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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.
Donald Patrick
Hey everybody. Welcome to the IFG podcast, what works. is episode number 44 and our guests today, uh, Kim DeProspero and Hank Cleare partners at financial strategies group in sunrise Florida. Welcome, Kim DeProspero and Hank Cleare.
Kim DeProspero
Thanks, Don. We made it, finally.
Hank Cleare
Thank you. Finally.
Donald Patrick
Yeah, I know this has been, we're all busy and yeah, just about rescheduled a few times, but we're here.
Kim DeProspero
We're all busy. I think we've been trying for what, over a year? Just about.
Hank Cleare
How long ago did you start this, Don, the podcast?
Donald Patrick
maybe a year and a half ago, think. And it was my, my first one was I was afraid of it. And, even though I used to do radio back in the day, but I was just, and I put it off, put it off from half a year. And it was Matt Carpinali was the first one. It was so much fun and he's so funny. And these are a blast. And I'm.
Donald Patrick
Karen Lee, says, well, Don, you know everything about me. You're not going to learn anything new. Well, I did. I learned something new all the time and there's so much great wisdom out there. Even with the younger folks, it's amazing. So, Kim, I'm going to start off with you and just tell us about your, your growing up, uh, family and we'll get into the business part a little bit later. Just tell us a little bit about you.
Kim DeProspero
Okay. Well, I grew up in New England outside of Worcester, Worcester, Mass. Worcester and three brothers, I'm the only girl. Dad was in the insurance business for years, which we'll talk a little bit about that. So I had a little knowledge of the business, but not a whole lot. But grew up in New England, moved down to South Florida my last two years of high school, which is how I ended up in the Southeastern part of the country long-term.
I went to school at Auburn, War Eagle, and you know, had a really, really good upbringing. Interestingly, being that my father was in the business, never talked about the business, I kind of went away to college and thought I'd figure out what I want to do along the way.
Donald Patrick
So you grew up the daughter of an insurance agent, you went to college and...
Kim DeProspero
And what happened next?
Donald Patrick
Yeah. Well, what did you major in? psychology.
Kim DeProspero
Well, I graduated with a psychology major. Thought I wanted to go on and get my master's and PhD and be a psychologist. But in the meantime, I got a job with Rockwell International in Atlanta recruiting engineers.
Donald Patrick
I didn't know that.
Kim DeProspero
You didn't? Yeah, that was my first job up in Duluth, Georgia. And worked at Hooters. I mean Hooters, I'm sorry. I worked at Houston.
Hank Cleare
Don't edit that out. Don't edit that out.
Donald Patrick
hahahahah
Kim DeProspero
That's pretty funny.
Hank Cleare
Funny, Don, I didn't know that either.
Kim DeProspero
Houston's perimeter mall, waited tables at night and then worked at Rockwell International recruiting engineers during the day. And that's where I got my first start in the business world, I guess.
Donald Patrick
Yeah!
Donald Patrick
amazing and I know you have two boys.
Kim DeProspero
Two sons, Nicholas and Christopher. Yep.
Donald Patrick
than
Kim DeProspero
and you want me to go on about my family?
Donald Patrick
Yeah. Tell us about family, Nick and Chris. mean, they've already heard Nick and Chris, but they haven't heard from their mother.
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, well, I was married fairly young, had kids fairly young in my 20s, was in the business, started. In fact, today's my anniversary, by the way, 40 years. April 1st, 1986, I am not 40 years today that I came into the business, yeah.
Donald Patrick
my gosh. April fools. You're not you're not you're not pulling my leg are you?
my gosh, congratulations.
Kim DeProspero
But yeah, I grew up with three brothers. I have two sons. I have, I think, seven nephews. I have one niece. And the offsprings are all starting to have children. My son had a daughter. My nephew had a daughter. My other nephew is supposed to be having a daughter. So I think we're finally swaying toward more women in our family, which is awesome. We'll talk more about it, but both Nick and Chris are in the business. Both are married. One has a child. I my first grandchild who's 10 months old, which is amazing.
Donald Patrick
You
Donald Patrick
Fantastic.
And how many houses do you guys own? Yes.
Kim DeProspero
And I have, how many houses currently? Three and a third.
Donald Patrick
We're at.
Kim DeProspero
Well, our main home is here in Fort Lauderdale and we have our house in the Keys, which of course we spend most of our time in Isla Morada. And my brother and my niece, my only niece, Hank and I bought the house across the street because we have such a huge family that every time people come to the Keys, we've got four air mattresses and we're barring the friend's house down the street and they're sleeping out on the dock.
And this has been going on for years. right after COVID, it's been five years, Hank, a neighbor of ours owned the house across the street. And we had told him, you know, if you ever sell this house, please let us know. So we got lucky, good timing in the market, bought the house across the street. And it's been the best investment we've ever made because it's always got family, friends all year long, that we can all be literally right across the street from each other, which is really a blessing. And then...
