Between Now And Success

Ben Harrison is the Co-Head, Wealth Solutions at BNY Mellon | Pershing, one of the industry’s largest custodians. I sat down with Ben at the CAIS Alternative Investment Summit in Beverly Hills, CA and we discussed the biggest challenges and opportunities facing financial advisors as well as his thoughts on what’s happening in the alternative investment space.

In this series of podcasts, I'm going to talk to financial professionals about their lives outside of the office: the passions, hobbies, experiences, challenges, and accomplishments that have influenced who they are and how they think about success and fulfillment. The first episode with Ben Jones explores his trip down The Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a 2,808 mile adventure from Banff in Alberta, Canada all the way to Antelope Wells, NM at the Mexican border. It's a grueling trip that required thorough planning, perseverance, and a belief that dreams are worth pursuing.

Should you allocate to alternative investments? For decades, advisors to the wealthiest strata of investors offered offered access to investments beyond the traditional stocks, bonds, and real estate. And for decades, there were significant barriers to entry in the alternative space that made it difficult for independent advisors to access the best money managers in the alt space. That’s now changed. Firms like CAIS have democratized access to some of the best money managers available and streamlined what has historically been a time-consuming process to “complete the paperwork” when using alternative managers. In today’s episode, we explore the alt space and how independent financial advisors can access an asset class that was previously reserved for the big banks and wirehouses and their well-heeled clients. Guest: Matt Brown, Founder of CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to and education about alternative investment funds and products. Matt and

Podcasting is a wonderful way to showcase the talents, insights, and creativity of the amazing people that populate our world. In that spirit, I'm thrilled to announce two special series of episodes that I'm launching this fall. The first series of episodes is in partnership with CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors. To explain what we're doing, I asked industry star and CAIS CMO Abby Salameh to join me today to discuss this special series of 10 podcast episodes and how they can help you enhance the investment side of your practice. (Teaser: you can register for the Summit Abby mentions by clicking here: https://caismarketing.com/summit2022)  The second series is something that I don't think has ever been done before in the financial advisory profession. So please listen to today's episode as I explain what these "adventurous" shows are about and how you might be able to be a guest on one of them. I hope you enjoy these upcoming shows as much as I love doing them. Please sp

Today's guest is Brent Kessel. Brent is co-founder of Abacus Wealth Partners, which has more than 50 employees and more than $2 billion in assets under management. (Editor's note: as of the date of this repost, September 2022, Abacus has about $3.5 billion in assets under management.) About ten years ago I was reading a Buddhist magazine and did a double-take when I saw an ad for a financial advisory firm on its back cover. Abacus Wealth has been on my radar ever since. "I have been a student of different kinds of Eastern traditions, mostly yoga and mindfulness meditation, for over 25 years," Brent says. "As your listeners probably know, the abacus is a Chinese mathematical computational instrument. What I liked about that name is that it felt like it brought in Eastern tradition and history along with computational dexterity, just the ability to really think, figure things out precisely." Brent's unique path through life and personal passions have had a big influence on how he runs his firm. We discussed how

My guest today, Dr. Eliott Berkman, is a tenured Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon, where he directs the Social and Effective Neuroscience Laboratory and conducts field-leading, federally-funded research on goals, motivation, and behavior change. He's also the Associate Director of the Center for Translational Neuroscience, and an author who writes about psychology and neuroscience for lay audiences, including in Psychology Today. We talk about the concept of the will and the way of goal pursuing, where the way is the set of cognitive skills, capacities, and ability that we collectively call the executive function, and the will is the motivational factors that propel the behavior. We also talk about how to increase our motivation and influence other people's behavior, the idea of flow states, and how that applies to achieving goals.

What is the cornerstone of your financial planning process? Solid money management is table stakes, not a differentiator. What really stands out is when you help clients be thoughtful about "what's the money for" and then align their money to support the life they want to live and be in harmony with their values. Advisors who learn how to help clients make those connections will be providing a valuable service that creates clients for life. Note: This episode is an excerpt from one of the monthly members-only Learning Hours at ROL Advisor. If you'd like to learn more about the Return on Life philosophy and explore becoming a Life-Centered Financial Planner, go to https://www.roladvisor.com. Guest: Natalie Taylor, a Certified Financial Planner™ and Behavioral Financial Advisor™.

