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Tune in to "What Works" hosted by Don Patrick where we tap into 2,500+ years of experience in running financial advisory practices. In each episode, Don sits down with an experienced financial planner, uncovering the unique insights and experiences that have shaped their careers. From navigating market fluctuations to building successful client relationships, Don and his guests share invaluable business tips and strategies for financial planners looking to thrive in the industry.
Join us every other Thursday, as we explore the wealth of knowledge accumulated from over 2500+ years of combined experience in financial planning.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to What Works. This is a show for consortium advisors that taps into over 1,000 years of experience shared by our consortium advisors.
I'm your host, Don Patrick, and I'm here to guide the conversation with guest advisors and lift the hood on what works for them in business and life. It's all about learning and growing.
So let's go.
Don Patrick: Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode number 30 of IFG’s podcast, What Works? And today our guest is Becky Fero. She's the principal financial planner at Fero Financial in beautiful Port Charlotte, Florida. Becky, welcome.
Rebekah Fero: Thank you, Don. Glad to be here.
Don Patrick: Good. Yes, this is gonna be fun. I'm gonna love it. So tell us a little bit about your background, your family, and just kind of–
Rebekah Fero: Well, I will start with my family because they are my joy. I have a wonderful husband of 39 years and two amazing children, Jeffrey, which you know is here in my practice with me, a CFP, and now fully licensed as of Monday to start.
Don Patrick: Oh, fantastic.
Rebekah Fero: Start working the business. And I have my daughter, Alyssa, who is a nurse practitioner and she's happily married and has two beautiful daughters, and I love being a grandmother. So that's my family. As far as my background, I started back in the mid-eighties. I went to school, studied to be a psychologist, and kind of took a left turn and started with a small tax practice here.
Well, it actually was a big tax practice, but I started there as a math checker and worked my way up to being a tax preparer. And it was there that I got my Series 7 license and as of October this year, it'll be 37 years that I've had that license. And then did taxes for several years and then they got into the financial advising business.
And that's where I got my Series 7, my Series 24. And I also got my CFP in 1994, so it was bang, bang, bang, license, licence, this and that, and started out just working with my tax clients with investing and they never really took me seriously, until I actually left there. And in the interim there, I was a compliance officer for six years. So I totally get the whole compliance thing and am really glad we have a good crystal on our side, so.
Don Patrick: I agree. Absolutely. Well, that's amazing. So, ironically, at the time, being a psychology major, you didn't really know that's the most important part of our profession today, isn't it?
Rebekah Fero: No. No. And I think that's the part of the profession that really drives me is working with people and meeting them where they are in their life.
And helping them see things through a different lens, because many of them have money issues. I think a lot of people have money issues, and I think a lot of people have trauma issues from childhood and it carries into their adulthood and they don't really know why they can't maybe make decisions and things like that.
But I, I just really work really hard trying to get them to see things from a different lens and look at their money in a different way. So I do really enjoy human behavior. It fascinates me, and that's the part of this job that really gives me the joy of it. It's making money and looking at returns and all that. That's part of the job. It's very important. But if I can get a client to not worry about their money, then I think I've done my job, so.
Don Patrick: Yes, I've said for decades that the best preparation for to be a financial planner is psychology without a doubt. So you're at this tax firm, you get license up, you get your CFP, you're doing tax work, and then where'd you go? What happened from there?
Rebekah Fero: Well, what happened was being a compliance officer and a small broker-dealer, which was all male advisors, they didn't take me serious. I went to a lot of, at that time it was the NESD meetings and things, and I came back and I really tried to bring in the compliance aspect, which I think back then it was a much more relaxed, obviously.
But I just had a really difficult time with some people there. Plus to bake into it all, there was a Ponzi scheme that this broker-dealer got us into, and it was a really dark time in my life, and at the time, it was just dark. But looking back, it made me a better financial advisor and planner because it taught me that you cannot trust anybody but yourself as far as doing due diligence and things like that.
So, I left there, I interviewed with another CFP in town, and at the time I was at that tax practice, I was the only CFP and I really liked the whole financial planning gig and it was just about selling product, making a commission, a shares, and then moving on to the next one.
So I took a leap and I left there and I went and worked with another CFP and another advisor in town. And that's where I started building my clients, a lot of them followed me. That's when they really realized that I was a financial advisor and it wasn't the taxes that I knew more, so it was just kind of crazy how they looked at me totally different when I left there in a good way.
So, I started out literally with a guaranteed paycheck from the tax place to nothing, to zero. And it was scary, but I mean, when you're down and you know that you're, you need to make a change. And I don't know, I guess I was desperate in some ways. You just do what you gotta do.
And that's what I did. And I worked, worked, and worked and kept learning and learning and learning. And here I am today with my own practice. And last year was the, last year, my 1099 income was a little over $950,000. And I mean, it's taken me several years and I'm starting to accelerate now with the help of coaches. So yeah, I'm in a good place.
Don Patrick: So let's go back. So you started from scratch. You were married, were you a mother at the time also?
Rebekah Fero: I was a mother at the time. I had both of my kids. And yes, so it was being a mother, daycare, this and that. But my husband worked in construction so he could pick up the kids.
I mean, he was a big support. He was a good, he's a good father and he really helped. And I mean, again, I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have that support. And I had my parents too, who also helped with my kids, so, I mean, I can remember sitting in my bedroom at night studying for the CFP and I could hear my kids out there running around. But I just knew, I knew that I had to do this, I had to do this. And I just, there was this drive in me to get this designation and so, yeah.