Five years ago, or is it four years ago, we decided to work remotely for a couple of months, just because we could, and it was right after COVID. And we were sitting during COVID saying, if we're all working at home, why can't we do this in Italy? And Hank and I have a tie to Italy, which we can get into if you'd like, but we found a place online, literally.
Donald Patrick
Yeah.
Kim DeProspero
looking for a decent little village in Tuscany, good internet so that we would have access to the office and communication. And we found this little village in Tuscany and ended up buying a place there. So we spend time there also.
Donald Patrick
That's amazing. And you guys are constantly hosting and entertaining, aren't you? I know.
Kim DeProspero
We love it. Yeah, we love it.
Hank Cleare
Yeah, we enjoy doing it and I think we've gotten pretty good at it. it's funny because it doesn't seem like a lot of work anymore. And we both enjoy doing it. So it works out really well.
Kim DeProspero
you
Donald Patrick
A little bit of practice.
Donald Patrick
I think that's a little bit about your growing up and all that kind of stuff.
Hank Cleare
I was born in 1967. you ask Kim when she was born? Anyways.
Donald Patrick
I'm smarter than that, Hank.
Kim DeProspero
Well, it's pretty easy to figure out if I started at age 22 and I've been in the business 40 years today, how old am I?
Donald Patrick
I didn't know we were going have a math quiz.
Hank Cleare
So, right. So we're only 10 years apart. So, born in Florida, my father, grandfather, great grandfather, all from the island of Key West. And my mom was from Orlando. So literally my childhood was between those two locations. And after high school, went to University of Florida in Gainesville.
Kim DeProspero
huh.
Hank Cleare
Also a legacy from my dad, my uncle, my grandfather. And it was after, it was my junior year of college that I had a friend, family friend in Atlanta that convinced me to explore Atlanta potentially as a location for starting my career. And I arranged a bunch of interviews there, one of them being with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. And so in the midst of really the, guess the...
first Gulf War, it was 2001. I got the internship, did that for a summer, really enjoyed it. Really first knowledge and just experience with just how the Federal Reserve and the bank works in general. And they offered me a full-time position when I graduated. So graduated in November, moved 2001 to Atlanta and started my career there, which was a great learning process.
I mean, when you think about how much our finance business is involved, financial planning, interest rates, the economy, all those kinds of things. So was a great learning process for me. While I was there, one of the areas, I was on the bank regulatory side, bank examiner. I'd always walk into the banks and say, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you, just to break the ice. But one of the areas I specialized in was bank owned securities operations.
Donald Patrick
Yeah, right.
Hank Cleare
So this was really at the infancy of banks getting into owning broker dealers and doing initially municipal, then corporate, and skirting the line through nuance of the Glass-Steagall Act. And that's obviously what separated banking and commerce and investment banking. And it was after that that I evolved into, like I said, a consulting business, helping banks set up their operations.
And at the conclusion of that, really didn't know what I wanted to do. So I actually took some time off and did some soul searching. And one of my buddies came into town, came into Atlanta. We drove for a football game. So we had about a five hour drive in the car and he happened to work at Costco at the time. And a lot of our conversations were talking about Costco, talking about their company benefits. And he had this enormous amount of questions.
And I seemed to have a lot of the answers and understood what he was talking about to the point of being able to explain it. And honestly, that was the trip that I said, you know, why don't I go into financial planning? I've always kind of done that as a hobby. I remember reading a book Charles Given's Wealth Without Risk years ago. And, you know, it taught you about, you know, interest rates on credit cards and,
Donald Patrick
I remember that, yes.
Kim DeProspero
Mm-hmm.
Hank Cleare
All these kind of nuanced things that I think are really part of planning wasn't necessarily 100 % on investing, but obviously the techniques of doing things. So I came back from that trip and I said, you know, I want to do financial planning. And I started interviewing companies in Atlanta. And one of the companies was our old legacy company that we started out Pereira and Associates. And that's where I met you Don for the first time.
after talking with a bunch of different companies, thought that that was probably the best fit for me. Also, that's where I also met Al Searcy and Connie Weemscott and what started working closely with Al evolved into a partnership and that's kind of how I wound up in Atlanta and how I got started in my career.
Donald Patrick
Amazing Kim so so alright so you we know you got started you were 22 in the business right? Selling insurance.
Kim DeProspero
That's when I first started in the business. was with Rockwell International. I'd been with them nine months in Atlanta. And I called my father up one day, who was in the insurance business with State Mutual. And I just said, you know, I don't think I'm cut out for this corporate world. And he asked me why. And I said, you know, I kind of walk the hallways, go to the bathroom, get water, get my work done. I'm looking for more work. There's no more work to do, but I got to pretend like I'm working. And I vividly remember him saying, you're a hall walker.
