Has Some Of Your Aum Been Stolen From Right Under Your Nose?

Is This Happening to You?

You suddenly get a notice to transfer funds to your client’s other advisor. What? She had another advisor? (Some clients have two or three advisors.)

Sometimes, she doesn’t have other advisors, only you. Nevertheless, an outsider gets your client’s attention, shows where he/she can fill a financial gap you didn’t cover, and then steals your client away—right from under your nose.

Or are you the predatory one gobbling up your colleagues’ AUM? Are you savvy to this powerful tactic called “offering a second opinion service”?

It goes like this. You’re talking to your client and asking her what value she finds in your services (you have a value conversation with your clients routinely, don’t you?). She expresses her appreciation of your services. The moment is right. You bring up that many investors are worried about their investments. They are unhappy with their advisors and are seeking better advice.

You offer to give a second opinion service to her friends. You’ll review their portfolios at no charge. You’ll review their goals and check whether the present plan is on the right track. Maybe you’ll find they have a sound plan and you tell them so. You may find they’d better be served by another advisor. You can then explore working together or finding another advisor who is better suited.

If you’ve made yourself highly referable by positioning yourself as an expert, the client will see this as a big favor. She may even surprise you by revealing she has a second advisor and ask you to evaluate his work!

When she refers you to her friends, you’ll find some of them have been “bulletproofed” by their present advisor. You can’t get in. Their advisor has positioned himself as THE expert for his client. He’s done this the same way you (I hope) bulletproof yourself.

However, a good percentage of the people she refers you to will be open to your second opinion and you may pick up some sizable new assets, plus some new clients.

You’ll not only stand to gain some new clients whose assets you’ll manage,but they’ll also provide you with referrals to their friends. What a nice result.

So, how can you bulletproof yourself from other advisors taking away your AUM? And how can you be the financial advisor people turn to for a second opinion?

Step One: Choose a target market. Know specifically whom you’re looking for—your ideal client. In other words, have a niche. A niche is a concentration of prospects that are easy to find and want to buy what you have. (Learn more from my article Read This or Suffer Like I Did).

Step Two: Do your market researc. Find out exactly what your target market wants, their dreams, their values and their pain points.

Step Three: Craft a compelling marketing message based upon your research. A message that promises to give them what they said they want.

Step Four: Present your message wherever you can. Warm up your clients and prospects with value conversations. Then suggest you can add the same value to their friends. You will provide second opinions. Often they’ll spontaneously offer you a referral. If not, you can gently ask them who they know.

Put these steps in place, if you haven’t already, and become a winner instead of a loser.

Some advisors look upon the second opinion service as predatory and not quite ethical. What do you think?