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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: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the IFG podcast, What Works. This is
episode number 33, and our special guests today are Chris and Nick Rios. And
I'm identifying them not by their age, but by alphabetical order. They're
with their advisor with the Financial Strategies Group down in Sunrise,
Florida.
So, Chris, Nick, welcome.
Nick Rios: Thank you.
Chris Rios: Thank you, Don. Excited to join.
Don Patrick: So I'm gonna start this off a little differently than I have
historically, because I've known you guys for over 20 years. You may not
remember that. You weren't even in high school. I remember the home you were
living in West, and so I've seen you grow up over the years and go to
college and you're what we would call next gen or G2.
And you're gonna clarify that for us as I ask you some questions. But I
think you got about a decade worth of experience and I know every advisor,
every team in the consortium, I know what kind of work they do. And I would
put you two up against any of them. You're really, really good. And it's
amazing.
Chris Rios: Thank you, Don.
Don Patrick: For me, it's just heartwarming. So, I guess first I'm gonna
ask. So I also wanna look about your background, your family. I want you to
explain the names Rios, DeProspero, and Cleare because it's gonna be, you're
all with Financial Strategies Group, right? And so if you can explain that
to everybody who's listening and there's a whole bunch of folks that are
listening, it'd be great.
Nick Rios: I'll just jump off real quick and I know Chris will definitely
have some additional things to say. But yeah, the Cleare, DeProspero, Rios,
what's that connection? Are they family? Are they not? And happen to be,
yes, we are family. Even though all the last names are widely different.
Obviously, Chris is a brother, two years younger than me, but you wouldn't
know. And 'cause he's been in the business almost 10 years, right?
Chris Rios: Yeah. Yeah.
Nick Rios: I would say 10 years.
Chris Rios: 15. So over 10 years.
Don Patrick: That's crazy.
Nick Rios: And I keep on saying 10 years and then I do the math, it’s closer
to 12 now. And that kind of blows my mind, to your point, Don.
Don Patrick: Yes.
Nick Rios: Clear and DeProspero, the principals of the firm.
DeProspero, being our mother, Cleare, being our stepfather, merged our
practices. And around the same time doing that, added me, asked me to join
the practice firm 2013. And that's where the Rios first got started. And so
it's better put that it's de DeProspero, Clear, Rios because there's a
second one. Hard one.
Don Patrick: That's great. I get it all now. Cleared that up. So, Nick, so
you came, did you come right out of college into the firm, or did you do
anything prior to that? What was that like?
Nick Rios: Yeah, I was a few months soon to be graduate of Florida State,
and I got an email as formal as can imagine from Kim and Hank saying, “Here
are the guidelines for your probation period if you choose to accept.”
Don Patrick: Yeah, I know your mom. She's very professional.
Nick Rios: Professional, yeah. There's a big separation. I wouldn't say
large separation, but keeping professional and our business relationship has
always been a priority. It's difficult, obviously, it's easy one year,
difficult the other, but I think we do a pretty good job all things
considered.
But yeah, it was the most formal, headhunter email basically saying, “We
need help. We would like to go to you first,” as that blood relationship,
“and you don't need to accept.” But I said, “Okay.” And it really wasn't
what was on my mind, like, “Oh, I'm gonna join the family practice.” I had
an idea of going to law school, just jumping into the workforce, where
refining a job. But, yeah. So we're out of school
Don Patrick: And what'd you major in?
Nick Rios: I had a poli sci major and after I realized I can't do too much
there, I added finance. So I had the second major.
Chris Rios: Still passionate about politics, though. That's still a part of
your daily reading.
Don Patrick: We won’t go there today. We’ll just spend hours on that. So,
Chris, how about you? Where'd you go to school? What'd you major in? What'd
you do before you joined FSG?
Chris Rios: Yeah. Growing up, South Florida, Nick and I, by the time I got
to senior year in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do, where I
wanted to go, like most 18-year-olds. So I figured my background and our
grandfather was in insurance sales in the eighties.
My father's insurance sales still these days through the eighties. And our
mother is financial planning. And Hank, obviously. I said I gotta get a
finance degree and see where that takes me, obviously, naturally. So, I got
into University of New Hampshire. I wanted to go to school in New England
just to do something different and study finance and a minor in business
management.
And even through that, through four years of school, still had no idea what
I wanted to do with a degree, but I figure
Don Patrick: Which is normal. Very normal.
Chris Rios: Practical advice like Nick received is a degree in business or
degree in finance can take you pretty much anywhere. So through
relationships through college, got an interview at Putnam Investments in
Eaton Vance.
'Cause that was a direct funnel from the northeast area for a lot of
corporate entry-level jobs in finance. And was lucky enough to land a job
with Eaton Vance in their mutual fund services department. So I was in
charge of fielding inbound calls from direct IRA shareholders from the
fifties and sixties, making redemptions, processing liquidations and buys
and sales of it direct held mutual funds, which is no longer a part of the
business model for asset management firms for understandable reasons, right?
So during that 10-month stint and mutual fund services, they had a really
rigorous training program. So it was six weeks of deep dive into what's a
mutual fund, what's a structured product, what's an ETF, what's a privately
held investment.
What are limited liability partnerships? How do you communicate this to
shareholders? Right? And then operational training and customer service
training. And through that time, they'll help pay for your Series 7, 66, and
63. So you're not making any money, you are learning about the business and
getting really good training.
So I kind of fell into that role. I didn't map it out or have it planned,
but it really gave me good exposure to the industry. And then you ultimately
have the opportunity to interview for an internal wholesaling job with 15
other guys and girls fighting for five open spots on the internal desk.
So learning how to schmooze managers and corporate politics. And that wasn't
really my expertise, but was lucky enough to land an internal wholesaling
gig for the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul on the independent
channel. So I covered LPL, other independent broker-dealers selling our
mutual funds, structured products, and ETFs, but primarily, Ameriprise
Financial was our biggest relationship in the Twin Cities area.
So did a little bit of traveling with my external wholesaler, but really
being around the sales desk, being around portfolio managers, learning how
to speak about the industry from the asset management side was my first stab
at this business. It was great. I mean, I learned a lot. I definitely
learned a lot.
I learned how to understand how assets behave in different economic cycles
and asset allocation, and we were a big muni shop, so learning corporate
bonds and municipal bonds and an SMA wrapper versus a mutual fund wrapper.
All of this stuff obviously helps translate to our business and how we work
with clients daily, but it's a completely different language. So I had to
completely relearn the whole industry from Nick, from Kim and Hank when I
make this shift over about four years later at Eaton Vance, so.
Don Patrick: Yeah. Financial planning is a people business, but, so let me
ask you, then. Number one, did you get sales training? Two, you really
learned more than just the industry. You had to learn how to talk to people
and relate and that sort of thinking.
Chris Rios: Yeah. Looking back now, we had heavy sales training, product
training, day in and day out, but I think the biggest value out I received
was just hearing no from an advisor on the phone every day when you make a
call, ripping $50 a day to get a yes.
Once a day, you really thicken the skin when you get that, “Yes, let's
schedule a meeting,” or, “I'm interested in your product.” You don't fall
out of your chair and fumble the next sentence, right? The only way I
learned that is by doing it, right? And yeah, to your question, yeah, that
was really the value add of that role is just learning. Learning how to
communicate in sales, training and listening better versus saying, “Hey, I
have this great new strategy, let me tell you about it.”
Don Patrick: Right. So this is kind of a one-off, but isn't most of your
family up in Massachusetts?
Chris Rios: Yeah.
Don Patrick: You went from Florida to New Hampshire. So is there some
background there at all?
Chris Rios: Yeah, Nick and I grew up.
Don Patrick: That's crazy.