I said, I'm a hall walker. He goes, yeah, you're a hall walker, which is when corporate America, when you have to act like you're busy and you've got stuff going on and you finished all your work that you're supposed to be doing, you have to wait until it's five o'clock before you can leave. And I was like, my God, I'm a hall walker. So I literally that next day had a conversation with him and he had never talked to me about the business ever. And he said, you know, I can't really
Donald Patrick
heard of it.
Kim DeProspero
give you leads. I can't really help you in that category, but I can guide you on how to get into this business. Come on down, we have a training program, I can help you get licensed. You you can move back home until you get your own place. And this was, what, March 1st? I think it was February or March of 1986. And I think I went in the very next day and gave my notice to my boss. His name was Reg. I'll never forget it.
He told me I was making the biggest mistake of my life. I was dating a guy at the time. He told me I was making the biggest mistake of my life. And I moved down March 50th. Thank you, Hank. Anyway, I just knew that this was not for me and I needed to make a change. And so I moved within 30 days, signed on with State Mutual and their FST program, got my licenses and got thrown to the wolves, as they say.
Hank Cleare
And then he made the biggest mistake of his life.
Kim DeProspero
back then, but very shortly, mean within two or three months when I made my first sale, and as you know back then, it was all insurance, life insurance, disability, health insurance, and I remember calling this gentleman up on the phone, getting all his information on disability, because I had cold called, you know, had gotten a cold call lead, and I went in, met with him, sat down with him, asked him questions, talked to him about his family, talked him about his business.
made a sale and I remember walking out of that sale saying this is the greatest business in the world.
Donald Patrick
amazing
Kim DeProspero
And I think I was three months in. So I was lucky. I was fortunate. I found something that fit who I was and what I wanted to do at that time.
Donald Patrick
and you survive.
Hank Cleare
she's also very driven so and she has the discipline which I think is why most people fail in this career is they don't have the discipline to because you know tell them about you know how many time how many calls you would make and how you had rules that you couldn't in your day until you got a number of appointments and in other words all the things we've heard about in sales but she did it
Kim DeProspero
Well, I had no leads because my brother, one of my older brothers was in the business. So anybody my father knew had given it to my older brother. And so I had to pay money to get some cold called leads back then. And that's what you did. I called a dialing for dollars. And my goal was if I had 15 appointments, I knew at least had closed one or two of them. And if I could close one or two a week, no matter what it was or what the commission was, I knew I would survive. So I would just call, call, call, call. I didn't care if they...
hung up on me, they hung up on me. By Thursday afternoon, I had 15 appointments the following week, I took Friday off. And to me, I was like, wow, I get to control my destiny. I get to say when I work and don't work. It was awesome. It was great. I mean, you can't come into the business that way today. We were lucky back then. That's how you came into the business.
Donald Patrick
Liberating.
Donald Patrick
Yeah, I don't know how people do without, you know, little cold call anymore, you know.
Kim DeProspero
You can't. And nobody takes cold calls anymore. So, you know, that's not an option.
Donald Patrick
That's true too. So you knew your numbers.
Kim DeProspero
Oh, I knew my numbers. I knew from me, I knew my closing ratio. If I scheduled 15, I probably got in front of eight to 10 because they cancel or they no show. And if I got in front of eight to 10, I knew I could close one to two. And so it worked.
Donald Patrick
And did you have a, a, a target, an annual target for number of lives?
Kim DeProspero
No, for me it was always about money. It was always about the amount of commissions. Back then it was commission only. And I was very driven and it was a matter of whatever that number was each year, I had to hit that number of how much in commission. And you know, back then there was no reoccurring revenue. So come January 1, you start all over again. But it was just really driven by the amount of dollars I wanted in my pocket.
Donald Patrick
That's correct.
Donald Patrick
Amazing. So what next?
Kim DeProspero
So as you know back then, the business evolved from insurance, obviously, to investments, to getting our securities license. And I knew pretty early on that there was more to what we did than product, much more than what we did than product. And I was more interested in other things involved with whoever I was talking to, their family, their business, why, why they do what they do.
What are they trying to achieve? And that's where I fell into the financial planning world and just knew that that was really what I enjoyed. Obviously selling the product is important back then, especially because you had to make commissions to survive, but it was really about the financial planning side. And so got my CFP very early on while I had two kids. I'd get up at four in the morning and study for my CFP and then get the kids up and, you know, go to work, come back.
but you did what you had to do. And I just knew financial planning was where the growth was gonna be. And so I very quickly got into that side of the business.
Donald Patrick
didn't you end up running the agency for a while?
Kim DeProspero
So yes, after I got my CFP, I'd been in the business probably, let's see, 96, probably about eight to 10 years, maybe a little bit longer. My father was the managing director at that time with All America, State Mutual became All America. And they had approached me and asked if I would ever have any interest. And I said, yes, I would, but it would have to be after my father retired.