Don Patrick: Yes. And you're tenacious. I know that. So, how did you start bringing on clients besides the ones that followed you? How did you start building up with new clients?
Rebekah Fero: Well, I did seminars. I did the, oh, Smart Women Finish Rich seminar, which was an Invesco thing at the time, at a local center. I did a lot of networking. I joined Rotary. I joined Rotary for networking. It never yield me clients, but what it did do was it gave me confidence that I didn't have.
And at the end, I became the club president, and then I was an assistant governor for the district to the governor, and then I was assistant governor for a second year. So I had to get up in front of people and talk, and it gave me confidence to get out there and not be afraid to say, “Hey, this is what I do.”
So I really worked and tried to network with CPAs and attorneys and some of those worked, some of those didn't. But I just, as the years went on, I got referrals from clients, but there was a CPA and an attorney in town that really did feed me some decent referrals. I joined Chambers, I did all that stuff.
Can't say any of those really helped me. But again, just getting out there and hobnobbing with people, you've gotta be able to talk to people and share your story and what you're trying to accomplish and be different from all the other financial advisors out there because there's a lot of 'em, so.
Don Patrick: That's correct. There's a lot that claim they’re financial planners and of course, you know better than that. So how did you differentiate yourself?
Rebekah Fero: Well, one of the things I did, I guess I really didn't differentiate myself to be honest with you until I left. So, in 2008, right when the market was blowing up, I left the CFP I was with, and I went on my own.
I still was with FSC, but I went on my own because there was just a lot of underlying conflicts and things like that. And this is a doggy dog business. And I have to say, I don't play well in a sandbox with people because I just don't. I'm competitive, not probably in a healthy way, but it's gotten me to where I am.
If you tell me I can't do something, I'm gonna prove you wrong. That's just how I am. So anyways, I went off and then the market blew apart. And again, that was a really dark time, and especially when you're by yourself, and you're not with a group, you're kind of like lost. And I was, but I remember getting on FPA meetings and listening to a lot of other people that are a lot more seasoned than I am, felt the same way.
So I think, one thing I wanna say about being successful in this business is fellowship and being around other people and being able to talk. And that's, we'll get into it, how IFG really was a game changer for me.
Don Patrick: So I mean, 2008, all of us who lived through that. I mean, I've been through the ‘87 crash, the 2000 crash. I've been an ardent student of this world forever. But the way I've always described it, it's like we all held hands, closed our eyes and jumped off the cliff and didn’t know where the bottom was. It was crazy.
Rebekah Fero: Yeah, it was crazy.
Don Patrick: But I'm a Barden Nick Murray fan. He keeps you straight. And I knew there was gonna be a bottom to it. And ironically, in hindsight, most market corrections last a year, a year and a half, and 2000 was like three years, but ‘08, which was as big as 1929 was year and a before it hit. It was amazing. But yeah, crazy time. On the other hand, what I found, I don’t know if you found this, that when we go through crazy markets like that, that's when you really bring on clients, they realize it's not a game and it's serious. Did it help you start growing your business during ‘08?
Rebekah Fero: Maybe a little bit, but I can't say that it really did. Again, it taught me that, it taught me how to operate in these markets. It wasn't just a growth experience, so I can't say that it brought, I can't say it brought on a lot of clients. It really wasn't until I joined IFG that I really started growing my practice. So I wouldn't say that it did, no.
Don Patrick: So, when did you join, integrate the consortium?
Rebekah Fero: I joined Integrated in 2016 and I was still with FSC, but I was under their direct compliance. I was with FSC and I was probably 2015, 2014, I was, again, I felt like I was just stalled and lost and not going anywhere, and nothing was working.
And somehow I found out about Dan Sullivan's strategic coach. So I looked into that and I took a leap of faith, had to convince my husband about the investment of it, and took a leap of faith, joined that, and that was a great introduction to coaching. And I really, that's where I met Mike Tarrant.
And that's where, that's how I got into IFG, is Mike. He shared with me he was making a transition, he was joining this group and that he could probably get me into talk to them. And I did. And I joined in August of 2016, actually.
Don Patrick: Nine years ago.
Rebekah Fero: Yep. And I joined the consortium because I was, I loved the idea of the brain trust. I loved the fact that I would have other people, good people that cared about others in the profession, which I'm not sure that is a culture in a lot of places, to help and to talk things through. I mean there's, this is such a vast business with so many moving parts and so many things to consider.
I knew that it would be helpful for me to be able to have that resource. And I met with you and Land and maybe a few other people and then you gave me the, “We accept you in.” And that was a big day in my life and I was really happy. And IFG has really, truly impacted my practice through collaboration with other planners, idea sharing through the mastermind group, which I joined and they became like a family to me.
To me, mastermind groups and coaching are imperative if you want to move forward in this business. That's just my experience personally, so.
Don Patrick: I agree. The term mastermind group really came from folks like Einstein, as an example, Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates. They've all attribute mastermind groups to a big part of their success.
And I know your group is really strong and you're a big leader in that group, or at least you were when I was paying attention. Yeah. And you do create great friendships in the mastermind groups. So you're preaching to the choir here. I agree with you. They're fantastic.
So let's talk about the coaching. So you started Dan Sullivan, which he's famous. And tell us about that experience and impact it's had on you professionally.
