorite “Stuart-isms” is: “Hey, every [number] counts!” At first, the number would be modest. By the time I left The BAM ALLIANCE toward the end of 2008, that number had increased exponentially. But it wasn’t about size. Every client and every dollar entrusted to us did indeed count. This is a lesson I learned from Stuart and the rest of my BAM compatriots – and brought to my own little business.

101 Documents

This is why I am delighted to celebrate last week’s publication of the 100th document in my Content-Sharing Library. Continue reading “A Hat-Tip to Stuart Zimmerman: “Every 100 Documents Count!”” →

What Should You Say About the DOL’s Ways?

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© Can Stock Photo Inc. / damedeeso

While the Department of Labor’s fiduciary ruling is not any sort of death knell (unless, perhaps, you’ve been peddling some seriously toxic investment products), you might think it was, given last week’s glut of headlines in the financial press. I’ve seen all five of Kübler-Ross’ famed stages of grief on exhibit: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, ultimately, acceptance.

I have experienced these myself. For some time, I doubted that the DOL would ever achieve a ruling. When they actually did, I was angered by some of the last-minute holes that were blown into what could otherwise have been a more solid fiduciary stronghold. While I am in no position to bargain with the DOL, I debated with myself, mulling over shifting moods on whether the ruling was a good or bad thing for investors.

In the end, I have accepted that we should think of the ruling as a modest victory for investors and that, by and large, you should communicate it as such to your community.

Continue reading “What Should You Say About the DOL’s Ways?” →

Matt Hall’s “Odds On” — Turning an Investor Chump Into an Evidence-Based Investment Champ

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Matt Hall, Odds On Author“How did you find evidence-based investing?”

This is a question I often ask advisors. The answer usually involves a journey that begins with a broken brokerage-house gig before the fiduciary-minded find their financial footing in a finer place.

You’re probably all too familiar with such stories. Still, it can be challenging to share them with investors who struggle to understand the essential difference between financial business as usual, versus what YOU have to offer.

Fortunately, evidence-based advisor, and now author Matt Hall has just provided a new book to help you share this critical message. Due for release in early April, “Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor” relates Matt’s journey from stock-picking chump to evidence-based investment champion. Your own tale may vary, but once investors hear it, it’s usually only a matter of time before those who understand what it can mean to them want to know how they can join our ranks.

Matt’s book can cue up that conversation for you. Or, if you’ve always wanted to successfully publish material about your own experiences, he offers some first-hand advice in our Q&A below. Enjoy.

Your new book, “Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor” is about to hit the newsstand. What inspired you to write it?

It’s absurd how excited I am about it coming out April 12th! The feedback from the early reader group has blown me away and gets to the heart of why I did this – I want the message of our approach to stick! Remember the book Made to Stick by the Heath brothers? I’ve been haunted for years by the fact that not everyone embraces an evidence-based investment approach. In my experience many people give up on reading about how to improve their financial lives because of the wonky technical jargon. The question I knew I could answer – Can we bury the technical inside of stories? – allows the essential investment message to get through to a bigger audience.

Continue reading “Matt Hall’s “Odds On” — Turning an Investor Chump Into an Evidence-Based Investment Champ” →