My father and I were very close and got along very well, but I knew that we would not be able to be in management together. I just knew that we had different ways of managing, different styles of managing. There was just no way that it would ever work. So when my father did finally make the decision to retire, I was given the role as managing director, which was a big deal back then. were no other females that were managing director. I was the only one in the company.
And it was, you know, it was a big honor. It was a big undertaking. I had a practice, my practice with a partner back then who was a family friend and he and I had an equal partnership in the practice. And we made an agreement that if I was going to take on this role as managing director, he would manage the practice. I would obviously get less revenue than he was getting because he was doing more of the work at the time. So I did. I was a managing director for about three or four years.
before I realized how much I disliked it.
Donald Patrick
And how did you, how did you learn how to manage? mean, you just throw got thrown in. Was your dad kind of a mentor?
Kim DeProspero
highly dislike this.
Kim DeProspero
No, no, sent me to the Wharton School of Management, several different training. Yeah, so there was a lot of training and a lot involved in it. It was more than just saying you're going to be managing director. It was really a three-year program to get into that role. And it's interesting, people have asked me what I didn't like about it because it obviously paid a lot of money. It was managing the advisors. If I had 50 advisors, maybe 40 of them were really good.
Donald Patrick
cool.
Yeah.
Kim DeProspero
And when I say really good, doesn't mean that the other, I mean, I'm sorry, maybe if I had 50, maybe 10 to 15 were really good. And it doesn't mean that the others weren't good. They were in it for the wrong reasons. It was always about that sale. It was always about that product. It was always about the commissions. It wasn't about doing what was right for the client. And that was very frustrating. And no matter how much training I did or how much I tried to...
Hank Cleare
Really good, right.
Donald Patrick
Correct.
Kim DeProspero
share what I thought was the right thing to do with them, you can't change that in a person.
Donald Patrick
goes to the hiring process, right?
Kim DeProspero
It sure does. Yep. Yep. But I took over a region and I wasn't involved in that hiring process. That's exactly right. So I didn't stay in it very long.
Donald Patrick
Right, was existing, you didn't have a choice on that. Yeah.
Donald Patrick
So then what?
Kim DeProspero
In fact, I remember when I gave my resignation and I won't name names who was managing the company at that time, told me once again, I was making the biggest mistake of my life. And I said, well, it's my mistake to make. And I'm going to go back to having my practice and doing what I love and working with individuals and families and business owners. And that was all at about the same time as Allmerica closing or Veribest closing and then Veribest.
Hank Cleare
All America then VeraVest,
Kim DeProspero
So it was kind of in conjunction that same 12 to 18 month period. In the meantime, I find out that my partner at that time had been telling clients that I was no longer in the business, had been telling clients that, you know, they shouldn't work with me. And this was a childhood friend, one of my brother's best friends that we grew up with. So after I got out of management, after I tried to recover part of the practice, I basically started over.
literally started over. Had to go rent space, had to go find an office and joined every mentoring group, every B &I group. I still have friends from that original group I joined in Weston, and had to rebuild my practice again.
Donald Patrick
crazy.
Donald Patrick
And you were a single mom at the time,
Kim DeProspero
Single mom at the time. Yep.
Donald Patrick
that much going on.
Kim DeProspero
How much going on? No.
Donald Patrick
So you went and rented space, hung the shingle out, and this is really the kind of beginning of FSG Financial Strategies Group. Is that correct?
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, and that was probably like when did we have to start with that 2000? What year was 2003? Yep.
Donald Patrick
2003 I'll never forget. don't remember much but
Hank Cleare
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, it was December 1, 2003, signed a lease, a seven, eight year lease and said, okay, here we go.
Hank Cleare
Remember 2003.
Donald Patrick
Rock and
Hank Cleare
Remember we had a prompt to meeting. Everybody needs to meet in the conference room. We have an announcement to make. We've got six weeks to find a new broker dealer. VeroVest is shutting down and All America is getting out of the broker dealer business. Any questions?
Kim DeProspero
Yep. But we did it.
Donald Patrick
Absolutely. So Hank, let's go back. you met with, you became partners with L-Service and Connie Wim Scott. So you got to...
Hank Cleare
Yeah, that evolved over time. So my CPA at the time knew Al Searcy, part of my due diligence and trying to find what I thought would be a good firm, led me to meet Al. And I think when I met Al at the time, he told me he was only going to work for another three to five more years. It turned into 15, but I won't go there. But no, I think early on I recognized maybe there was an opportunity here not only to work with somebody that
had a lot of experience, but then the ultimate ability to maybe buy out their practice or do something down the road. so I give a lot of credit to Al because Al was very, he was always willing to teach and always willing to work with me, but also very hands off. so some of the, know, and back then, you know, he had some clients that, you know, we all have different levels of clients and stuff and
He had some folks that hadn't done a lot with him. And so he allowed me to start working more directly with those clients. And those clients are still my clients today. So some of that initial, and I was able to help him and do things as well. So it actually turned out to be a really good relationship. And in beginning, it wasn't a formal partnership. Al also worked very closely with Connie Weemscott. And again, they weren't in partnership.
but they work very close. So back then, a lot of that meant is you did seminars together and things of that nature and you would share expenses and share leads and things of that nature. So it was really a great, great opportunity to kind of get started in the business. And one that I feel probably is where the evolution has come. I think that's almost the only way to get in this business now is to partner with another financial planning firm because let's face it, we're an advisory business now. The days of commission.