Your business may not be for sale, but it should always be salable. According to a 2019 study by J.D. Power, the average age of a financial advisor is 55; approximately one-fifth of advisors are 65 and older. If you're within 5 - 7 years of exiting the business, succession planning should be one of your key strategic initiatives. Paul Blease advises that preparing to sell your practice is a process of analysis and optimization that requires a multi-year runway. Without proper planning, you risk undervaluing your life's work and damaging the key client relationships you'll need to sustain the business when the time comes to retire. Guest: Paul Blease, Strategic Consultant, Invesco Global Consulting at Invesco Global Consulting.

In a Nutshell: Paul Blease's 40 years of experience in financial services covers everything from the big wirehouses to the largest independent RIAs. In the first of two conversations, Paul and I focus on the synergistic team model, which he believes is the best way for advisor CEOs to attract, retain, and maximize top talent, while also providing "white glove" service to all clients. Guest: Paul Blease, Co-Head of Invesco Global Consulting at Invesco U.S.

Rapid advances in technology, generational change, Covid, financial upheaval, and distrust in institutions are upending the course of life…and financial planning. In light of all that is changing, how do you future proof your business? In this special live webinar recorded on February 1, 2022, Ric Edelman, the #1 financial advisor of the past 30 years, joins me to discuss the impact of five critical areas on personal finance and how that affects your client work as a financial advisor. 1. Exponential technologies 2. Bitcoin, blockchain, and digital assets 3. Longevity 4. Retirement security 5. Health and wellness Ric Edelman and I discuss: The wide variety of exponential technologies and how they will impact the nature of advice you give. Why Bitcoin, blockchain, and other digital assets are here to stay and why it's incumbent upon financial advisors to learn about them even if you don't recommend them. The impact of lengthening lifespans, what that means for a move toward a multi-stage life, and how to pl

In a Nutshell: Webinar marketing and digital communication is here to stay. In today's show, I talk to Eight Digit Media founder Chris Ross and we discuss a detailed, step-by-step strategy for generating tens of millions of new AUM each year from webinar marketing. And I'm not talking marketing fluff here. I have coaching clients who work with Chris and I've seen firsthand the results his team helps my clients deliver. Let's be honest, most advisors are not natural marketers. We'd rather spend our time helping people navigate life transitions than battling with Wordpress plugins and managing Facebook ads. That's where firms like Chris Ross' "done for you" Eight Digit Media come in. Chris and I went down the rabbit hole of webinar marketing and you'll learn the details of how to benefit from this powerful marketing strategy. Guest: Chris Ross, CEO of Eight Digit Media.  

For seven years, I’ve started each year with 3 words that I’ve carefully chosen to motivate me, remind me, and guide me on my road to making the New Year my best year ever. My 3 words are printed at the top of my Daily Outcomes sheet (my prioritized to-do list) so I see them multiple times a day. By being thoughtful when I identify my 3 words and then reviewing them on a daily basis, I have a daily reminder of my key focus for the year and this will (ideally) help me stay on track and on plan. In today’s show, I review my 3 words for 2021 and discuss how well I executed on them. I’ll also share why I am NOT doing this exercise in 2022 and what I’m doing in its place.

