Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the 85th episode of the “Financial Advisor Success” podcast. My guest on today’s podcast is Elissa Buie. Elissa is the CEO of Yeske Buie, an independent registered investment advisor with offices in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. that manages nearly $750 million of assets under management for 240 clients with a team of 13. What’s unique about Elissa, though, is the way that she and her firm have figured out how to leverage next-generation talent through a financial planning resident program that trains and develops advisors, with the expectation that they will graduate and leave the firm after 3 years to be replaced by another financial planning resident.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about YeBu’s Financial Planning Resident Program. How the firm developed the intensive boot camp process to train new advisors in just eight weeks in how to produce the core deliverables the firm provides to clients, the way their financial planning residents gain experience in client meetings while boosting the firm’s productivity, and why the firm prefers hiring financial planning residents to a more traditional approach of hiring and developing paraplanners instead.
We also talk about the evolution of how advisors are trained and educate as professionals. The rise of master’s degree programs to increase the technical competency of today’s advisors, the importance of programs like the FPR Program to teach the so-called soft skills of effective client communication, and why Elissa believes that all advisors should at least know how to create a comprehensive plan for clients with only a yellow pad and a financial calculator to ensure that today’s financial planning software will then be used as a tool instead of a crutch with clients.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Elissa shares why the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 was the hardest moment for the firm, not simply because revenues turned down with the market decline, why the firm has decided to remain on the AUM model despite being a financial planning-centric business, and Elissa’s advice to new advisors in how best to find clients you will actually enjoy working with in the long run.
So whether you’re interested in hearing about Yeske Buie’s uniquely structured FPR Program, about the ongoing financial planning work Elissa’s firm does for its clients, or why every financial advisor should know how to create a comprehensive plan by hand, then I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