Donald Patrick
I
Kim DeProspero
Mm-hmm.
Donald Patrick
mentorship.
Hank Cleare
And the example I always like to give is, know, first year in the business, let's say you're lucky enough to find $5 million of new assets. It's a pretty good, pretty big number.
Donald Patrick
That's a big number for one first year.
Kim DeProspero
for a newbie store.
Hank Cleare
for a newbie, right? Brand new in the business. Well, you know, back in the day, you know, products you were selling paid anywhere from five to 7 % commission. So that can turn out to be a really good year. Well, in the fee world, that's a $50,000 year, and you know you don't get 5 million day one January. So if you're lucky, maybe you scrape by and make 20 or 25,000. So I think in this new evolution, and I think it's obvious why...
more people are getting out of our business than getting into our business, it's because the model has changed. I think for the better, but that's just kind of the facts of it. So we formalized our partnership and everything worked really well for a number of years. We made the transition when All America broke up. Connie, Al, obviously with you, Kim as well, founding members of IFG. I think there was a lot of...
I guess camaraderie, you say there's strength in numbers, but I think from my point of view, just having a group to, you know, we've always had that group that we kind of could lean on or ask for opinions and things of that nature. And also a very different environment. Everybody had a mutual, I think, care for one another. And it wasn't about the money, it was about helping. And that I think is a culture that IFG has had and one that we fight to preserve.
as we grow and make sure that people coming in understand that. I know in other industries or other types of companies, if I were to walk down the hall to that senior advisor, the first thing out of their mouth is, I'll help you, but we'll have to split the case. It was always about the money. And that just doesn't really happen in our organization. So over time, grew the practice, really started out day one with a recurring revenue model.
Donald Patrick
Rick.
Hank Cleare
And so it took a little longer to build, but I always say, you know, it's that first five years you've never worked so hard to get that base. And then, you know, from that point forward, obviously it becomes a lot easier. And then ultimately, I guess it was we started having our consortia. think our first consortium retreat was in 2005, if I recall. We had all been going and I think we had it at the.
Donald Patrick
That's correct. Yep.
Hank Cleare
Weston Hotel in a small conference room. There wasn't a whole lot of us back then and That was actually the first time I met Kim because this woman walked in the room and I looked over at Al Sears and I'm like who is that and So it's Kim the Prospero and I'd seen her name because she had been a managing director and she had been in the firm for a while and
Kim DeProspero
Not a lot of us.
Hank Cleare
from there really, it took actually until 2007 for Kim to finally work up the nerve to buy me a drink. that's how.
Kim DeProspero
at the retreat.
Donald Patrick
Good. I'm going to, I'm going to ask Kim's viewpoint of this. What did you think of Hank for the first year or two? Cause I've heard this.
Kim DeProspero
He was very aloof at all the meetings. He wouldn't really engage with other people, but he would always ask very intelligent questions. He would always answer with intelligent responses. And I remember saying to Karen Lee, who's Hank Cleare? What's with this dude? I mean, he seems very smart. He's obviously adorable, but he kind of is aloof. And that was my impression of who Hank Cleare was. And I knew nothing about him. And even Karen Lee didn't know anything about him, which is...
highly unusual because she typically knows about people. But so yeah, that went on for 05, 06. I only would see him at the retreat or I'd run into him at a wholesale meeting or a pack life meeting or a some life meeting. then in 2007 at our retreat, actually, we were in one of the rooms having a wholesaler presentation and I was going up to the bar and I said, I'm going up to the bar. Would you like me to get you a drink? So he says, I was the first.
to offer him, but I did. That's a true story.
Donald Patrick
I love it.
Hank Cleare
She always likes to point out that the wholesaler sponsored it so she technically didn't have to buy the drink. But she did get the drink. But I always say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Kim DeProspero
Did not buy your drink. I did get you the drink.
Donald Patrick
You
Donald Patrick
So then what, then your relationship, mean, this is such a great story.
Hank Cleare
So.
Hank Cleare
No, think, yeah, well, let's see, No, I think, you know, Kim and I started to see each other. And, you know, we, of course, were keeping it very hush-hush, so nobody would know about it. Turns out, I think everybody knew about it. But in the midst of this, that's when we formed a study group. And so the group that we still have today, one of our study groups that we have,
Kim DeProspero
How much you gonna tell, Hank?