Chris Rios: To go back to your original question about family, Nick and I
grew up spending a lot of time in Maine at summer camp as kids. So New
England was something we're really familiar with. And then a lot of our
families in the greater Worcester area and natural progression, have since
moved to Florida or somewhere else, right, as family relocates. But we've
spent a lot of time and a week in Cape Cod every summer with all our cousins
jam-packed in one house. So the move was big, but we still had family close
by, which was helpful.
Don Patrick: So Nick, so you're pretty much, well, actually very green right
out of school.
And Hank and Kim are, they're wonderful people, big hearts, but very
professional. I mean, this is a hard thing bringing a family member,
especially a son out of school. And now you're also successful. So what was
the training like? What was the whole progression like for you?
Nick Rios: Yeah, I was a test dummy for everything. What worked, what
doesn't work. Ask Nick, he'll tell you. So it was drinking from the fire
hose, I mean, multiple times every single day. And to Kim and Hank's credit,
they really, again, they hadn't brought on a junior advisor. They know the
training through the corporate route. They know Chris's training. They use
our broker-dealer, possibly for some training subjects, but in reality,
they're not there to train some young advisor.
So they might have some stuff, but end of the day, it was really on me, a
lot of it. Kim and Hank would direct me in the right way, but they're
running a full-time business. They're trying to grow the business. They're
trying to service the clients. They also then want to train me on top of all
the planning.
There's only so much time in the day for them to do that. So when I hear
Chris's story, and we've had this conversation many times, is which route
was better for us? Personally, I love the way Chris went from the, you know,
you're using a huge institution, using all their knowledge, all of their
processes to onboard a new sales rep.
You're not gonna get much better than that. Where I came from, the planning
side first now pays more dividends, possibly in regards to exactly like the
fundamental what we do on the practice. Chris took a little longer to get
onboarded because he had the sales side. So I think together, what happened
was we learned from each other when he joined the practice. I saw what he
was doing.
I go, “Oh, I really, I like that.” I haven't seen that too much. I didn't
have exposure to it. So, what I love about this business is, though, if you
keep your eyes open and you're listening of what others are doing or what
clients are telling to you, you can learn a lot and adjust when you're
young, right?
Don Patrick: Actually, throughout life.
Nick Rios: Yeah, throughout life. As long as you're starting, you know that
you need to continue this, right? Because there's always someone who can do
a particular task better than you.
Don Patrick: Always learning. Always listening.
Chris Rios: Absolutely.
Nick Rios: Yeah.
Don Patrick: Never stops. So when you joined, what did they have you doing
first? Just like learning how to open accounts and just that kind of like
administrative things at first, or what did that look like?
Nick Rios: Yeah. Very administrative stuff. This was on the old LPL platform
branch net, if you remember that branch. Oh my goodness.
Don Patrick: The ugly yellow.
Nick Rios: From ‘95 or something, so.
Don Patrick: They bought that from Bank of America, by the way.
Nick Rios: Oh, I'm sure. Bank of America.
Don Patrick: That's the history.
Nick Rios: Yeah. No, a lot of the training, though, was driven by the
licenses. So, picking up the insurance license immediately, starting for
that 66, 7, just digesting those books. And then sitting in them in
meetings, obviously, and understanding what the dynamic should be between
client and advisor, the potent questions to ask. But there's, it was a
learning curve, because a lot of it was, I wouldn't say on the fly, you're
trying to structure as much as possible, but inevitably we're small
practices. You gotta help where you can and that's learning something new
and taking your time, not making mistakes, just being really diligent on
spending your time wisely to starting to join the practice.
Don Patrick: So I'm gonna stay on this for a little bit just because we have
a lot of G2s, we have a lot of, senior advisors and their businesses, and
how do you bring them in? How do you train them? What does that look like?
And are they the beta tester like you? So typically what I've seen is
they'll, it'll have somebody start off doing all the admin stuff. So you get
to learn how to open accounts, learn the software, learn the terminology. Is
that kind of how you basically get started or not?
Nick Rios: Admin tech would be the first two things, right? On the tech
side, it's being an inputter, right? You're inputting the, you're taking
statements, plugging it into the software, updating plans, calling clients,
saying, “Hey, how's it going with just your cash account? What's cash flow
like?” Updating the plans, so then for the reviews that are upcoming for the
principals, they have everything they need.
They don't have to be searching for updated numbers, goals, decisions on
their clients. I would field a lot of that prior to their actual client
review just with a brief phone call.
Don Patrick: You started off very early as a paraplanner.
Nick Rios: Yeah, it wasn't the term at the time, at least for me. Jack of
all trades.
Don Patrick: It's actually, it's a term's been around a long time, but
anyway, you just didn’t know it.
Nick Rios: I know it. They didn’t want. Yeah, “You’re not a paraplanner yet
but you gotta do all the work.”
Don Patrick: That's 'cause they didn't wanna give you a pay raise.
Nick Rios: Oh yeah. We're not talking about that. But yeah, it's all
administrative work, like you said, just the grunt stuff that is
eye-bleeding sometimes. But the tech side is where I learned, if anything
new was coming on I was the one to make sure this is relevant to our firm.
“Do we really need this? How would it improve our efficiency?” So I became
the expert in all things. We were using WealthVision, eMoney, that was more
or less it at the time, 10 years ago. But I went to eMoney events. So they
would host two, three day events somewhere in the nation. And that actually
was a fantastic way to get onboarded, understanding the inputs, formulas you
can create in the software, and then general financial planning practices
that we would implement for clients.
Don Patrick: Yeah, eMoney used to, I assume they still do a tremendous job
of training. eMoney to me is like Excel. I mean, even today, with your
knowledge, what do you, 50% of it. I mean, it's so deep. It's crazy. So I'm
gonna ask you this question. I'm gonna flip over to Chris, but historically,
I've basically said it takes about five years to really get your feet on the
ground, really be comfortable with what you're doing, getting good of
client-facing. What would you say to that, Nick?
Nick Rios: I think you hit like, exactly what I would say. I would say after
three years, you're catching a break, a breather. Okay, I'm starting to get
it, right? Those first two years just goes, what is going on? So after three
years, you think you got it, you don't, and then that fifth year comes
around and you're really just like, it's all making sense.
It's clicking, I mean, it starts clicking and that's a relief just mentally,
right, for yourself? And clients may not have even noticed, honestly, but
your biggest judge is yourself, I think, day to day. So you gotta get past
that. And five years really clicked, it passed.
Don Patrick: Cool. I really enjoy hearing the contrast of how you two got
started. I think that's incredible. And basically what you're saying,
they're both great ways to get started.
Chris Rios: Absolutely.
Don Patrick: Which is interesting. So, Chris, so now, so you've had all this
training. I mean, you've been, I mean, $50 a day. Did they give you any Nick
Murray training at all?
Chris Rios: Yeah, I do. No, they didn't. They had an internal sales training
department, so.
Don Patrick: Well, maybe they used Nick Murray stuff. So his first book, he
was a stockbroker like in the sixties, and it was dialing for dollars, which
you can't do today, but that's what you did. But he flipped the whole
psychology of it because you get so beat down and the rejection is
incredible. He knew his numbers, so he got his 50 dials and he knew he had
to do so many dials to get a new account.
And I think when he did 50 dials, he gave himself a reward. It was a candy
bar or something. So he flipped the whole thing. It was just like, it's all
activity. Just getting the activity and it's gonna happen.
Chris Rios: Yep.
Don Patrick: I love that psychology. So you went through all that, a ton of
rejection, learned sales. You learned the nitty-gritty of asset management.
Then how did you end up coming down to FSG, did you get a formal email
invite like your brother?
Chris Rios: No.No, I didn't get the telegram. Yeah, no, I think I always
knew that door was always open through communication and I think, through my
experience, I kind of started pushing that door open or just asking more
questions to Nick, Kim, and Hank of like what would that look like? And
obviously, that's a dream for Kim and Hank to have both their sons working
for them.
Don Patrick: It's crazy. It’s amazing.
