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 desirous to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary accountability to shoppers.

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

Throughout our conversations, the drive of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient at all times shined by way 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 learn how to function effectively and collect the required sources to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.

Should you’re seeking to go unbiased or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the ability of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions may show you how to 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 consumer relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every individual you serve. As a way to develop a top quality follow, it’s important to make every consumer really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, but it surely’s vital to maintain high of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for shoppers by way 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 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 inquisitive about “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common critiques to maintain abreast of modifications in shoppers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when growing a plan for a brand new consumer.

The outcome? 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 response to Sullivan-Kreiss, “The vast majority of my agency’s new shoppers come from referrals from present shoppers.”

Spending Extra Time with Shoppers

As you’ll be able to see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is immediately tied to her spending as a lot time as potential with shoppers. Notably, like a lot of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in consumer conferences than different business advisors. That’s in response to a 2020–2021 examine performed by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 p.c extra time in consumer conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and unbiased corporations.

The truth is, based mostly on additional evaluation of the information, Commonwealth’s Follow Administration staff decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the high decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, based mostly 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 way of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the appropriate workers and agency associate can assist facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.

The ability 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 consumer relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is evident on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My staff is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes permits me to be good at my job and spend as a lot time as I can with my shoppers. Their strengths enable the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personal touch we dedicate to every consumer.”

In response to Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular progress has been pushed by her staff’s steadiness of competencies. And that progress has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place extra workers is important. To deal with the quantity of labor and maintain her productiveness excessive, Sullivan-Kreiss plans so as to add an funding supervisor and an extra advisor to the staff.

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

The impression of your agency associate. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has at all times acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency associate. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . it’s important to domesticate the appropriate relationships with the appropriate folks. You must 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 wide selection of back-office sources and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, reminiscent of Commonwealth’s Superior Planning staff, available to speak by way of a fancy planning or retirement drawback.

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 consumer is in search of a particular funding technique, she needs to have the ability to depend on her agency associate for specialised data. She receives that assist from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis staff.

In the end, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency associate should be capable of present a “phenomenal degree 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’ greatest pursuits. She’s been capable of construct the agency she’s at all times dreamed
of, one based mostly on placing her shoppers’ 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 staff, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.

Should you’re an advisor desirous to go unbiased, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you’ll be able to. 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, at all times needless to say you wish to go the place you’ll be able to develop, even when it’s one step at a time.

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