Hank Cleare
started in 2007 and we brought some different candidates together. And that group remained in place for quite a number of years and then we expanded it and added two more members to that group. know, it's Don, you'd always, Don, I know you've made this comment, but I remember you hearing it many times, partnerships are more difficult than marriages. And so, you never heard that?
Donald Patrick
I've never heard that before.
Hank Cleare
So you used to always say that, you used to always say that. And so what eventually evolved out of this was I broke away from Searcy Weemscott and Clear and took my practice and merged with Kim's practice. But the sequence of events was we dated, we got married. It was only after we were married that we started talking about merging our practices.
Donald Patrick
which I knew was gonna happen. I just knew it.
Hank Cleare
And
Kim DeProspero
Well, you were very concerned, rightly so, as our mentor. You did. I was very concerned because I had been through a horrible divorce, had given up a lot, and that business partner that I had to start all over. So I was very apprehensive to do it.
Donald Patrick
I got on an airplane and flew down to Florida.
Hank Cleare
had a bad business partner.
Kim DeProspero
But really, honestly, Hank, we sat down and we looked at our practices, we looked at our revenue, we looked at our type of clients, we looked at everything. And it was eerily similar. Our practices were so similar, our numbers, our revenue, our households, all of it, that it really didn't make any sense for us not to merge our practice. So we did.
Hank Cleare
Yeah, it almost kind of evolved to why wouldn't we merge as opposed to why should we? And I think that both of us financial planning focused, fee-based focused, all those kind of things. so I still remember when I called Al, I said, Al, I got to talk to you about something. said, I've decided, you Al's like, I've been waiting for this phone call. So he wasn't surprised. But again, I think that's that.
Kim DeProspero
Why wouldn't
Hank Cleare
I go back to the founding members of IFG and the culture. This wasn't scored as a win or a loss. This wasn't a situation where you hear about when partnerships break up, there's great anger and things of that nature. They understood, they got it, it made sense. I had relocated down to Florida, still maintaining my office in Atlanta.
And it just seemed really natural. we had one staff member in Atlanta and one staff member in Florida. But I think that's really when we started to form the foundation of what financial strategies is today. as much as possible trying to do things the same way. If you ask our staff, they'll tell you Hank does it one way and Kim does it another. So.
they have, I think, more of a challenge. we really did make an effort to try to create as much similarity as possible to, one, make it easier on the staff that was having to deal with us.
Donald Patrick
So can I rewind just a touch? Uh, it's compliment. Um, so yeah, I freaked out your newlyweds and now you're going to do a business partnership. think what a great way to destroy a marriage. And, but you, you, you guys did everything absolutely correct. You had the operating agreement, buy, sell, you had all that in place. You did it as business people. And I remember maybe a year or two later, I interviewed Kim.
to ask her why your partnership was such a success. And it is the key to partnership. And we have so many partners now that are spouses and it's amazing to me. So what are the keys to success? Being married, number one, and being business partners, number two.
Hank Cleare
What'd she say?
Hank Cleare
think there are probably two overreaching rules that we established very early. And of course, one is to make sure it's clearly established who's actually in charge. And we don't need to go into that on this call. Kim and I know who's in charge. But we had two rules. We had two rules. And one was we never drove to work together.
Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.
You
Donald Patrick
interesting.
Hank Cleare
We took separate cars so we could maintain our separate identities. We weren't going to be driving all the time. And this, right.
Kim DeProspero
Well, come and go as we please, you know, make our own phone calls in the morning and the evening that we want to make. Because people would say to us, why don't you drive the office together? And we're like, yeah, no, no, no. Need our space.
Donald Patrick
I like that. Yeah.
Hank Cleare
And I think the other thing was we had a rule. I think one of the difficult parts about being in business together is there's really no off switch, right? You're together 24-7. And there's a lot of days, it's interesting, when we come into the office, we are on opposite sides of the building, of the floor. We might go all day and not see each other during the day. Occasionally, we might cross each other's office on the way to the kitchen or something.
Donald Patrick
Yep.
Hank Cleare
But we had a rule that if either one of us didn't want to talk business, meaning the day's over, it's the evening, we want to unwind, all the person had to do is say, can we table that till tomorrow? And we've both respected that rule. And we still do, yeah.
Kim DeProspero
And we still do. mean, literally, as early as this morning over coffee, one of us said, hey, can I ask you a business question? You know, meaning if I'm not up for it, he's not up for it, I'd say, you know what, let's talk about it later in the office. Or can we table that? You know, because some days you just don't want to have another business conversation at home in the morning or in the evening. So we've been really good about respecting that of each other. And the other reason why it works, is Hank and I
Donald Patrick
That's great.
Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.
Donald Patrick
That's great.
Kim DeProspero
are very different.
Donald Patrick
If you were both the same, it wouldn't work.