Chris Rios: Yeah. We're all lucky with that. So I think
Don Patrick: And you still like each other. That's even better.
Chris Rios: Yeah. Yeah. And so as that evolved, it kind of formed in my own
head of, I kind of got to a place where, what do I see myself and my career?
And I see what Kim and Hank have built and Nick's contributed to.
And I've, through knowing you, Don, for so many years, and other advisors
that Kim and Hank have been friends with for a lifetime, their lifestyle,
their practices they built, the relationships they've built with clients and
the business that they run and the pros and cons of it, and I just felt like
that's my personality.
And it just kind of just, it kind of like naturally took its course from
what I was doing to this is more suited for my skillset and what I prefer in
relationships with people day to day. And it was an easy transition for me
mentally to say, “This is what I wanna do.”
It wasn't an easy transition to learn and evolve into and still learning,
but from a decision standpoint, it was a no-brainer. So I was lucky, like
Nick said, he was the Guinea pig on how to onboard a new associate air
planner advisor. So a lot of those mistakes, they're not mistakes, just, you
know, stubbed toes were ironed out. So I was, when I was onboarded, it was
all written out. There was a strategy, there was a procedure. Everything's
in place. So thank you, Nick.
Nick Rios: It’s the first thank you I got.
Chris Rios: Yeah, so I think kudos to Kim and Hank and identifying what my
strengths were if they knew at that time, onboarding me, which is I enjoy
business development.
I like talking about our process, our service from just a conversation
piece. And so they wanted to throw me out there and spread the word to folks
around the area. So they built a compensation structure where half of my
role was business development of FSG. Go out and perform activity and talk
about what we do, how we do it, and what makes us different.
“Ultimately, your primary goal, month one through the first year, is just
bring people through the door to schedule a meeting with yourself and a
partner of the firm.” Right. Sure. We wanna bring them, we wanna bring them
on, gather new assets, do a fee for plans, and new relationships, but just
schedule meetings. Get people through the door. Yeah. And I think that
activity, through doing it so often, I learned how to tell our story my own
way. And obviously, I'm having meetings with Nick, Kim and Hank weekly to
learn how to roll through our PitchBook or how to talk about our different
services and what makes us a comprehensive planning shop.
But I had to learn how to speak about it myself in my own way. And that was
just repetition, right? And that's practice and doing it wrong a few times
to get until I got it right. And so kudos to them to structuring a
compensation package, to drive activity of just business development.
Don Patrick: So you grew up selling product. It's like selling a shiny new
Cadillac. You go and you smell the leather, and now you're selling an
intangible.
Chris Rios: Much different.
Don Patrick: Much different. So what was that like, that transition?
Chris Rios: Yeah. I think I had to learn to listen a lot better to find out
what the end customer or client is looking for, right?
So, like this business is amazing, where you have someone who is going
through a life transition and everyone's transition may be different. So I
have to listen to find out what they really need to then identify if we're a
good fit, that takes listening. Where previously I'm selling a product to
fit in their model.
What are the returns, what's the risk-adjusted return? What's the behavior
of the portfolio? Who's the manager? It's numbers. Let's be real. So I had
to learn and switch to presenting data versus listening and gathering
information, to then really trying to drive home more value to help that
person and share what that means.
So that took time. Still learning how to do that, right? I mean, that's
still evolving. Yeah. So that was different. And I think, shadowing Hank in
his, you know, Hank was really good about, and Kim, just taking time out of
their day to say, ”Okay, let's do this call jointly with this prospect and
I'll run through it. You chime in how you want, just learn how I do it, and
ask questions.”
And that takes away from what they're trying to do. And I think, they built
a culture where they wanna invest their time in our, Nick and I’s
development, and that ultimately pays off for the firm's growth over time.
Don Patrick: It's huge. And that, quite honestly, for any business owner,
senior advisor, bringing someone on, that's their job. That's their
responsibility, quite honestly. And the best way to learn is that way is
sitting there watching, listening, learning, and then you get to try it.
They critique.
Chris Rios: Yeah. And then on the business owner,it's probably not an easy
risk to say, “Okay, your turn, you handle this,” and if we fall on our face,
we're gonna live with it.
But you need to do it, you gotta throw yourself out there and take the risk
and talk and Nick will run a full plan meeting as he is onboarded years ago,
right? That's, you kind of get to that level and you have to just throw
yourself to the wolves. So the first half of my role was business
development.
The other half of time is shadowing Nick every day, shadowing Hank and Kim
in the paraplanning development operations department, learning how our
procedures that evolved into building financial plans with Nick and then on
my own. And then presenting those plans and doing client updates and
servicing clients as well.
So, over 10, since 2019, it's kind of evolved from, into that.
Don Patrick: You've learned everything. A second question on the sales slash
prospecting part of your job: how did you do that? Was it networking? I
mean, cold calling, referrals, events? I mean, how did, what did that look
like?
Chris Rios: Combination of all that, that's kind of evolved into, I joined a
networking BNI group like month one.
So, a group of individual, a bunch of professionals in the area where
there's one profession in the networking group. I'm the only financial
advisor. There's different attorneys, real estate members, mortgage lenders,
and we meet once a week, talk about our business, what we do, how we do it,
and build a relationship to past referrals.
That also really helped me develop my message as an FSG individual in our
firm early on. And then, so it was really leveraging centers of influences
and the strategic partners that Kim and Hank have had for a number of years,
staying on them, taking the time to grow that relationship to not only help
our clients and service their needs from estate planning to tax planning, to
mortgage lending, you name it, individual insurance needs, continuously
putting an effort to maintain those relat relationships for those
professionals is key. And then if a, and that evolved into a, if an existing
client, you know, most of our referrals come from them, which we're lucky
enough if they reach out and say, “Hey, John Smith, would love to learn
about your business.”
I'm on it that day. There's no delay. It's an email-scheduled call with that
client. And then the individual, they're passing us to just say, “Hey, I'm
Chris with FSG, high level. This is what we do.” And I'm off and running, or
I'm scheduling a meeting with Kim and Hank, depending on the relationship,
or Nick.
So it's someone that is dedicated to making sure those don't slip through
the cracks or a few days go by and being diligent about that. So it's
combination of kind of all that.
Nick Rios: Yeah, and to Kim and Hank's credit, Hank is the procedural
master. Everything needs to be procedural, so there's good and bad, mostly
good.
We also know that having everyone understand their roles each year, it can
change, but like this year, this is what we're gonna do, this is how it
should flow. Chris, like he just said, maybe it's a referral that we get
from a current client. Chris immediately jumps on it. Client wants to move
forward with our planning process.
Chris then introduces me. I start the, and I kind of take over it from
there. So now Chris can go back to prospecting. That was kind of like year
one with Chris and it still kind of functions that way, but we are going, we
can talk about it later, going through transitions of roles a bit.
But onboarding Chris, giving him a very direct role. We know our positions,
things went very smoothly and we really had no hiccups with this whole
process just 'cause we knew if Chris does this, I do this. We can close a
new client prospect and add them to our service, our book of business.
Chris Rios: Yeah. And I think, to add to that, communicating to the new
relationship or the client that it is a team of advisors. Not only do they
like that it's day one and they understand the dynamics of maybe they're
talking to me early on a lot about the financial planning process, ways we
can help, and then that transition to Nick or Kim, Hank, Kim or Hank, is a
smooth, understandable transition for that client, depending on the
relationship.
Don Patrick: Yeah. Clients love a team and it's a big deal. There's a whole
thing. So let me kind of reinforce a couple big takeaways. So you start with
BNI right away, centers of influence, but I understand BNI, every week you
have to give like a one-minute or 30-second summary of what you do. Is that
correct?