Rebekah Fero: So it started with, I was in Strategic Coach, I think, for three years. Fly up there once a quarter, spend a day and a half, two days, fly back and try to integrate their tools into my practice.
But they weren't really designed, they were designed for entrepreneurs. They weren't really for financial advisors. It was a wonderful experience. I would highly suggest it to anybody. But after I was done with Strategic Coach, I went without a coach for a while, and again, I felt like I was just floundering. I am not a trained professional CEO.
Don Patrick: None of us are.
Rebekah Fero: Doing KPIs and doing all that stuff and having all these systems. I flew by the seat of my pants and I just knew that I was not gonna be able to break through to the next level by doing that. So I talked to Madge. I hired Madge, I worked very diligently with her for three years.
She was a game changer. Literally a game changer. I think coaches, a good coach gets somebody out of their own mind and she really helped me do that, and she guided me and it was definitely once I started working with her that my income started to creep up. And every year that I've been at IFG, I mean, I started in 2015.
My gross income was about 236,000. In 2020, it was about 540. And then, like I said, in 2024, it was 959,000. And a lot of that income increase was because I started to put in systems, job descriptions, reviews of employees. Do I do them perfect today? No, but I'm hoping every day I just keep striving a little bit more to get better at being a CEO so that my practice can continue to grow.
And I've really, when you were down here, I told you I didn't know what the difference between scale and growth were. And scaling your and leveraging your tools and your processes are so important. But again, if you don't, if you don't really know what you don't know, then you can't do them.
And that's what a good coach to me helps you do, helps you see those things. So after I worked with Madge for three years, and during that three years, I was going through some major personal family issues and so, I mean, I would come in here some days and probably spend 15, 20 minutes or a half hour with her just crying and so, but she stuck with me.
She got it out of my head and off we moved. And that, like I said, that was a difficult time, and plus living here in Florida, we had some bad hurricanes and there was a really bad one during that time. But after three years, I just knew that I needed a break so that I could integrate all these things that I was learning into my practice and did that for a while.
And the same year that I left Madge, I have always followed Stephanie Bogan. She's got a real interesting story, but she started this limitless coaching and I listened to her on YouTube and that's another thing that I did, I spent a lot of time listening to people like Michael Kitces, Stephanie Bogan, Carl Richards, these people that are thought leaders in the business for ideas, insight, how to think.
And so in last December, I caught her doing something on LinkedIn on her upcoming pro coaching program, and she was doing it with Michael Kitces. So I joined on and I listened to it. And then after that, I signed up to have a one-on-one with Stephanie. And this was, again, towards late December. And just previously, I tried to go get on her website because I could never get on there and I don't know if they locked it down when they're working throughout the year.
So, you go on a waiting list. But anyways, I had a one-on-one with her and we had a talk about what I was trying to achieve, and one thing is having a life, having structure, not working 60 hours a week. And after we had our conversation, she emailed me back and she said that she felt that I would be a good candidate for their leaders program.
They have a lifestyle program and a leaders program. But because I'm bringing in a gen two, which is Jeffrey, she felt the leadership would be more appropriate for me. The leadership program is really more for people that wanna build more than a triangle team. That's the kind of team we have as a triangle team and the definition of Michael Kitces.
So Jeff, we joined and she embraced Jeffrey. So he's on all the calls. She just, she blows my mind and this limitless coaching, I mean, really is limitless. Our jobs as financial advisors can be so limitless. And I think just like clients get into their own mind and they have these stories, they tell themselves I was doing that.
And she is really good at helping you flip. The story into something that's positive. I mean, if you saw my three monitors, I've got sticky notes all over the bottom on things that she says, like deeper, better value, badass. She's like, “You're a badass and unleash your vision. Success never happens alone. Crush your climb.” Just these things. And every week there's like a mini mastermind with all the people that are part of leaders and lifestyle and we're all on a Zoom meeting and she's going over things.
And the bonus to this is Michael Kitces as part of this, and I don't wanna say I worship Michael Kitces, but I just, he just blows my mind. He's so brilliant.
Don Patrick: He's incredible. Yes.
Rebekah Fero: The first coaching that we did in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jeffrey and I went to, you know, he's there, he's in the room with probably about 30 of us. And he came over at the end of the first session day and he sat with Jeffrey and I said to him, “You know, you're a rock star.”
And he goes, “Yeah, that's weird.” And but he just, he takes, he took an interest, he gave, he gives good feedback, just like Stephanie. And so between the two of them, just sitting in a room and absorbing what they have to say and the individualized sessions so that they're talking to us about our own specific practices.
So I just, it's money well spent. It's money well spent. And honestly, some, I know some advisors or people in life think that spending money is an expense. To me, this has been such an investment in myself, my son, my practice, and that can only translate to my clients. And that's, it means the world to me.
Don Patrick: Yeah, it is an investment, and you’ve demonstrated black and white in terms of the business, the impact. I’m gonna back up to Madge for second because there are coaching programs out there, and then there's one, one roll-ups. Because with her, it's a weekly, two-hour meeting. Correct? I mean, it's hard.
Rebekah Fero: Yes, it's hard.
Don Patrick: It's probably a shock when you first started because it's pretty amazing.
Rebekah Fero: It was a shock. It was a shock. I mean, I had a vacation planned and she's like, “Well, if you're gonna go on vacation, then we're just gonna cancel the contract.” So I canceled the vacation, so, yeah, she's really, really good.