Kim DeProspero
And it wouldn't work. We're so different. Our skill sets are different. How we approach things is different. I respect how he approaches things. He respects me. We might not always agree, but we'll come to a middle from those two different perspectives. And that really is key.
Donald Patrick
and you trust each other and you communicate.
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, trust and communication, very important, most important. And a lot of times we schedule time on our calendars for us to catch up because I'll have a list of things to talk to him about or he'll have a list of things. And we just put it on the red tail and have a meeting.
Hank Cleare
Definitely.
Hank Cleare
Plan meetings.
Donald Patrick
So Hank, you moved down to Florida. You guys get married and have officially become partners at FSG. So walk us through that and how FSG has evolved as a business.
Hank Cleare
Well, I think the biggest thing would be one, just integrating our practices together, split codes, all the things that kind of go into putting things together. We kept split codes separate in a sense that we could always identify my book of business versus her book of business, but yet it all rolled up together. Even new clients that came in.
We did the same thing. So I kind of call that the there's the writing advisor. We use Red Tails or CRM. So we can look at our book of business. The writing advisor is the person that brought the lead in. Now that we have more advisors, that's evolved because now we have also servicing advisors. So not necessarily who brought it in. But then we started to, you know, that standardization, I think that's when we first got started with our.
trying to, we hired a consultant to come in and help us for branding purposes. We did that very early on. And that was probably the beginning of how we're gonna have a consolidated message. We did events in Florida, we did events in Atlanta, but we were always there. Kim, you wanna kind of supplement kind of that process.
Kim DeProspero
Well, I think it was important very early on hiring of consultants, not only for branding, but for establishing the processes and how we did things so that it would be the same message to a client. It would be the same story. It would be the same experience. And we really, would say 10 years ago, how long ago? don't know, early on, but for the last 10, 15 years, that's what we've been working on. How do we build this practice?
that it's the same experience, the same message, regardless of where that client is or how that client comes to us. And we spent a lot of time and a lot of money building that. And it took time. And, you know, less money in our pocket, Hank, right, as we often say, but hiring more people and hiring more team members to support the growth that we knew would come and that we were working toward. But it was really just establishing that foundation and that message as a firm.
Hank Cleare
Right, right.
Hank Cleare
Well, and I've always had the philosophy that it's a lot easier to keep a client than to find a new one. And so the key was if you build a model that kind of makes, you know, clients are working with the firm, they're not working with an individual, that's how you make sure you're always there to service their needs, even if you're not available. And so that kind of evolved really then, I guess our first, you know, we had additional administrative staff.
supporting us, but then and I think it was over 12 over 12 years matter of fact I'll have to look up the exact date, but that's when Nick joined our practice and Kim's son and and what was interesting is Nick We thought it'd good for Nick because actually Chris did this I think after his freshman year of college He came and interned with us. So while he was still in college, he spent a summer and he interned with us and
Donald Patrick
Kim,
Hank Cleare
It really, think, gave him an aptitude of what we were doing, some kind of view of what we were doing. He ultimately became a business major and graduated with a business degree. Nick had gone a different route. He thought maybe he might be pre-law, political science. And so part of it was something on your resume in the most simplest form. Or maybe you might learn this as something you're interested in.
So he was supposed to come in and intern with us in the summer. And we got a call from him before the summer came around and said, hey, if I stay at Florida State over the summer, I can graduate. But I know we talked about the internship. And of course, Kim and I went, graduate. Get it done. Get it done. But what happened then is he did. He graduated in August.
And then he started working with us in September. But we sat down with him on that meeting and we said, you know, I know we're calling this an internship, but we talked about whether it truly was going to be an internship or would we treat him in such a way that he might stay. And the decision was made to kind of treat him like he might stay. So it wasn't necessary. And that's kind of the mold that we put him in day one. And it was really to learn all aspects of our business.
Paraplanner so this was not come in and get licensed it was be an admin because that's how you learn how to fill out paperwork
Kim DeProspero
know how to open up an account, know how to move money, know how to, mean, literally grunt come in and really was on a six month probationary period, just to add to what Hank said, because not only did he have to see if this is what he wanted to do, we had to see if he was a good fit for the firm. And so it really was a probationary period and you know, three, four years of back office, grunt work. And he's, know, 12 years later, phenomenal.
Hank Cleare
Learning the financial planning process. mean, he can manipulate the financial planning software probably is the best in the firm now. So again, building that foundation for him to be an advisor in the future and it worked really well. So again, more time spent on practice management, a lot of time, procedures, processes, our practices were growing.
How do we make sure nobody falls through the cracks? How do we make sure there's a consistent follow-up system and making sure we're getting anything done with the clients? So that was just a whole nother phase that occurred.
Donald Patrick
And then eventually Chris joins. So now you got spouses, kids. You don't want to make this any more complicated.
Kim DeProspero
So Chris.