Chris Rios: That's correct, yeah. You get a, there's 30 members in our
group. It's always evolving in size, but you get third, you get a minute to
talk something about yourself, about your firm, some economic update. So
security today I talked about it, the cola is 2.8%, but Medicare B's up,
you're given a snippet and then you're really meeting one-on-one outside of
the meeting to get to garnish relationships in that way.
But it's a commitment. And any networking group is, whether it's BNI or the
Chamber or wherever you invest your time, you gotta find value in it. And I
was very lucky enough to land on a good group. And like anything, there's
good months, there's really slow months, right? It's just staying consistent
in activity and that's really been helpful for me.
Don Patrick: Yeah. Networking takes time, but the right word is what you
said. Commitment. And it does work and it grows.
Chris Rios: Yeah. And I think our relationship, our business, is like the
sales cycle, if you call it, if you want to use in my old terms, is it's
really long. When I meet someone.
Don Patrick: Sales cycle is a real phrase.
Chris Rios: Yeah. It's just like
Don Patrick: It is long.
Chris Rios: It's like if I meet a center of influence to refer their clients
to us, it's not one meeting, right? I fully am aware of that. I tell that to
them. And that's where the networking takes time, right? I mean, it's trust,
it's personal finances.
Don Patrick: Well, it's what they say, the old farmer planting seed is what
it is, right?
Chris Rios: Yeah.
Don Patrick: So this is the beginning. This is fascinating. This is great
stuff. This is great for our senior advisors who already have a G2 or wanna
bring a G2 on. And Nick, you mentioned one of the keys was, because of Hank,
great process-driven procedures are in place.
People knew their roles very clear. I don’t know if you had job
descriptions, that's also a key piece of it. So these are great learning
lessons. So now let's flash forward because clearly you both do everything
or have done everything. I know you have a paraplanner now. So what are your
roles like now? Nick, you can take it from there.
Nick Rios: So right now there's a book of business that I service and we,
myself, that's our book of business with, the writing advisor would be Hank,
I'd be the servicing advisor. This is the current role and I'm setting up
reviews. I'm working with our new paraplanner, and I also have, I'm training
the paraplanner.
So like I said, I was a test dummy. I know what how to learn quicker or
slower or what works, what doesn't. And so when we brought on our
paraplanner, Matt, who's been fantastic and a huge boon to our firm, took
him under my wing. Really, that first year was just again, drinking from the
fire hose, but it's coming from my mouth now, and very specific terms. I
understand there's a learning curve, so I'm not just handing him some
PowerPoint presentation. We have to look up words like, “What does this
mean?” And I'm there explaining as a teacher, as a coach, and he was a
fantastic student and great employee, that he kind of picked up right away.
Involving him, that again, that's that first year. And then he started going
on his own a bit with regards to the paraplanning. And so I had more book of
business to manage and service. And so I'm a client servicing agent or rep,
moving towards, again, having the more ownership role as we kind of go into
this next step and phase of FSG.
Don Patrick: So this is a side question that just came. So what I've
learned, and I know for a fact, when you teach, you actually get better at
your craft. Would you say that's true?
Nick Rios: Absolutely. No. You realize is as it's like anything else, theory
and practice, I always say. Theory is perfect in the vacuum, practice is
when you are like, “Okay, that theory isn't a hundred percent what it's
cracked out to be.” And when you start practicing teaching, you realize
there's a better way to go about things. So absolutely true.
Don Patrick: So, you were, you mentioned you were, are slash were, and I
wanna clarify this with both of you as servicing advisor. So you were kind
of underneath Kim and Hank as servicing advisor, or not the lead advisor.
And now, are you in the lead advisor roles, both of you, or what does that
look like?
Chris Rios: Yeah, so it's to what evolve to what it is today. Nick and I are
managing our own book, but it's FSG’s clients, right?
Don Patrick: Correct.
Chris Rios: So Nick is servicing these relationships 100%. Right? and then
there's a book that's organically grown through my business development and
the relationships directly with me, and that's FSG’s clients that I'm
servicing.
So, the day-to-day, the communication, the financial plan updates, the
implementation, the investment management, it's a relationship directly
directed at Nick or myself, Kim or Hank. Are there some where both were
combined in different ways? Absolutely. But our roles have evolved into a
full financial advisory role, managing a book for the firm.
Don Patrick: So there's four of you now. Four lead advisors,
Chris Rios: Correct.
Don Patrick: Kim, Hank, Chris and Nick.
Chris Rios: Yeah. And as a structural, obviously, Kim and Hank ownerships of
the firm, Nick and Chris, you call it associate advisor, lead advisor, but
managing, managing FSG clients.
Don Patrick: Okay. And one paraplanner. So is there a servicing advisor in
the firm yet, or not? Just curious. You have four leads. That's a lot of
work that has to go on.
Chris Rios: Yeah. Matt's killing it. He's crushing it. He's paraplanner
slash, he's
Don Patrick: Servicing advisor.
Chris Rios: Yeah, he's calling clients and providing financial plan updates
that the lead advisor developed and has trusted him with the task of calling
a client and saying, “Let's roll through eMoney together and show this plan
update based on you buying a new vacation property and we're seeing if it
works or not.” Right. He's developed himself into that role over time.
Don Patrick: Yeah. So I like Matt a lot and he's sharp, but the reason I
really like him is it's because he also has a mustache. There's not many of
us out there.
Nick Rios: Yeah, I agree. He's a man from Connecticut and he moves to South
Florida, develops a mustache immediately. It's incredible.
Don Patrick: Is that right?
Nick Rios: Yeah. And to the point of where we began and where we developed
into, and we're currently on our next phase if you wanna put it that way,
third phase of the firm.
And as Kim and Hank step back a little bit, they still wanna work, but, and
Chris and I stepping into roles of ownership positions. We don't have
ownership yet, but we're trying to understand what it takes to become an
owner. We're talking what that next step entails. And obviously, with Kim
and Hank still being involved, but us having the larger role.
Chris Rios: I think Hank
Don Patrick: You're next gen, you're the future.
Chris Rios: Yeah. I think they did a good job of, you know, they're always
forward-looking and what is it, a year or two ago, Nick and I are now, we're
handling payroll, we're handling benefits for the firm, we're managing the
employees, the operations.
iI's not only working on, in the business, working on the business, and the
only way we can learn how to do it is by doing it and listening and learning
from them.
Don Patrick: Right. So yeah, you learn financial planning part of it, all
this, which is huge, five years and so then they're teaching you how to run
the business.
Chris Rios: Yeah. That, for me, has been, one of your questions I think you
sent over was, what are some of the biggest challenges you've faced
recently? And all I can think of is just learning how to run a business,
right? I have textbooks of how to do it growing up and college, but it's
actually doing it and staffing and being operationally efficient and having
our procedures in place and our tasks for every employee, and who's the
backup for those tasks if someone's out or down and maintaining the culture
and the firm's goals. Like, it's been really good to learn, try and learn
these things over the last year or so, 'cause that's our next phase. We're
always trying to improve. So that's been helpful.
Don Patrick: So, continuity planning, which is death or disability, which is
we bring a new advisor and that's the first thing we do. Get that in place
in writing. And I'm guessing, I'm not trying to put words in your mouths,
but if something happened to Hank and Kim right now, my guess is this
business would run fantastically. Would you agree?
Nick Rios: I believe so. Yeah.
Don Patrick: Yeah.
Chris Rios: Absolutely confident in that. Obviously biased, but yes.
Nick Rios: Yeah, absolutely.
Don Patrick: Well, I've seen you guys, I know the answer.
Nick Rios: But it's years of saying, Kim and Hank, to their credit, saying,
“If you speak with Nick, you speak with Chris, you’re speaking with all of
us,” right.
And understand that advice from any of us or, recommendations are going to
be a firm decision. And clients trust, I mean, t does take time. Some
immediately believe it. Others takes three years, right? It could be a small
or a large client takes three years. You never really know until you're
speaking with the client.