Don Patrick: So with Limitless, so you have weekly group Zoom meetings, and then what else? Are there one-on-ones? Do you meet quarterly? How does that, what does that look like?
Rebekah Fero: So there are one-on-ones. Every month, I meet with Stephanie one-on-one, talking about my specific objectives. So every Monday there is a Zoom meeting with all the participants, and that's usually an hour and a half, then baked into there, we have virtual summits, of which we've had three and there's a fourth one coming up, and then there's also three on-site ones.
So the first one was in Charlotte, North Carolina. We did one in Park City, and then the next one will be in Denver the first week of September. So lots of interconnecting. She sends an email every Friday wanting to know what you've done. I mean, it's a constant thing, constant thing. But if you're only gonna get out of it, what you put into it.
Don Patrick: So I mean, your path is very similar to most advisors who've gotten in this profession and wanna be independent, not realizing they also had to be a business owner and a CEO. It's very common. Very common. And there's another thing about coaching is that you'll probably get there anyway, but if you wanna get there faster, you hire a good coach.
Rebekah Fero: Yes. Yes. And I wanna get there faster.
Don Patrick: I know. So, you hired Madge, you joined the consortium and your business is growing. How is it growing? Where were the clients coming from?
Rebekah Fero: So, strangely enough, I've gotten some really good clients from my website. So, yeah. And I'm in the process right now. Through Limitless, I found somebody that was like Heather was, and her name is Francesca McLin and she worked at Edward Jones, then Snappy Kraken. And anyways, she is Stephanie Bogans Limitless. She's the one that does the copyright and stuff for her. And just a side note, Stephanie Bogan is Michael Kitces’ coach.
But I am in the process right now of redoing my website because we are changing our model and we are going after women in transition, widowhood, divorce, transition, women. And so we're redoing our website so that it will, I think, be even more wow. So I'm really looking forward to the next month and seeing that, what that looks like.
But pretty much my website, sometimes client referrals, I can't say I'm getting a lot of client referrals. And COIs, they've pretty much stalled on me, but CPAs are difficult to get into, but Limitless has a whole program on how to do the COI referrals and get into their web as well as clients.
So once I get the website thing done, I'm gonna go back to the COIs. I have some ideas to try to get into their web so that they start seeing me. And one of them is to bring our new niche specialization to them. So when they have a woman come in that's dealt with a divorce or a death or what have you, they think of me.
That's what my goal is. I want them to think of me, that I'm not doing all these things. So, but yeah, my website, some clients, nothing specifically, Don, but my website's really helped.
Don Patrick: So having a niche is nirvana and many advisors have a hard time figuring out what their niche is. And how did you discover your niche?
Rebekah Fero: So, Stephanie says, “You probably have a niche and you don't even know it.” So she has an inventory that we go through in a deep dive of who our clients are, what, what's common characteristics about them. Mine came out widowed women who have a faith looking for somebody that's kind of like family, that inventory thing.
And I had a lot of clients that were like that niche and I love working with them. So that's how I kind of nailed it down. Did a lot of thinking about it. Kind of thought about how is Jeffrey going to work this niche because he is a man and I don't think he's totally for it.
He actually, a lot of my women, older women clients would rather talk to him than me. So I think with the huge amount of wealth that women are gonna inherit in the next 10 years, I mean, there's statistics out there that women are going to be coming into massive wealth in the next 10 years.
I think that this transition into specializing with women is going to, it was a good time to do it, and I didn't even know this about these women inheriting all this money. It was, it's just given me more confirmation that we're moving in the right direction.
Don Patrick: Does it feel good having a niche?
Rebekah Fero: Yes.
Don Patrick: It's fantastic, isn't it?
Rebekah Fero: It is. It is. And I've read some great books on niching. It's not something you wanna just jump into. You really need to do your research on it. And to me, I wish I would've niched a long time ago, and I say that because we will have a system and we will work with people and we will be able to stay in that zone.
Like having meetings, like piling them up in one month, staying focused on that, that's what we're gonna be doing with our clients, rather than have this business client, this 401(k), this, I mean, the switching around you have to do in your mind to accommodate all these different people with different personalities.
To me, it's draining on, in my experience, it's been very draining on myself and my team, and having a niche and sticking with it, I believe, is going to catapult us to the next level even faster.
Don Patrick: Yeah, trying to be all things to all people is very difficult. You mentioned 401(k)s. Everybody has a couple handful full of fours and that's a whole specialty in and itself. So with your niche now in terms of bringing on new clients, if it's a couple, will you accept them? How is this gonna look in terms–
Rebekah Fero: So if it's a couple, as a matter of fact, one of my most recent, new prospects that turned into a client, he found me on my website 'cause it kind of looks like for women.
And he was having issues with his Wells Fargo advisor. He just wasn't happy. And that was the impetus for him to start looking, and talked to him on the phone 'cause we do like a 15-minute discovery meeting to see if we're a good fit and the reason that he decided to move his accounts and work with us.
The biggest reason was that if he passed away, he knew his wife knew nothing. And he wanted her to be with somebody that he knew would take good care of her, would not rip her off. He just felt really comfortable about that. And then when he learned all the things we do and not just charge a fee and manage investments that we do, look at taxes and look at all these other things, that was just a bonus.
So I will definitely take couples if they are a good fit and that's kind of their primary motive. If not, if I get referrals or I get people that are not a good fit, I'm in the process of trying to determine who I can send them to. And it may be an IFG advisor. I don't really have any relationships with financial advisors locally with me.