What is the “real value” that financial advisors deliver and that clients are willing to pay for? The value delivered by financial advisors has morphed over time. Decades ago, it was picking stocks and facilitating transactions. Then asset allocation and money management came into vogue. In the past 15 years, financial planning has become popular in parallel with the rise of financial planning software such as MoneyGuidePro, eMoney, and NaviPlan. Underlying this has been the accelerating pace of technology change as smartphones make the non-behavioral aspects of saving and managing money as simple as a few screen taps. Today, average financial advisors who remain wedded to the way they’ve been doing business will soon find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists. They’ll be chased out of business by prospects who never became clients, by clients who left to work with advisors better-suited to their evolving needs. Just like smartphones replaced laptops, and laptops replaced desktops, the

Guest: Ashley S. Murphy, CFP® AIF® CEPA™, Founder and Executive Director at Global Financial Planning Institute and Founder and Principle at Arete Wealth Strategists. Insight: Where do you want to be at the end of next year? Most of us can see the top-line goals we want to achieve. What's harder is identifying the smaller steps you have to take every day to get to that destination. And what's harder still is having the discipline to keep taking those steps, even on the days when you're just not feeling it. One common characteristic of the highest achievers I've talked to on my podcasts is that they've all settled into a daily routine that puts them in the right physical, mental, and emotional space to complete those select, specific tasks. If your approach to goal-setting needs a shake-up, start experimenting with your routine now. When the calendar flips to the New Year, you'll be ready to hit the ground running.

Guest: Janine Wertheim, who recently retired from Securities America after spending 37 years with the company. Janine started shortly after the company was founded and served in a variety of leadership roles. Most recently, Janine was President of Securities America Advisors, which is the $75 billion RIA firm she and a small team founded back in 1994. Insight: I started my financial services career working for Janine back in 1993. Under her leadership, we built Securities America Advisors, the corporate RIA, from $0 to nearly $2 billion in AUM by the time I left in 1999. Today, the RIA has $75 billion in AUM and Janine has served as its long-time president. It was a real treat for me to interview Janine as she reflected on nearly four decades of leadership. The industry has changed over the last four decades, but a constant has been her thoughtful, innovative leadership.

9 months of job interviews. 27 “No’s” from top advisory firms. 33,000 cold calls. That’s all it took for Erin Scannell to open up his independent office and land his first client back in 1999. Few people would have powered through that long, but as Erin Scannell explains on today’s podcast, he learned some hard lessons in perseverance and resilience growing up that continue to motivate him to this day. Erin is the founder and CEO of Heritage Wealth Advisors in the Seattle area, where he directs 50 team members, 18 advisors, and about $2 billion in assets under management. Erin is also a regular on Barron’s list of the top advisors and an inspiration to anyone who thinks the next hurdle in your business’ growth is insurmountable – even if that hurdle is a global pandemic. (June 2020)

Guests: Patrick Brewer, CFA, CPA is the President & CMO at WealthSource, a full service national independent registered investment advisory firm. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of SurePath Wealth Management, a financial advisor practice with seven offices across the country. SurePath was acquired by WealthSource Partners in early 2021. He’s also the founder of Model FA, which supports financial advisors as they grow sustainable businesses, increase their visibility, and change their clients’ lives. Stephanie Bogan has had a long career in financial consulting, including founding her own consulting firm at the age of 24 and selling it 12 years later in a seven-figure deal to a Fortune 200 company, and a stint at United Capital as SVP of Training and Client Experience. Today she runs Limitless Advisor, which is a program for advisors and founders to create bigger, better futures. Insight: Financial advisors have never had more marketing tools at their disposal, more options for how their business

Jim Crider, CFP® and CEO of Intentional Living FP discusses how his desire to guide people through the personal stress that money can create led him to a career in financial services and, ultimately, founding his own firm.

In a Nutshell: Technology is going to absorb most of the technical aspects of our work, so we have to become experts at what it means to be human. And advisors who embrace and further develop their "human" side of advising will thrive no matter how technology evolves. Guest: Clare Ciervo, CFP®, Advisor & Financial Planner at Balanced Rock Investment Advisors.

Most advisors effectively handle the money question. Few are adept at handling the emotion question. In this discussion, retirement expert Mitch Anthony and Steve Sanduski, CFP® show how you can become your client’s retirement coach and help them navigate this tricky transition to retirement. For the full presentation, please register for our free webinar on June 29 at 2:00 ET.  To register, visit: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bkodSXOASbyT0eTyIBH4wg   This program has been accepted for one hour of CE credit from the CFP Board and for one CE hour toward the CIMA/CIMC/CPWA designations.