And so we've always pushed that even with some sort of pushback. Hank,
you're like, “No, the client's saying…” Hank telling the client, “Nick will
reach out to you and tell you, answer some questions.” The client says, “No,
I wanna speak with you.” Hank says, “I can't speak right now, but Nick has
all the information. Please speak with him first. Hey, if you need to speak
to me afterwards, we'll have a call.” Inevitably, there's never a next call
because we have a great conversation. The client believes what I say. I do a
good job. And we accomplish those goals.
Don Patrick: So that is great advice that you just shared, and that is in a
team environment, no matter whom you're speaking to, it's the same and the
whole team knows everything going on. That's huge.
Nick Rios: Yeah, so culture is really important. I mean, small business,
right? It's four of us plus three other employees. So that is extremely
small and if there's some sort of outlier belief in the goal of the
practice, it doesn't work or it won't last long.
So you have to just be really, really particular who we bring on board.
Obviously, as a family member, we're fortunate to understand each other
extremely well. But hiring Matt fits perfectly, perfect in our firm. And
we're fortunate with that 'cause it just makes the growth that much easier.
Don Patrick: Well, that's the second big piece of advice. Well, not the
second. You both have offered plenty, but culture is everything. And
maintaining the culture, enforcing the culture, that's a big deal. Alright,
I'm gonna flip this a little bit. Go all the way back to day one for each of
you. What was the prospect of ownership even suggested? Or it was just like,
“Hey, we got this position. Are you interested? Come on in.” I mean, did
they lay out like what the future could look like? I’m curious.
Chris Rios: I don't know. It wasn't like there was a, you know, you walk
into some of these advisory practices where they have a lot of advisors and
they give you a detailed roadmap in writing
Don Patrick: Roadmap.
Chris Rios: Right?
Don Patrick: Yep.
Chris Rios: Compensation, like, expectations and equity. No, I didn't have
that. I didn't really ask for it. Maybe I should have, but I was so gung-ho
to like be a part of a business and help it grow the, and I just wanted to
learn and obviously, knowing the business through them, that what an
independent practice entails is ownership of your clients other than, rather
than wirehouse. I knew that, but there was no formal and week one, month one
conversation of, “Okay, if you put in this amount of years, this amount of
revenue, then here's your percentage opportunity for equity,” right? We
didn't have that. That kind of came over time and evolved from my end, my
experience
Nick Rios: Once I learned how difficult it was to capture clients. I said,
“Okay, I'll take my time before I ask for equity.”No, it was always some
sort of implication that was the idea. I don't think anyone brings their
family on board believing otherwise. But after the first few years, is when
discussions first really got started on what does ownership look like for
the next generation?
How is that set up in regards to purchasing and providing the payout for the
decades of work that Kim and Hank have done? But no, it really wasn't that
formalized. But again, we were the first that, we kind of knew between Kim
and Hank's network, there wasn't many who had this type of setup outside of
another advisor purchasing their practice, right? This is family members and
this is an internal young junior advisors who are supposedly gonna be the
next ownership of FSG. So we've learned a lot along the way.
Don Patrick: So you guys are the next step, as you just mentioned. I think
you're really close at the point of getting some ownership into the firm. Is
that correct?
Nick Rios: Correct. Yeah. We've been using LPLs; they're consultants and
they've been great so far. So we're going through the motions.
Don Patrick: That's great. Yeah, I mean, I could stop this podcast right
now. You have no idea how valuable all this is for so many of the folks
listening, whether they're senior business owner slash advisor, or a next
gen.
It's amazing. So I'm gonna ask you this because you guys are, like I said,
the very beginning, you're really good. I mean, if something happened to me,
either one of you or FSG, you could take care of, and I would rest easy.
You're really good at what you do. I know that. So I'm gonna go with Chris
first, just because of the change you made from Eaton Vance selling product
to the people. What do you love about the financial planning profession?
Chris Rios: I think like the first thing that pops to my mind, is you're
definitely along for the journey with folks as their life progresses. Since
2019, it's a blimp in an over lifetime.
But I've seen clients get raises, have kids, or their kids have hit a
milestone in their life, their adult kids, right? I think that part of being
a second or third call when something important happens into someone's life,
that brings a lot of joy to me. So that's one of the things I love most.
And then I also go, and then to your original question of the transition of
different roles I had in my career experience, is I think seeing the growth
that you, the effort you put in and seeing the fruits of your labor directly
to the bottom line of a business you own is extremely gratifying.
Obviously, you feel those effects at a large corporation, but it's
different. So I think, and then obviously efforts of other members of our
team put in, and see how that affects the mutual goal, is different, and
it's awesome. That's something I really love about our business.
Don Patrick: Cool. Nick, how about you?
Nick Rios: No, and just real quick on Chris's point of just being that
second call and that second call can be passing of somebody, right? But they
want, and they're not asking, they're not calling us to let us know that we
gotta shut the account, someone passed, they're calling to us, know that,
you know, a long-time client has passed. Here's the funeral services. And we
just have that really almost friendship-like relationship with a lot of
clients and the ability to have their trust on top of that, with the
financial is, it's rewarding. But another thing that, you know, why I love
this business is that you sit down with a new prospect and he does something
that you've never heard of, and it's just you're learning something from him
at the same exact time.
So the ability to continuously learn about different business sectors
through your clients, and you're talking to the guy who's on the ground
level. It could be he's importing or exporting ramen noodles to the
Caribbean, and like what's going on in that, and on the supply chain during
COVID, and I was just having 30-45-minute conversations just about his
business, and I really wanna understand how things work and more from a
selfish standpoint that I want to know, right? But he, again, the ability to
learn from clients is amazing.
Don Patrick: That's interesting. I like that. I hadn't thought about that,
but that's absolutely true. So, Chris, you came from the numbers side, rate
of returns and da, da dah, dah. Did you have any idea that this is really a
people business and you gotta, like, people wanna help them before you came?
Chris Rios: Fortunately, I had the limited exposure of growing up with Kim
and Hank and Nick's been in that role for a few years. So I had, I hear it
and understand it. And then obviously, living it is a different experience,
right? You really learn that. It's a people business.
It's just, clients wanna not only trust you, but they wanna like you and see
that you're engaged and understand that you're gonna put their best interest
first. And that's all relationship building.
Don Patrick: Yep.
Chris Rios: Yeah.
Don Patrick: I love it. All right. I'm gonna get down to some nitty-gritty
stuff. In terms of tech stack, Nick, you brought up eMoney, you're the tech
guy, you're using eMoney, WealthVision. What other kind of technologies are
you using in the firm today?
Nick Rios: To start off, we're probably at our limit of tech subscriptions,
and I'm trying to figure out how to reduce them. But we use them all. And
it's not even from a cost standpoint, there's obviously that, but just
sometimes there can't be too much. But I think we got a good stack right
now. Obviously, we lead with planning first of FSG and eMoney is our bread
and butter. Everything goes in there first.
And we have really detailed fact finders and a lot of meetings with clients
to make sure that everything is more or less correct or updated within
eMoney. eMoney then drives a lot of what the next tech would be. And then we
use IncomeConductor, which is the bucket strategy. IncomeConductor
rebranded, love that software, especially for soon-to-be-retired or retired
clients.
And they love that more than anything else, 'cause it's visually easy for
them. After the first presentation, maybe the second, they understand it. It
could be a little complicated. But once they do, it is, “Hey, can I see the
buckets? Where am I at? How much do I have left remaining? Where are we
pulling from next?”
It's all right there. And then what we've now implemented, probably about
three years now, Holistiplanning. It's a very powerful tax software tool.
Roth conversions, we could illustrate that. Worried about Medicare premiums,
making sure income's not, busting through to get to the next band we use for
project management or office management, Airtable, which is like a Monday,
that has been one of the most valuable tools from organization standpoint.
