3 Key Partners for Every Financial Advisor | Savvy
As an advisor, you want to know that your clients are well taken care of, but you can only do so much. You can ensure that they're on track to be able to afford their dream home, but who's going to find it for them? When you've got your clients saving and investing like pros, who's going to make sure they are maximizing tactics come tax time?
For the parts of a client's financial life which are outside your purview, it's important to maintain a network of trusted specialists with whom you can collaborate so that every piece of the puzzle is accounted for. Clients should feel like they're working with a team that can answer any question that might arise.
By building a team of strategic partners in a variety of specialties, you can keep your clients in good hands. But who should you be looking to team up with, and how do you get them on board? Read on.
1. The Estate Lawyer
Being a good advisor is all about helping your clients prepare for the future, and there's only one future event of which we can be absolutely certain, death (well, and perhaps taxes, but we'll get to that in a moment.) A lot of people will use boilerplate forms or automated services to handle the eventual disposition of their assets, and certainly any lawyer can draft a simple will.
But a specialist in estate law can help your clients to avoid some pretty serious pitfalls and make sure their wishes are executed the way they want and aligned with their long-term goals. When reviewing your clients' plans for the future, it's not indelicate to ask if they've talked to an estate lawyer, and if they haven't, it would be good to be able to recommend one and show the value you bring to your clients.
2. The Accountant
Knock on wood, your clients' assets will always be fruitful and multiply, but as their assets grow they become more complex, and so does their tax treatment. When your clients have questions about complex tax situations, it's time to bring in an expert. Even people in fairly common circumstances can benefit from professional help with taxes.
3. The Real Estate Agent and the Mortgage Broker
Real estate is a common asset class for personal homeownership and investing. As the saying goes, they're not making any more land.
Whether your clients want to buy or sell their own home or are looking for a property to rent, hold, or flip, they'll need a real estate agent to help them find the right place and navigate the sales process. If they're looking to buy, they'll probably also want to talk to a mortgage broker, who can save them a lot of legwork and make sure they get the best available terms on a loan. Almost everyone will have occasion to deal with a real estate agent and a mortgage broker at some point in their lives, and it's a good idea to have a couple you can recommend.
As you look for people to recommend in this space, make sure you have contacts in place with experience in residential, small-scale investments, and larger commercial real estate. This line of work puts you in a position to meet people taking on all manner of real estate investments. Being able to connect your clients with the exact professional they need to get their deal closed will make you even more invaluable to them.
Building Your Team
So you're putting together the super-group of financial professionals to take care of your clients' every need. Fantastic! But where do you find them?
The most obvious first step is to make sure you know who your clients are already working with and make sure they know you. There's nothing untoward about asking your clients who's handling these affairs for them and calling them to introduce yourself and explain your role in the client's life. You can get on the same page as to their goals and make sure they know you're all on the same team.
After that, a great way to meet additional professionals is to flex your networking muscle.
Of course, if you want to save the time, effort and uncertainty of building your own team, Savvy helps provide you with one.
You know that being a great advisor is about more than taking care of portfolios; it's about taking care of people, and people are complicated, with a lot of moving parts to their financial lives. By assembling a team to handle every facet of that life, you set them up for success wherever the journey takes them.
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