I don't really, I don't know. There's, I just, I don't know what they do and I know what people at IFG do, so I would rather send them to somebody like that. As long as they're into technology and can do Zoom, I'd rather do that. But I'm not gonna take any living, breathing person that walks in the door anymore.
And I just did a partial book sale a couple months ago back to LPL and Stephanie, she really insisted that I did that and it was scary, but I did it and it was like a really, “Wow, I don't have to deal with all those phone calls of Gimme 500. Give me a thousand, here's 500 back.” No, no more.
It was so, it was so amazing to do that partial book sale, LPL I have to say, and I'm not a, I haven't been a big fan of LPLs. They've really perfected that and made it simple. So, but yes, getting rid of clients that are not a good fit, that's part one. They'll be a part two coming because I still have clients that are not a good fit, but I need to do it in a measured way and not get ahead of myself, so.
Don Patrick: So how did you determine, did you do a segmentation of the clients to start the process?
Rebekah Fero: Yes. So we have 10 clients. Those are the lowest. And those would be people, like, they don't need me.
Looked at the people that you know that don't need the complex type of planning that we provide here, and that's how we did it. Pretty much everybody on the tin or maybe bronze, those are the ones that we sold back, sold to LPL.
Don Patrick: And what was the reaction or feedback from the clients that you moved on to LPL?
Rebekah Fero: So I did it with the letters. I did not call every single one of them. I just felt that it would be too time-consuming.
And so I did the letters and everybody seemed to be okay. There was a couple clients that had hurt feelings and when we explained to them why we were doing it, you don't need the kind of services that we have and you don't need to pay for the type of services that we have, that you'll be in a better position.
You've got CFPs, you've got other professionals up there that are gonna help you navigate what you have. And they were all, they were fine. There was probably a couple that were a little bit hurt, but all in all it went really well.
Don Patrick: Yep. So you're absolutely correct. I mean, that message is you can't serve everybody.
You'll go out of business trying to do that and they'll get better service. You're absolutely. That's great. We've had several big successes with the partial and that is a fantastic program. So looking at your practice today, so you mentioned you have a triangle and explain what that is and where you're trying to go with the practice and the makeup.
Rebekah Fero: So the triangle is a lead advisor, which is me and two team members, which would be Jeffrey, my paraplanner, and Tracy, my operations person. Both of these individuals support me in what needs to be done, and they both are amazing. God has certainly blessed me with two wonderful people that are very conscientious, have the same ways of thinking about how to treat clients, so on and so forth.
So where I'm trying to go now, and incidentally, one of the things I learned at the last, and when I was in Salt Lake, Michael Kitces has a new study out and he was talking about big isn't always better. If you bring on a couple more advisors, this and that, it may, it's probably not going to yield you a lot more profit.
So, that was, again, a confirmation for me that we have a sweet team, a sweet spot, and I'm gonna stick with it for now. But one of the reasons for doing Limitless is to transition Jeffrey. So he is more the head and I'm the tail over the next three years. I'm not planning on retiring, but I also don't want to be out there being the main person.
I want that transition to start and I plan on working till I'm 75. I'm gonna be 62 this year. I just don't wanna be working like I have been, and so it's gonna take a while. It's gonna take a while. It might take more than three years to get Jeffrey into that type of position. But with Stephanie's coaching, her tools, and I think that we can get there where we need to be.
Don Patrick: So are you getting coaching for you and Jeff Jeffrey? Is that kind of Yep.
Rebekah Fero: Yep. She wants him on the calls. If you know Jeffrey, he's very quiet, he's very reserved, and I think I'm gonna make him join Toastmasters now that he's got all these tests out of the way.
But yes, and Tracy, all three of them, they can get on all the calls, they can listen, they have all the resources. So I mean, Limitless has built a very robust website where there is, wherever, whatever you need to do in your practice, they have written about it. They have structure, they have forms, they have everything.
And so the one thing that Stephanie and I talked about last month is that I need to give Jeffrey something where he can take ownership of it and take it from beginning and end and to start getting him to think like an entrepreneur. So I have not done that yet, but I need to do that. So, but yes, that's having the ability for him to be on all the calls, and he goes with me to all the off-site meetings. It's been good. It's been really good.
Don Patrick: That's fantastic. Yeah. Given him something that he has ownership of, and like you said, when you're getting the confidence and that's a big deal.
Toastmasters, by the way, is fantastic. That's a really good decision. It works. So, you got the triangle, it's kind of gonna stay that way and working on Jeffrey, moving in over the next three to five years and kind of running the place, right? More like the CEO is that what I'm understanding?
Rebekah Fero: He says, “I can run this place now.” It's like, okay. but he, yes, he sits in, pretty much all of my meetings now. He has relationships with the clients. There's still things he doesn't know, but I'll tell you what, getting his CFP and him listening, 'cause he signed up on his own to do the Michael Kitces premier website.
So he does his CE where you actually learn things with his CE in the real world. He can come in and ask me something and question me and I'm like, “You're right, Jeffrey. That's good catch.” So that's, I just want him to really be multi-versatile and have built up really good knowledge so I can feel good about leaving him on his own.
Don Patrick: That's fantastic.
Rebekah Fero: ‘C ause I wanna eventually take a month off or two months off, I mean, I've earned it and, but I want to be sure that my clients are going to be taken care of. And, so yeah, we still have some work to do.
Don Patrick: Well, that's a great journey. I love it. And clear vision.