So if you want to bring on more clients, you gotta be better organized,
right? If you want to provide the same level of service. And so we, that's a
very powerful tool if used and someone has to take ownership of a lot of
these texts pieces and we wanna make sure that someone's on top of it,
keeping it updated and someone's responsible for it.
I think that's a big point, is making sure someone's responsible for the
tech, being updated and properly used within the firm. We also have
Nitrogen, which it used to be Riskalyze. We have Kwanti, Slack, internal.
Don Patrick: I'm gonna spell Kwanti for people. K-W-A-N-T-I. And it's 10
times better than Morningstar. Super simple. Anyway.
Nick Rios: Yeah, no, I agree.
Don Patrick: What's that texting app? Do you use that thing?
Chris Rios: Chat? MyRepChat
Don Patrick: MyRepChat. Yeah. Do you guys use that?
Chris Rios: Yep. We do. We don't like promote it to clients, “Hey, here's
the MyRepChat. Please text us.” It's, “If you do text us, do not use this
number.” Right? It's more
Don Patrick: Got it. Do you have schedule, the scheduling tool?
Chris Rios: We use Schedule One for a while. We found that it's more
efficient to just, for us, to just schedule direct with someone on our team.
Nick Rios: We use ISGs Virtual Assistant.
Chris Rios: Yes.
Nick Rios: We use one of them for scheduling, which is amazing. Oh yeah.
Don Patrick: That's great. Yeah.
Nick Rios: Yeah. And we tried Calendly and Schedule Ones and all those
things. Someone has to be on top of it, right? Because there's that anything
with tech things can go wrong. It's not pulling correctly to Redtail, which
is our CRM. I guess that's another tech piece there.
Don Patrick: Another tech.
Nick Rios: But, especially elderly clients, it could be a lot easier. Again,
we use a virtual assistant. Really, her job is, there's very few biggest
being a scheduling for us, all of us within the office. Yeah.
Don Patrick: So I'm gonna share very quickly, this is about you, not me, but
I was afraid, I think it was Calendly, and I was really afraid to implement
it.
I just, so I spent a lot of time making sure my calendar was set up and so
on and so forth. So I finally went live and I had back to back, to back, to
back, back to back.. I couldn't even go to the men's room. It was my worst
nightmare came true.
Chris Rios: That's so funny.
Nick Rios: It has its shortfalls like, you can blow up and that's, you gotta
be careful.
Chris Rios: That's too good.
Don Patrick: So, I understand what you said. You have so much tech, you're
looking at trying to eliminate it. I don't know what you could actually
eliminate. Everything you're using is really useful.
Chris Rios: It's funny you say that. Matt right now is exploring in a new
estate planning software that
Don Patrick: Well, we just signed the agreement, theestate.com.
Chris Rios: Okay. Okay.
Don Patrick: So it's an enterprise agreement. We'll be rolling it out. In
fact, I gotta do a video on it. So it's got two components. It's got the AI
where you put all the documents in, it spits out everything nice, clear,
understandable for the client, for you. So have him reach out to us and
because the agreement just got signed, I mean, the ink is still wet.
Actually, we don't do wet ink anymore, but
Chris Rios: DocuSign, we use DocuSign, that's for sure.
Don Patrick: Oh yeah. And what about, do you do performance reporting or
anything like that or
Chris Rios: Yeah, we have our custom performance reporting within LPL client
works. Yeah. Like our own.
Don Patrick: Yeah.
Nick Rios: And real quick, it's funny just thinking about, okay, we're
adding estate planning technology right?
And we're not a state planner, we're not attorneys, but it's such a critical
part and we're big believers in making sure and having estate titling
reviews and in reviewing of trust wills. It's a huge part of our kind of our
triangle of what's important, estate insurance. We have to get the boring
things right first. Yeah. Before we can invest your money correctly. And it
seems like our part of the business is we have to be knowledgeable in so
many different aspects and be able to provide a service of everything in
their household. Whether or not we can give direct advice, but we have to
understand what that lawyer just created in the trust. Truly, what does it
say? Does it fit into our overall plan or
Don Patrick: And now it takes you, wealth.com will do that for you in five
minutes.
Nick Rios: Yeah.
Don Patrick: You don't have to read through the documents, make notes. I
mean, it's such a time saver. It's amazing. And we just had our, one of our
business planning workshops the last two days and we were discussing
wealth.com and they're talking about how they're gonna, might wanna
implement it.
But one great idea was when a kid or a grandkid turns 18, boom, you can get
them a power of attorney. Easy. I mean, I don’t what I wanna generate wills
and trust that it does, but little things like that. And then they started
talking about their family and their kids and their grandkids and just the
subscription alone would pay for that, for example. It's kind of
interesting.
Nick Rios: Yeah. There's a lot of tools. I'm excited for this whole new AI
moving forward and we're at the, what, three years in it. It's so young
still. And what can come out and get better over time. Hopefully, the prices
come down. I expect they will, but, you know, it's all brand new.
Don Patrick: The biggest thing I'm using AI for now is I do a ton of reading
and I just sent it through AI and I get a one or two-page bullet point
summary. It cuts my reading down by 70%. It's amazing. Just that little
thing. Alright, let's move on. So do you charge separate fees for financial
planning or is it just conference part of the asset management fee?
Chris Rios: We charge separate fees for an initial financial plan. The
second decision that the client would, the new client would make is if
they'd like us to manage assets and then that's obviously fee-based on asset
size that we manage in house.
Don Patrick: Then, ongoing, is there a separate fee, or is that become part
of the asset management fee?
Chris Rios: The asset management fee becomes part of any financial plan
update fee. In the rare occasion, clients don't manage assets. But
obviously, that's happened. We'll charge an additional financial planning
fee for a plan update if they reach out in a over a year's time to do
another.
Don Patrick: Oh, really? You're running a business on a charity, huh?
Chris Rios: Yeah. That's right.
Nick Rios: And we tell them up upfront, we say, Hey, here's our planning
fee. And they go, “Oh, is that the only fee we pay?” I go, “No, this is a
lot of work we're about to go through.” And when we first started, we
weren't charge when I first started, we weren't charging a fee for every new
client who wants to do, go through a plan.
And one or twice, we got kind of got burnt, we're we spent so much time. And
so we're saying, “No, that's it. We're gonna charge a fee for every single
person.” We can range the fee based off complexity and relationship. But we
say you have access to us for a year, whether or not you wanna move forward
with us, give us for the next 365 days, you can call us about anything
within reason, obviously.
You don't have to roll any money to us. We don't have to manage anything.
But after that year, we either decide what we wanna do we wanna help us,
allow us help manage our money, or do we want to pay another fee to have a
plan update? And there are one or two occasions that they just wanna have a
fee paid for whatever reason, and that's fine.
Don Patrick: What is the fee range?
Chris Rios: 3,500 to 5,000 is our typical range.
Don Patrick: Okay, good.
Chris Rios: And we give them the deliverable financial plan and communicate.
You can implement a lot of this yourself, but through the process, and it's
a lot of communication, a lot of time together, they learn how we operate,
our investment philosophy, what we're trying to help them with and through
that time is really that development of trust to then ultimately, hopefully
work with us to manage assets.
Don Patrick: They experience the whole thing.
Chris Rios: Yeah.
Don Patrick: Do you, now, the plan, do you do it, do you give them like hard
copy? Is it on a screen? Do you give 'em like a one-page action items,
to-dos, and what does that look like?
Chris Rios: Yeah, it's evolved from the good old binder days. I was
fortunately there for some of that. And, to now it call
Don Patrick: We used to call that selling by the pound.
Chris Rios: So now it's digital. Obviously, if they ask for a printout, it's
easy to give them to them, right? But it's all digital. And then we have a
pretty detailed procedure on follow-up and task immediately following a plan
presentation meeting on what needs to get done immediately, and then what's
something that they wanna accomplish in the next one to two years.
