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RIA Operators

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ProAdvisorSuite

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6 contributions to RIA Operators
Product specific topic: Advisory Fee 529 plans for RIA Only Firms
Team - Thanks in advance for any feedback on this topic. This is something I have been working to research for sometime and have been unable to find a really great solution. Here is our problem... We are currently a hybrid RIA-BD firm with Cambridge Investment Research. We have historically had direct commission mutual fund business at AMF/others and although it was still always more cumbersome to open 529s vs other account types, we were able to use these CollegeAmerica/Bright Directions types to facilitate. Our goal by the end of 2023 is to transition to RIA only to streamline our operations and become more in alignment with regulatory initiatives moving forward. We have made considerable progress on this front but we are running into the same hang-up with many of our households, their 529 accounts. The primary challenges we are running into are that A) It doesn't seem like there are many fee-based 529 providers out there and B) It is a challenge to debit fee's from 529 accounts because of regulations/legislation/tax code issues. Questions for you: Does your firm use a fee based 529 approach with clients? If not, what approach do you take? What firms/platforms do you use? What additional challenges have you ran into with 529 plans? Am I alone with this being a challenge to others? Thanks again for all of your insight!
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New comment Mar '23
Sticking to the Process
As we grow as a team, and are adding new relationships we struggle with getting people to follow the processes we've created within Redtail. We have done a lot of work to put together template tasks and workflows to help create the steps to ensure clients get the necessary communication and service they expect. Have others had this issue, and how did you get the team back on track?
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New comment Jun '23
9 likes โ€ข Mar '23
Vision -> Buy-in -> Accountability. 3 equal parts of the success of any implementation. Vision: Everyone in the organization must see and understand the vision. "We are going to do "X" because of these reasons..." If people understand the "why" and see the value they will buy in. We stay on this vision conversation until we have 100% buy-in. Any stubborn team members who push back must provide clear and specific evidence/data as to "X" isn't necessary/valuable. Our operational philosophy is to implement everything with the end goal of being 10x as big in mind. Everything must be scalable and efficient to reach that number and all of our team members know the value to them if we reach our growth goals. Make sure everyone understands the "Why". Buy-in: Advisors especially are usually "prove-it" personality types. Any process changes/implementations must have complete buy-in across the organization to be successful. This is especially true of your high-earners/leadership types. Just like any group, people follow the most influential, even if not right. Make sure what you are implementing has been confirmed/tested many times. Be airtight in your delivery and be prepared for all follow questions. Demonstrate that this new process will work and have the desired outcome. Have verbal/written confirmation from everyone that they understand and commit to doing things a certain way. Accountability: This is the part that is the most missed / skipped / overlooked. No matter how small/insignificant an error is, or how high of an earner made it, there must be complete organizational accountability for any implementation to be successful. An unaddressed concern when it comes to doing processes differently/incorrectly is like a small crack in a dam. Insignificant at first and may seem like it's not worth addressing becomes a massive hole over time. At first it is one process not being followed, and then before you know it, it evolves to every process is being trimmed down in one way or another. Any time we implement new process/workflows/technology etc, for the first several weeks/months we will go back and spot check each Advisor/CSA to make sure its being done like we want. They say it takes 66 days (insert the most recent # here) to build a habit and we make sure we provide almost overbearing accountability on each team member until we feel comfortable.
Broadcast email error messages
Has anyone ever seen this error message when trying to do a blast email on Redtail? Error Message 501 5.1.3 Bad recipient address syntax Trying to understand what is causing this...any responses appreciated. Darcy
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New comment Mar '23
3 likes โ€ข Mar '23
My guess is that you have an email address (or multiple) that are not formatted correctly. This could be because of inadvertent spaces before or after the email address or punctuation in the wrong spot. Generally I have found this happens when copying/pasting emails in as opposed to typing them in.
Client Segments
I'm curious what client segmentation systems people are using. Please also comment to share info about what's (not) working, how/when you make exceptions to your system, etc.
Poll
9 members have voted
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New comment Mar '23
Client Segments
3 likes โ€ข Mar '23
We segment by AUM with really no exceptions. We had previously given ourselves different carveouts such as "business owner that will have significant assets when they sell" or "young high earner that will eventually have assets" but what we ultimately found is that the additional investment we made in those folks rarely came around to be profitable. The business owner doesn't always sell, or when they do, the business isn't worth as much as anticipated. Those high earners, may end up being high spenders and not great clients long term. We base the segment on manageable assets within 24months. We have a few financial planning only clients that pay significant quarterly/annual financial planning fees so we look at the revenue and extrapolate out what the assets would be based on the revenue and segment them accordingly
0 likes โ€ข Mar '23
@Ceri Cundiff We charge our advisory fee only on assets we manage directly which makes up 90%+ of all our assets. We have a few brokerage accounts/straggler alternative investments sprinkled in from legacy clients and occasionally charge a financial planning fee to advise on those accounts that aren't actively managed if we are providing additional planning services as well.
What's the #1 Feature You Want?
If you could wave a magic wand and add one feature to Redtail, what would it be?
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New comment Jan 2
0 likes โ€ข Mar '23
@Lauren Linn Hi Lauren! Can you help me understand how you would use a "sub-category" field? Curious to see if we are dropping the ball anywhere
0 likes โ€ข Mar '23
@Joe Moss Looking into it now! Thanks for the heads up.
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Andrew Burgess
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39points to level up
@andrew-burgess-5227
Operations Manager at Anchor Wealth Management - Rockford, IL. Series 7, 66, and 24. Outdoors/sports junkie. Dog dad x2.

Active 270d ago
Joined Feb 24, 2023
Rockford, IL
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