I mean, that, that's just a win-win. That's fantastic. So I'm gonna change it up a little bit. Let's talk about your tech platform. What kinds of tools are you using in the business?
Rebekah Fero: Well, I have a lot of tech, so my favorite one is Holistiplan.
Don Patrick: Yes.
Rebekah Fero: Morris Shank was the one that shared about Holistiplan, and it was a game-changer.
I mean, it really, really is. And clients like it. And clients like that we are looking at their taxes. I was on a Jump Holistiplan webinar yesterday and they talked about how estate planning has really dropped off and people really want more tax planning. So, and because I have a tax background, it's really good for me, because I get it. I use eMoney, not WealthVision and we really try to get all of our clients to use the vault and their own personal website.
I use FP Pathfinder, I've got the premium version. I pay the full whatever it is so I can have all the bells and whistles and white label it. And I use that a lot to educate clients. I use that to put things on LinkedIn and it's a great tool. And again, I send it to CPAs sometimes because they, CPAs don't know all the nitty-gritty, so it's a great tool.
I had Nitrogen, we dropped it because our clients just did not like their risk questionnaire and it was a common complaint. So we went to the Morningstar advisor workstation, which has a really good risk questionnaire. It's not like it used to be. It's very good and clients don't balk about doing that one.
And it's a great tool 'cause it's got a lot of information in there. And I do have a lot of clients that are not in models because they have taxable accounts. So I have to really monitor those closely. And Morningstar advisor workstation is, it’s a great resource. I have Fi360 for my 401(k)s.
It's like a Morningstar. I probably will be letting my 401(k)s go here in the next year because, again, they're not gonna be part of my niche. Fi360 is a great tool. I have savvy Social Security with Horsesmouth. I have subscribed to Savvy, their IRA version. That one is wonderful. And the resources that you have with the Savvy IRA one is to keep you out of trouble when doing IRA planning for clients. That book is a must-have. And they also have a resource where, if you have a question, you don't quite know where to go with it. You can ask the question and you've got trained people that can give you the answer instead of spinning your wheels for 10 hours. For 600 bucks, you got it for a year and you know you got that to fall back on.
I, too, subscribe to Nick Murray. I have for years. He's great to keep me in my right mind when things are going crazy. And I also subscribe to Kitce’s premier website because of the CE that he provides us, it's, to me, a real CE with real-life experiences. So that's what I got.
Don Patrick: How about for a CRM? What do you use?
Rebekah Fero: Oh, Redtail. I was gonna switch to Wealthbox and I talked to Stephanie about that. She goes, “Potatoes, potatoes. It really doesn't matter.” So we are kind of invested in Redtail and we're making so many other changes. Maybe one day we will switch to Wealthbox, but right now we're just using Redtail. And I also use Jump.
Don Patrick: I was gonna ask. Yes
Rebekah Fero: Jump is a jump. If you're not using Jump, you gotta have Jump.
Don Patrick: It's a time saver.
Rebekah Fero: Oh my gosh. Again, I was on a webinar yesterday with Jump and Holistiplan and they were showing you things in there. There's just so much and I probably scratched the surface by maybe 10% in all these programs.
But I try to learn and I'm gonna be more diligent in learning all the things that Jump does because you can change the meeting and have it do a different template. There's a lot of cool things on it and I just integrated it with eMoney. So not only does it give you an email to send to your client all the notes for Redtail, it allows you to update a lot of information or put stuff into eMoney that, you know. So yeah, it's a huge time saver.
Don Patrick: Amazing. Do you use any automated scheduling tool at all?
Rebekah Fero: Not yet, but we're gonna add one.
Don Patrick: Any, are you using RepChat?
Rebekah Fero: Yes. Oh yeah. We definitely are using RepChat. We're paranoid. We don't wanna get into trouble.
Don Patrick: Our compliance lady.
Rebekah Fero: Yeah, I totally get the whole compliance thing because I was a compliance person and I know that if people in this business poo- poo it, they're only gonna hurt themselves one day. I mean, so yeah, we use RepChat.
Don Patrick: You do have a lot of tech that’s, by the way, pretty common within the consortium. I mean, most of the tools you're using, I don’t how many are subscribing to Savvy. That is incredible. That's just amazing, and Kitces is amazing. These are great subscriptions. And of course, Nick Murray does keep your head on straight. So you've got a prospective client coming in. Walk us through what the various meaning processes are like and what that looks like.
Rebekah Fero: So, again, in full disclosure, that is kind of gonna be changed as a result of this new niche and we're working with Francesca on revising that. But you know, right now somebody will call and Tracy uses the limitless intake form to vet them, get their information, and then she schedules a 15-minute get-to-know-you call with me so that I can talk to them, see what they're looking for, are they a right fit? If not, how to redirect them into the right person? So I just don't say, “Sorry, we're not right for you.” I try to get them in another direction with another referral or something like that. But then if they're a good fit, they come in, we sit down, we do a deep discovery, what is it that they're looking for?
Why did you even call a financial advisor planner? People just don't pick up the phone one day and say, “Hey, I'm gonna…” There was a triggering event. What is that triggering event? So we spend about an hour with them. We show them eMoney. Again, a lot of it's changing, but after that meeting, they bring in all of their information and we do want all of it.