Let's say the full, the individual needs to build an estate plan, purchase
life insurance, review disability, long-term care, they need to update their
P&C insurance within their broker. There's a lot of different things
they need to look at. Social security, when to file, they're transitioning
to Medicare.
We're gonna hold them accountable and keep that list and that tracking for
them and follow up and cross off the list over time with them. And that's,
we ultimately communicate. You're hiring us to keep you accountable. We're
gonna bug you, so.
Don Patrick: Are you using technology to help you with that? How do you
track these to-dos with all these clients?
Chris Rios: The initial financial plan is all an Airtable. So every task at
a high level, so John Smith's got a new financial plan on Airtable. There's
subcategories of everything that needs to get done in a financial plan.
Don Patrick: It gets checked off.
Chris Rios: Gets checked off. Then once day we deliver the financial plan,
it's presented. That follow-up kind of then moves to the lead advisor and in
their Redtail task. Right. Versus the firm Airtable. So use Red
Don Patrick: Tails to drive that.
Chris Rios: Yes. And then same with financial plan updates, Airtable drives
the individual task, whether it's applies to them or not. And then someone
owns that
Nick Rios: Yeah, we create a template that has every single possibility of a
new client. So, new plan, every single possibility, we drag and drop into
the new John Smith Airtable, Excel sheet more or less. And we either say,
not applicable or to do, working on this.
And we go through every single item, and it could be months before we close
out their whole new plan process because we hadn't complete what we're
recommended and the client hadn't gone through it yet. So again, we use,
that project management tool is one of the greatest kind of organizational
stuff that we've implemented into the firm. It's Excel 2.0, as I like to put
it
Chris Rios: Easy on the eyes
Don Patrick: That's another great tip you guys have just shared with us. So
you get a referral from either a center of influence or a client. What does
that process look like? Who wants to walk through that?
Chris Rios: Yeah, I can jump on that. The first part is I'm scheduling a
call or meeting, learn about what they're looking for. First question I
always ask
Don Patrick: So it’s a phone call.
Chris Rios: It's a phone call
Don Patrick: As opposed to coming in the office?
Chris Rios: Yeah, or it's a phone call to say, “Hey, do you wanna schedule a
time to come in? Or let's schedule a Zoom, whichever you prefer, we're on
board with.” Obviously, location in the country dictates a lot of that.
And then in that initial meeting, I'm just learning about what they need and
then going through ways that we can help. And if they're a good fit for us
and them, we quoted a financial planning fee and then we start our discovery
process. And if they wanna move forward after that initial meeting, it may
take another meeting.
That's fine, right? But if they give us the green light, I send them our
fact finder, our list of supporting documents they need to collect, tax
returns and statements, et cetera, then I'm sending them our financial
planning agreement to sign and then an advice pay link to pay our financial
planning fee. I'm owning that whole process is just
Don Patrick: That's another piece of tech.
Chris Rios: Yeah. Another tech that we love. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I'm owning
that whole process of getting all the information from them.
Don Patrick: So, in terms of gathering these documents, do you collect hard
copy or is it electronically? Does it go into eMoney? How do you collect
that?
Chris Rios: Depends on the person, but 95% of people nowadays send us a PDF,
right? A scanned copy. If someone wants to drop off originals, we'll scan
and give it back to them. But everyone's sending emails now to us,
fortunately, scan it.
Nick Rios: On a secure email.
Chris Rios: In a secure email. Yeah. Or eMoney vault.
Don Patrick: Of course.
Chris Rios: Yeah. No, no.
Don Patrick: I'm not a compliance officer anymore, so/
Chris Rios: Out of retirement for that comment. Oh no. But yeah, so we're,
they're sending us the digital copies and usually it's not everything we
need. So what I always communicate and we all do is, “Look, we'll get most
of your information back.” Give us about a week to scrub it, build financial
planning follow-up questions, formulate our assumptions.
Then we’ll schedule a discovery meeting with a lead advisor who's taking it
on and myself, if it's needed, right, for that transition. And then they're
going through all the weeds of their information they've sent and learning
about their goals, their expectations, short and long-term financial needs,
right?
After that discovery meeting, Nick and the team, whoever's building the plan
is now ironing it out and developing the financial plan. And we schedule a
next plan presentation meeting where we go through the full plan together.
So it starts with discovery, getting our information to me, and then really
passing that off to the advisor, myself or someone else on the team.
Don Patrick: So then, so now you're, you've had the plan presentation,
implementation sounds like based on our prior conversation could happen in
six months, the next day as far as managing assets, that sort of thing. Is
that kinda how it works?
Nick Rios: It's always the next day, Don, they never delay.
Chris Rios: Yeah, usually. It's so funny, I laugh like our plan
presentation, we tell them to book an hour and a half. We spend like over an
hour on just financial literacy and information, and we don't even get to
the investment management component until the end. So like most of our plan
presentation, we schedule a follow-up investment strategy call makes to then
go into the weeds again what we've talked about in our
Don Patrick: Because they're burned out. Yeah. They're saturated.
Chris Rios: It's so much. And then by the end of that hour and a half,
they're like, “All right, we need to do another one.” And it's fine, right?
We agree.
Nick Rios: Yeah. I think it's important to realize when you provide a lot,
it's all good stuff. It's relevant to the client. You have to drip the
information to them or else they're not gonna see value of it.
There's some that you can do all at once. They understand it. They digest it
quickly. But most, they have their own jobs and professions and knowledge.
And you're bringing something new, which is fantastic, but you gotta be
careful providing too much information all at once with them, because then
nothing sticks whatsoever, and they don't know what they're doing, what
we're doing.
Chris Rios: And I made that mistake early on plenty of times, right?
Don Patrick: That's another great piece of advice. Absolutely correct. I
love that. Dripping on them. Yes. So now they're, they're onboard, they are
a client. What does it look like in terms of progress review, meetings,
frequency, that sort of thing? So once a year, four times a year, is it?
Chris Rios: I'll let you touch on that one, Nick.
Nick Rios: Yeah. So obviously, there's certain clients, high net worth
clients, that we wanna speak with them four times a year at a minimum. We
obviously need one review a year, but three to four for maybe 25% of the
book, two for another 50, and then it could be one for the remaining 25%.
And then there's a, we force and schedule at least one for every single one,
but we'll always try to schedule by semi-annually for the top half of the
client book. We just wanna make sure we're in front of them, we're talking
with them, and more importantly that we're keeping up with their updates for
our plan because there's a lot of nuance in our planning process and little
changes that they may forgot, have forgotten to call us and update us on can
change the recommendation and goals within the portfolio drastically.
Don Patrick: So your high net worth clients, four times a year. So part of
the conversation is really understanding what's changed.
Nick Rios: And if we just have a conversation that like, “The kid's doing
great. She just got into school.” That's a great phone call.
Chris Rios: Touch. Yeah, it's a touch.
Nick Rios: Yeah. It's a great phone call.
Don Patrick: So it's not like, “Okay, let's review the plan four times a
year,” and all that.
Nick Rios: No.
Chris Rios: Usually, I think unless there's a change in their life, it's
pretty consistent and up and running, right? To update the plan every year.
There's sometimes we bring new ideas up or new thoughts, of course, but
unless something majors change or even minor in their life and they want to
see that update or hypothetical, then we will.
Don Patrick: Sure. Yeah.
Nick Rios: When you make that phone call, you know whether or not you need
to have a follow-up scheduled, “Hey, let's have a larger plan update, set
aside 30 minutes, 45 minutes.” But often it's just checking in, making sure
nothing's changed. And, or the client calling us, which we always want, we
press on them.
If things change, obviously, in the financial sense, goal sense, please
reach out to us if we don't reach out to you after making that decision. So,
yeah.
Chris Rios: After onboarding a new relationship, we just naturally just
speak with them a lot more and then they understand our process and our
communication efforts and so, and I think they get more comfortable speaking
to us less over time, right, if nothing's changed.
