Am I just not good at this?
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[quote=scrim67][quote=joedabrkr] [quote=scrim67]
Remember, the most important point in my case is that I'm not comfortable with the product.
I would hope most advisors would not present a product they are not comfortable in owning themselves.
scrim
[/quote]
It's funny that you close with that thought. Why? Because in the last year or so, as I've been learning more about annuities, paying more (current) taxes, and thinking about my retirement, I've begun to think seriously about funding an annuity myself as a supplemental retirement vehicle.
[/quote] What kind of annuity?
scrim
[/quote]A variable annuity with a guaranteed accumulation benefit.
[quote=scrim67]While maybe not an expert since I don’t sell them, I know enough about them to make an informed decision. I’ve actually read an entire contract. It made me very tired.
scrim[/quote]
...I'll bet it did. At any rate, I think we've polluted your thread enough with the VA debate. You may never sell them and that's fine by me. I just couldn't help myself feeding you another example of where they make sense. Short of a VA, those first two accounts probably would have gone straight to bank CDs and I'm confident that the CD option would be a poor one for 100% of their money over a normal retirement lifespan.
[quote=Indyone][quote=scrim67]While maybe not an expert since I don’t sell them, I know enough about them to make an informed decision. I’ve actually read an entire contract. It made me very tired.
scrim[/quote]
...I'll bet it did. At any rate, I think we've polluted your thread enough with the VA debate. You may never sell them and that's fine by me. I just couldn't help myself feeding you another example of where they make sense. Short of a VA, those first two accounts probably would have gone straight to bank CDs and I'm confident that the CD option would be a poor one for 100% of their money over a normal retirement lifespan.
[/quote] I appreicated everyone's constructive feedback. Whatever business I've turned away, not gotten, lost, etc. is a small price to pay for being able to be true to myself.
scrim
181 13.5M
Still seem to be in a mode of losing accounts as I open new ones. Weeding out the customers and keeping the clients I guess.
Still having my best month in production since my quarterly trails are getting stronger.
Have a great holiday and handle all pyrotechnics carefully!
Scrim
Scrim, if you don’t mind me asking… what do you attribute to the loss of accounts?
[quote=Mike Damone]Scrim, if you don’t mind me asking… what do you attribute to the loss of accounts?[/quote]
Probably people taking their money out of the accounts…
I would say a few factors:
Some were expected as the client had a very short term investment goal (1-2 years)
A common them also seems to be 401K rollovers where clients had no other altervatives but to liquidate as they have much bigger than expected bills to pay in retirement
One client liquidated because he decided to give the money to his son for a down payment on a home.
A few clients died.
One account was actually lost to a former colleague/buddy of mine who switched firms and my customer happened to walk into his bank branch which is about one hour from mine.
There is a disproportionate accounts leaving me from branches I used to cover in the past.
This just reinforces that going to one branch instead of trying to cover a whole circuit is a good idea.
scrim
There is a disproportionate accounts leaving me from branches I used to cover in the past.
This just reinforces that going to one branch instead of trying to cover a whole circuit is a good idea
Do you think that is because you just physically aren't getting in front of the clients often enough? Where are they going? another brokerage, annuities. How are they being contacted by your competition? If you can figure out this information, you may have the ability to come up with a strategy that will combat your competition.
If you can't physically be in front of people, can you send newsletters and articles followed by a phone call to reinforce customer loyalty?
I keep in contact with the ones I feel are worth keeping.
Being the third year in my practice and recently going to a "centralized" mode I'm viewing much of this as a consolidation period.
Simply trying to reinforce relationships with clients, weed out the customers.
I don't do much in the way of articles/newsletters preferring to use the telephone and face to face meetings. My back office sends out quarterly newsletters to my fee based clients updating them on the stock, bond and cash markets so anything I might do would be overkill IMHO.
scrim
Ditto Bunny. And as a financial planner brought up to always get in front of clients, unlike those “evil” brokers who do more with the phone, I have found that lots of phone contact really solidifies relationships - especially immediate, personal attention when they call and quarterly proactive rebalancing touches for anything over 100k. And you get referrals. Took me too long to figure it out.
182 13.6M
Still opening and losing approx. the same number of accounts each month. This has been the trend for the past few months. I'm not nervous about this trend just yet. I do feel like i'm walking up the "down" escalator at times!
Bonds 754
Glavine 299
Arod 499
Pretty exciting huh?
Scrim
Scrim:
What has worked for you as far as branch training?
Does the bank require x number of referals per employee?
My referrals are slow and was wondering what others in the bank channel do.
I have been in this same one branch for almost three years now. I'm not proud to admit that I do almost zero branch training. When I used to do it I really felt it had no/little impact so I've concentrated on building my business mostly by myself.
There are no goals set for referrals anymore because that was a fruitless effort as well.
Mind you, there is one employee of the bank branch who has been here 25 years so she knows everyone. I don't push her at all because I need to keep things friendly between us. It's worth it for the few referrals she gives me and for her contacts.
scrim
You're doing a good job, but the main reason you keep losing accounts could be that other advisors have a bigger arsenal to fight with................
I worked at a bank for 3 years, and the "lack of trust" they put in expereinced advisors like me was staggering...........
We only had one B share VA to sell, 3 proprietary fixed annuities, 8 fund families, and one wrap product at 1.15 plus mostly A share expense ratios............
Refering to "gross production or revenue"... do you then get a percentage of that depending on the product you sell- how does that work exactly and what's your cut?
Hey Scrim,
I think your progess reports each month are a great teaching tool. Thanks! I hope you don't mind but I took the liberty of throwing your past asset updates into Excel and pasting them below.
Month Total Total Average End Accounts Assets Account Mar-05 26 $ 1,800,000 $ 69,231 Apr-05 32 $ 2,300,000 $ 71,875 May-05 35 $ 2,400,000 $ 68,571 Jun-05 47 $ 3,400,000 $ 72,340 Jul-05 58 $ 3,800,000 $ 65,517 Aug-05 73 $ 5,000,000 $ 68,493 Sep-05 77 $ 5,400,000 $ 70,130 Oct-05 81 $ 5,500,000 $ 67,901 Nov-05 91 $ 6,000,000 $ 65,934 Dec-05 100 $ 6,900,000 $ 69,000 Jan-06 107 $ 7,500,000 $ 70,093 Feb-06 115 $ 7,800,000 $ 67,826 Mar-06 127 $ 8,600,000 $ 67,717 Apr-06 132 $ 8,900,000 $ 67,424 May-06 143 $ 9,500,000 $ 66,434 Jun-06 149 $ 9,500,000 $ 63,758 Jul-06 145 $ 9,200,000 $ 63,448 Aug-06 151 $ 9,900,000 $ 65,563 Sep-06 158 $10,300,000 $ 65,190 Oct-06 168 $11,200,000 $ 66,667 Nov-06 168 $11,500,000 $ 68,452 Dec-06 170 $11,700,000 $ 68,824 Jan-07 173 $12,100,000 $ 69,942 Feb-07 179 $12,500,000 $ 69,832 Mar-07 177 $12,400,000 $ 70,056 Apr-07 177 $12,700,000 $ 71,751 May-07 180 $13,400,000 $ 74,444 Jun-07 181 $13,500,000 $ 74,586 Jul-07 182 $13,600,000 $ 74,725[quote=blarmston]You have WAY too much time on your hands bud...[/quote]
I hear ya blarmston. But, it took about 15 minutes, and I thought it would be worth seeing.