Tax returns, auto policies, homeowners' estate plans. All that. And then Jeffrey puts it all into eMoney and then we bring them back in and show them where they're at, this and that, and how we're different again. And most of them, we don't really lose anybody. But again, we are working on changing that so that it's gonna be more structured. It's worked for us, but again, it needs to be tightened up.
Don Patrick: So in what ways more structured or more tightened up are you looking at?
Rebekah Fero: So one is, we are scheduling now, a month after they become a client, we are bringing them back in to go over LPL statements, how to read their statements, how to navigate the eMoney, if they have any questions, anything that could be loose ends, we bring them back in. But the primary motive is to get in front of them, help them read their statements, because a lot of clients can't read their statements.
So that, and I also, give them a performance report that I generate from LPL. I do that just to show them, you know, “This is what you will commonly see when we do our reviews. It's not something that you will get, but it's something that we can provide at any time.” What else do we do? Just try to answer any questions that may have come up. When they leave, I give them each Yeti that says patience, discipline.
They get to pick their color. They love that. They love the Yetis.
Don Patrick: That's great.
Rebekah Fero: So just try to bond with them and then we will do another follow-up with them. But I don't know, maybe the next time we do this, I can give you a better rundown, but just getting, what we're doing is working, but I know that it needs to be tightened up and like Francesca said to me, because one thing I wasn't doing is I wasn't going into LPL and IFG and who they were because I just wasn't.
And she said, “Becky, you really need to show them who LPL is. And IFG and the power of LPL, because a lot of people don't know who they are. And so I've been doing that now. I've got something in to be approved for compliance that talks about the hybrid relationship, who’s LPL? Who's IFG and who's Fero Financial?
So they can get a little bit better understanding, 'cause a lot of people ask those questions.
Don Patrick: Oh, they do. And you'll explain it to them, a year later, they don't remember. And so to have a visual is fantastic.
Rebekah Fero: Yeah. So we are gonna have, we have the visuals, like I said, those are all working our way through.
And then the other thing that we're doing is when they come back in, and I think I gave you one of those, is we've built a client account reference guide. So one side, it has what eMoney does, what it is, what account view is, what's Adobe Sign and what's an encrypted email. So there's four columns and each one has a column and at the bottom, it's got their username and password, because clients get confused between eMoney and account view and which password goes where.
And it's so just trying to get them to be able to understand what we have for them and segregate it. And the more you tell them, the more they get to understand, so.
Don Patrick: Yeah, it's confusing. I love what you're doing in that second meeting following the kind of I guess it's get fit meeting where you demo eMoney, I mean more in a kind of an intangible business and you're actually showing them something tangible. So you give them kind of like a test drive of eMoney? Is that what it looks like?
Rebekah Fero: Yes. We're doing that with all of them now.
Don Patrick: Yeah. That's big.
Rebekah Fero: That one, I had a long-time client, she's like 88, and so she never really paid much attention, but her daughter's now getting involved and I showed her eMoney, it blew her away.
So, it really is a robust, powerful piece of technology. And some people aren't gonna care, but a lot of people like to see all their stuff in one spot.
Don Patrick: Do you charge separate fees, or is it an asset management fee for all the financial plans?
Rebekah Fero: Right now it’s AUM and my minimum's gonna be a million.
And so yes, I'm doing it that way. I'm not sure that in a year that's the way, because it kind of seems like there's a pivot in the industry to kind of go back to charging financial planning fees. But for right now, I'm doing it that way.
Don Patrick: Okay. So I'm a new client, or I'm an existing client now. What does the pace look like in terms of reviews and things of that nature?
Rebekah Fero: So right now, Tracy schedules the appointment and we're going to get the automated calendar scheduling thing. That's in the third quarter. We're gonna incorporate that, but she gets some, she gets them in here for their appointment using the phone, email and RepChat to remind them and we meet with them.
We also ask for a lot of data before they come in so we can update their financial, their eMoney and all that, and check things and look at their tax return. And we have a very busy agenda that needs to be stripped down. The other thing I learned in Limitless is that we're doing too many things in our review meetings.
I've gotta make an adjustment on that, but we go over what has changed? This is all on our agenda, what has changed? Family, so on and so forth. We go over weaknesses or money needs or things like that. We get that out of the way and we have each account, each advisory account, separated on the agenda.
It has the investment objective, what the fee is. It's got all that, and then if it's in a model, it might be rebalance or sell a thousand dollars for advisory fees. If it's something that I'm managing, all those changes are in there underneath for the changes, so we just go over each individual account.
Each individual one has its own performance report. Sometimes, if they have a lot of them, I color code them back to the agenda so they can follow. We just really focus on what are their upcoming needs? Are these investment objectives still? Is this still the way we wanna roll going forward? And we've satisfied compliance.
We've done our thing, we were doing tax planning in those, but we're gonna break that out now and have, the month of November is gonna be our Holistiplan tax planning month. So that's gonna be a separate deliverable and a separate focus instead of building that into the annual review. So, yeah.
And we give them all their statements and all their reports and we pull up eMoney and show them where they're at and Jeffrey's mastered the change thing and on-the-fly stuff. So, stuff like that. And I must say, we get a very good report card from Crystal and Laurel on our review, on our compliance. So I think we are doing something right.
Don Patrick: Yes, I know you are. So you have an annual review and now you're gonna add Holistiplan in November. Are there any other touches you do particularly with your top clients?
Rebekah Fero: So with touches, that is all, again, we were doing touches, but kind of in a hodgepodge manner.
