On June 25, 2024, we sat down with Snap user Adam Bornn, CFP, CLU to discuss what practice management and practice growth strategies have been effective.
Adam has been dedicated to clients looking to build financial, retirement, and estate plans since 2006. After gaining years of experience and his Certified Financial Planner® designation, Adam ventured out and founded Parallel Wealth. Now, he partners with those who have worked hard saving for retirement but are looking for a trusted planner to walk with into and through retirement.
Interview questions for Adam
Specifically, we planned to discuss:
- Adam’s background: how did you get where you are now?
- Team structure: how many on the team, what do they do?
- What is your full planning process: from first prospective meeting to formal engagement?
- What financial planning software and other tech do you use?
- Prospecting: how do you convert prospects into clients?
- Referrals: how do you generate them?
- what advice can you give Advisors who want to increase their referral rates?
- Discovery and ongoing relationship building/maintenance/retention:
- what questions do you ask initially?
- how often do you meet with clients, update their plans?
- what questions do you ask existing clients to continue to expand the relationship as time goes on?
- what do you do to retain your clients? what do you think they value the most?
Watch the Advisor interview recording
You can watch the replay here and we’ll share additional resources below.
Canadian Financial Advisors, Planners, and Investment Managers are eligible to start a 14-day Free Trial of Snap Projections financial planning software.
Questions from the audience
Audience questions that were sent via email include:
Have you found a portfolio manager or investment solution for clients with less than $400k? I’ve been unable to find a solution for those with portfolios less than $400k.
We recommend Steadyhand. Note they are only Ontarion West.
What is the name of book?
Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller
Is it an annual fee Adam charges? Or is it just one-time fee for plan.
One time fee, broken into 2 payments.
So what’s the conversion rate for your emailing campaigns?
We look at it as a funnel. X amount into the email campaign, X book a call, X pay for a plan now, X pay in the future. With the email campaign our focus is open rate as we know that converts. Of call I do, I am then able to close roughly 30%.
What’s the name of the CRM he mentioned?
Zoho
You mentioned that you refer out your investments. Can you recommend any companies that provide that service? Also, does this process make it easier to address the topic of mutual fund fees?
BCV Asset Management and Steadyhand are where we send a lot of clients. The only time I discuss MF fees with clients is when they hold them and are paying high fees
Can you walk through what the process looks like to ensure a client has the proper asset allocation to support their financial plan, since you refer out the investment component? Do you work closely with the PM firm?
We talk to teh PM firm daily for our ongoing clients. Asset allocation is driven and monitored by them. The more a planner stays in their lane the more value we add.
Did you have any help developing your funnel system?
No, I did it myself (along with our staff) as we know what we wanted. When you hire for this stuff you get experts in the field, but not our field and a lot of the cadence is lost to lack on knowledge specific to our industry.
What’s the difference between Kajabi and AdvisorStream?
Not sure. Based on research I did a few years back, Kajabi was really the only one stop shopw for everything we needed.
For your emails, is the content already planned out for the year? Do you have templates prepared to send them for the whole year?
Yes, it’s all scheduled into the funnel once they enter their info. 100% automated.
As far as tech stack, what secure file sharing platform have you found best?
Sharefile.
What are the prospecting methods being used the most successfully?
100% YouTube.
How do they present the plan to their clients and get the client to act on recommendations presented?
This is a long process so I can’t go through that here, but if you show clients both sides of the coin (or options they can take) and educate them around the ‘why’, they will take action. I also find that because people are paying us for this service they have more motivation. This is why planners that offer ‘free’ plans get little action from their clients. There is little engagement.
How do advisors create their marketing content? What do they use to create client emails, presentations, videos, etc?
Use the knowledge you have and any experience working with clients. Our emails share stories and engage the client. Make it all human, not financial planning language – or you will lose people fast!
Adam’s client onboarding video
This is the video that Adam sends out to his newly onboarded clients that explains what working together will look like.
Snap’s client onboarding video for Snap users
On request, the team at Snap Projections has created something similar but shorter.
Advisors and Planners using Snap can share this 2-minute video with clients to show how working together will help to provide peace of mind and direction on their financial journey.
It quickly reviews how information is gathered and entered into Snap Projections, the analysis of the current financial situation and potential future outcomes, and finally, how recommendations and guidance can be provided.
Additional resources mentioned during this session
The Financial Advisor’s Marketing Guide
The Financial Planning Toolkit
15 Content ideas that will attract your ideal clients