Don Patrick: Okay. In terms of marketing prospecting, you said centers of
influence and referrals were the primary source of new clients. I do recall
a few years ago, I don’t know if you're still doing this, you had this young
professional going on, I think you were using social media and, one, are you
still doing that? And if you are, how did you do it? And just kind of give
us a little flavor there.
Nick Rios: Yeah, I'll start it off, but it's evolved a bit. So, when I first
started, we're like, “Hey, let's just try to educate.” It's just, it's good
for the practice, it's good for the community if we can just educate people,
hold little minor seminars on top of an apartment building or whatever, and
tell us what we do.
Basics, financial planning, understand that we provide, we can provide
services for someone who's just starting. We had a nominal fee of like a
hundred dollars a month. You can have on a monthly payment to have access to
us. Obviously, a hundred dollars can be a lot or a little depending on where
someone is right out of college.
Obviously, you don't get a high return on that because that's just not the
client. What it has taught us though is the importance of having some sort
of educational procedures for the clients, high-net-worth clients' children,
and what kind of topics are they concerned about? You don't think you can
talk to them a lot, right?
What can you provide? What advice. But if they hear of one of the children,
we give them a call. “Hey, I am Nick Rios. Your client John, or your dad,
John Smith, asked me just, “Hey, any questions you may have for financial
planning?” They talked to their parents, our high net worth clients, saying,
“Hey, Nick, was amazing. He treated me like an adult.” And again, some
credit on us to that we're willing to reach out.
Don Patrick: So you've taken this, I'm gathering you learn, what you learned
from this, working with young professionals is what really the things they
need or may have an interest in. And now you have evolved this into kind of
an additional service for your clients, for their kids and grandkids? Is
that what I'm understanding?
Nick Rios: Correct. Kind of made it a sleeve, a marketing sleeve, a lot of
the business.
Don Patrick: I mean, that's huge. I mean, trying to get to the next gen is a
big deal.
Chris Rios: That's where it's evolved to. It's almost so much time that we
can devote and I think we learn to target our efforts towards our existing
clients' adult children, and making a conscious effort to grow a
relationship with them, obviously, for continuity of the business long term,
and then obviously providing value to them.
So we don't actively market as much as we used to in the past, just to
general young professionals in the area and more so focused those efforts on
existing clients and their adult children.
Don Patrick: I have a question for you. It's something I think about a lot.
We talk a lot about it. Next gen is a big deal and trying to develop those
relationships. Do you think your ages have something to do with that as
opposed to, say, Kim and Hank's age? In other words, can a Kim and Hank
without having youth like you, accomplish the same success with next gen?
Nick Rios: Yeah. They were doing it before us. Every advisor wants to do
this, right? They want to be able to have a relationship with the inheritors
of their high-net-worth clients.
It's really easy to do. I think age could play a role, but you're just
calling to see if they have any questions. You're trying to educate them on
what a 401(k) is for their new, their first hire. What should they be
invested in? Understanding in regards to like, what's risky, what's not?
Where should you be placing cash?
Don Patrick: Do they have healthcare, powers of attorneys? Stuff like that,
right?
Nick Rios: Yeah, I mean, it's simple.
Chris Rios: It's, “What's a PPO health plan, versus an HMO, an FSA or an HSA
plan,” right? I mean, a lot of this not fight, to your question, can an
advisor do it who doesn't have a G2 set of advisors? Absolutely. Do they
wanna spend their time doing it? This is this next question, right? That's
the challenge.
Don Patrick: Alright. that's great. That's really very promising news for a
lot of advisors that don't have G2s. Alright, I'm gonna change things up a
little more. Kind of community collaboration and really being part of the
consortium, IFG, the impact it's had on your practice, you two, the firm.
Any comments on that?
Nick Rios: Every year working the business, you realize it's one of a kind.
I know every advisor says that within IFG and I didn't know because I was,
I'm a younger advisor, but then IFG, but it's real. I haven't seen anything
else like it, but the advisors within IFG, their ability to treat me as a
peer, even though I may be 10 to 20 years younger, it's an incredible
culture that IFG’s built, you, Don, the founding member, and be able to use
them as a source of knowledge, source of confidence that I'm doing the right
thing, or something's supposed to be difficult. “Oh, yeah, Nick, I know
that's how you start, that's how it goes.”
You hear from Kim and Hank, that's your parents, but no, really, that's the
way it is. So the help group for a young advisor who's just getting into
business and being able to see what independent practice can look like and
the routes it can take, 'cause as you know, what we do is not, there's no
one else like us, but there also we're not like anyone else or they're, and
vice versa. So it's great in the independent side. It's invaluable.
Don Patrick: Chris, do you have any thoughts?
Chris Rios: Yeah, I just, a hundred percent agree with what Nick mentioned
and I think it's, you've got a wealth of knowledge and everyone's got
different experience in this business. It's tapping into that.
It's so helpful from where I am in my career and our study groups. I think
what pops in my head, I'm gonna call out Pat and Hailey Hinchey. I think one
IFG retreat, I just, I understand their business through chatting with
Hailey and I just said, “Pat, how should I network with CPAs? Just tell me
how to do it.” And he sat me down and just gave me some information and
their business model may be different, but just his experience over years of
just making sure, you know, the CPAs are so busy, you need to bring value to
what they're doing day to day or else you're not gonna get their attention.
And just like that one liner changed how I talk to them. So it's been
helpful in a lot of ways, but I can just think back to certain conversations
that maybe five minutes long that bring value through the retreats.
Don Patrick: So that is the essence of the brain trust and for any advisor
thinking about joining the consortium, the culture is that you are willing
to pick up the phone and help your fellow advisor.
And if that doesn't ring a bell with you, then you're not a good fit. So,
yeah, that was a great example of that. Okay. Some rapid fire. Couple of
fun, quick questions for you all. Chris, I'll go to you first, and use three
words to describe your talents and your strengths.
Chris Rios: I would say trustworthy, detail-oriented, good listener, when
I'm dialed in.
Don Patrick: Awesome.
Chris Rios: Especially at work. I love it.
Don Patrick: How about you, Nick?
Nick Rios: Yeah, listening. I think I was a good listener. I've developed to
be a far better one working in the past 12 years. Proactivity, I think as a
firm, being ahead of the client's needs, understanding that and keeping it
within our procedures, and then creativity as well.
So, like I said, you come across new, interesting clients, prospects all the
time with something you've never really thought about or seen. And you have
to be creative with all your knowledge to get the clients to the goal. So
it's unique.
Don Patrick: Cool. So Nick, what is the best piece of advice you've ever
received?
Nick Rios: It's an advice, a statement. I think I said one time that I don't
have enough time. I'm too busy. And I heard, “You're always gonna be busy.”
And for whatever reason, that clicked into my head one day, saying, yeah,
you're always gonna be busy. What's changing tomorrow? You gotta get it
done. You gotta do whatever it may be. Being busy is not a reason not to do
something if you really wanna accomplish it.
Don Patrick: I love it. How about you, Chris?
Chris Rios: I remember, I think my old financial planning professor in
college had one class. She said, she goes, “If you're the smartest person in
the room, you're in the wrong room. So keep learning, growing. That kind of
whole mentality of, you can learn something from everyone. And then my
favorite quote is, “Do your job,” by Bill Belichick. Just cut and simple.
Just do your job. Tired, busy, whatever it may be. Things are hard or easy.
Just do your job.
Don Patrick: I love it. That's great. Hey, guys, this has been fantastic.
I've learned a lot. I mean, I've known you a lot, but I still learned a lot.
You guys are great. A lot of great ideas and advice for all the listeners.
And I wanna thank you so much for taking this time and it's a big deal for
all of us and for all of you listening, I wanna thank you. So thanks, guys.
Nick Rios: Yeah, thanks, Don.
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.