But we bought a big whiteboard and it's divided into 12 months. And like in January, we're gonna do a review of the last 12 months and provide them the nice, pretty net worth statement that eMoney generates. That'll be a touch. We're gonna have different touches in different months. Some of them, we also send an email every Thursday with, it's usually FP Pathfinder or Nick Murray's client coroner.
We send those every Thursday to all of our clients. But again, that's something that's up for review and we're restructuring. We do look at their auto and homeowners and umbrella policies.
We probably are gonna have a month for that, because we found that a lot of clients are way underinsured. Just a quick side note, one of my clients came in about a month ago. He was out there talking to Tracy and I could tell he was upset and he had a car accident and he was afraid he was gonna get sued.
And I said, “Well, you're probably gonna get the lawyers contacting you, but you don't need to worry because you upped your liability coverage based on what we recommended. You've got your account set up properly, tenancy by the entirety. And in Florida that is a protection on accounts.” I said, “You can sleep at night. I can't stop the lawyers because that's just what they do, but you don't need to worry.”
And he gave me a hug and he left. And I called him two weeks later just to see how he was doing and he was just so thrilled that I called him. So those are the kind of touches that we, I touch by phone calls, notes, I use a lot of lavish cards, send notes to clients. I just want my people to know that we care about them and that they can count on us.
Don Patrick: Fantastic. So let's talk about investment management, you implied you have some custom, particularly the non-qualified accounts, and do you also do models and what does that look like?
Rebekah Fero: So whenever we can put a client in a model with IFG running the show, we do it. It took me a while to buy into that, but I totally, again, it's a time saver. So if they're in a model, they get changed based on when the money manager says make the change.
Most of, I use mostly Dimensional and American Funds. Got some MFS, a few Vanguard, but those are my ones. As far as doing my own investing and recommendations, so I have one client with $3 million in an account she transferred over from Edward Jones and it's got all kinds of stocks in it, mutual funds and and gains, big gains and they like stocks. So that's why I have to have Morningstar advisor workstation, so I can look at each stock. I can do that and I use LPLs as much as I possibly can. They have an allocation and one of their reports of, “This is what the client's portfolio looks like, this is what we recommend.”
So I do use that to make my changes. Like if they need, we need to reduce their large cap growth and increase their mid cap value. We make changes that way using Morningstar advisor workstation and using LPLs recommended allocations.
Don Patrick: Fantastic. So you outsource the bulk of it, which I've always been an advocate of.
We're not gonna outperform all these smart people. I love that. So this has been fantastic. What a journey and what you've done, and you're tenacious and I love where you're going, and the limitless coaching just sounds spectacular. I'm gonna try and wrap a few things up here with a few quick fun questions. So I'm gonna ask you to use three words to describe your talents and your strengths.
Rebekah Fero: I would say my strengths are critical thinking, being able to think deeply and that would be one. But it's gotta be totally quiet for me to do that. Listening, listening to people, what they're saying, reading them.
How they are coming across, body, language, eyes, this and that, really trying to figure out who they are. It's not all about just the money they're bringing over. And optimism, I have to say, I'm working on that strength and that's why I put it on there. I found that you have to be optimistic.
You have to have a right mindset. And so I would say those are the three.
Don Patrick: Fantastic. So what's something surprising about you that most people don’t know?
Rebekah Fero: Well, I really struggled with this one and I asked Tracy and Jeffrey and they couldn't come up with anything. So I'm gonna tell you something that's probably gonna surprise a lot of people and it's probably like you're gonna roll your eyes and say, “Why is she telling us that?”
But I wanna be honest and I wanna help other people that may listen to this. I am a proud member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I have worked the 12 steps. I have had a spiritual awakening, and I am here today because I've learned to live life on life's terms. Markets are gonna go down, people are gonna get mad.
Things aren't always gonna go the way you want them to, but you have to be able to live life on life's terms because if you can't do that and accept that, then you can't help your clients because you're gonna be in the wrong mindset. I joined AA for my husband, but I stayed for me and I found in those rooms pure honesty, a lot of great people and working the 12 steps, if everybody in this world worked the 12 steps, we would have a much better world. And I personally think that an alcoholic or somebody with some type of addiction has a real gift if they can harness it and use it for good. So, surprise.
Don Patrick: Well, that's amazing. I didn't know and you actually gave us all some great advice with that.
Rebekah Fero: Well, just a quick side note, my sister is a social worker and she's dealing with families that are very dysfunctional. And I said to her, “You need to do this and this and this.” I said, “Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I gotta do this.” I said, “Listen, June,” I said, “You don't know. You don't know their language. You're not talking their language and until you can talk their language.” So I sent her the AA book and the 12 steps and she was eternally grateful. They are great books. They really are. So I'll leave it at that.
Don Patrick: Well, one last question. Do you have a favorite book?
Rebekah Fero: The Bible.
Don Patrick: The Bible. That's great. Yes. Becky, this has been fantastic. What a journey. What a great job. Really appreciate you for taking the time. I know you prepared for this because I know you. This is great. I wanna thank you so much.
Rebekah Fero: You are so welcome and I wanna take this opportunity to thank you so much for believing in me and seeing me, and for what I was when I didn't even know it. Thank you.
Don Patrick: Well, it's our pleasure. That's where we get our joy. It's been just tremendous watching you and watching you grow, and you work hard at it and look at the results.
Well, that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening.
If you've got something to share, send an email to dpatrick@thebraintrust.net. We want to know what works.
Until next time. See ya.