Kim DeProspero
No. Well, and ironically, and you know this, Don, I never expected either one of my boys to come into business ever. And so Nick comes in and it's such a success story and he's so good. Chris went the route of internal wholesaler. He worked with a mutual fund company in Boston, did very well. His next step was to become an external wholesaler and he had an amazing external wholesaler he worked for out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. And
looked at that and had the opportunity to do that, but called me up one day and said, I don't want that lifestyle. It's not the lifestyle I want to live. He saw how this gentleman lived his life for three years, made a lot of money, but didn't have much of a family lifestyle. So we kind of told him the same thing. We would love to have you come join the firm. It's going to be a probationary period. And at that time, it probably a 40 % reduction in compensation form because I wasn't going to pay him what he was making.
at the mutual fund company. He had to come in and he knew sales, but he didn't know financial planning. So he joined our firm, worked with Nick in the paraplaning department. And that's one thing talking about Hank and I having different skill sets. Very fortunate that Chris and Nick have different skill sets. So as the future partners of this firm, they work well together because they have different attributes that they bring.
Hank Cleare
complementing skill sets.
Kim DeProspero
Complimenting skills, absolutely, complimenting skills. So Chris and Nick were pivotal, obviously. And then we hired a full-time pair planner to support the firm. And that was probably the best hire we ever made in that, you know, Nick was thrown into it, developed the planning department, figured it out. He had to put it all together himself to his credit. And then Chris kind of followed in those steps, but then we hired someone that actually came into a
full-fledged planning department and really has been amazing. Matt, who is...
Hank Cleare
And it didn't happen successfully the first time. you know, we, I think, and I think that's one of the things that we had a vision of what it should look like. And we had experimented, do you outsource your planning? Do you do it internal? I mean, we've wrestled with all these questions and tried both. And I think what we learned is, you know, for us, the financial planning was such an integral part of what we do. It wasn't something to outsource, meaning it really is a
Kim DeProspero
No.
Kim DeProspero
We tried both.
Hank Cleare
It's the foundation of every relationship we would have with our clients. So to outsource that to a third party that maybe doesn't even get in front of the client just didn't work. We also saw it as a great runway for somebody young who wants to get in this business. And I truly believe that's how you build a practice these days. And so, you know, we didn't know this day one, but that's where we can make these statements now. And so we had somebody, they were with us for about
They might've made it a year, year and a couple of months, and finally it just wasn't working. We had to let them go. We then subsequently interviewed Matt, who Kim actually had met previously because one of her other study groups out of Connecticut, a gentleman out of Connecticut said, hey, I know this young man's father. He's down in Miami. He's working for Northwestern Mutual. You know, would you mind just meeting with him just to have a contact?
And that's how we initially made the conversation. Kim and Maddie was impressed with him.
Kim DeProspero
I was so impressed. walked into Hank's office and I said, I know we're not hiring and we don't have a spot for him, but you got to meet this kid. You got to meet this kid. And so what, five years? Yeah.
Donald Patrick
Well, I liked them immediately. Immediately. He and I are the only two people who have mustaches.
Hank Cleare
Only two. Yep, that's right. Well, and just, know how sometimes, I always say sometimes you're good and sometimes you're lucky. We were lucky because at the time we needed to refill that paraplanet position, we knew of somebody that could possibly be a good fit. And he was available, I think he had spent a year and a half with Northwestern Mutual and totally a life insurance sales position.
Kim DeProspero
Only two.
Donald Patrick
There's not many out there.
Hank Cleare
with hopes of other things. And so I think he really welcomed the change. And again, that was a process. Learning our business, there's a very steep mountain decline. And it's, yeah, yeah.
Kim DeProspero
And not everybody has the patience for it, right? Because they want to make money. They want to make money fast. so both with Nick and Chris and Matt, it's been, you know, be patient. It will pay off. But it's not fun the first three, four or five years because your colleagues and the friends that you know are out there in sales jobs with these pharmaceutical companies or IT companies and they're making a lot of money, but have patience. And it has paid off.
Donald Patrick
So right now, you've got four advisors, you two, Chris and Nick.
Kim DeProspero
Nick and Chris. And this year, Matt will become an advisor, probably June 1st. Yep.
Donald Patrick
and that's going to become an advisor. And then what's the rest of the staffing look like?
Kim DeProspero
So we have two full-time operations people and one part-time. We've used ASAP, which has been hugely successful using the program through IFG. And ironically, they're all virtual right now. That wasn't planned that way. Partially it was, partially it wasn't. One of our girls that was here for years moved to Atlanta. And post-COVID, we're able to manage it.
So all of our operations individuals currently are virtual. Not in the office here. Yeah. And it works. So we've got two full-time, one part-time, and then Matt and the four advisors right now.
Donald Patrick
How about that? Yeah.
Hank Cleare
physically in Fort Lauderdale.
Donald Patrick
Chris and Nick on a track to buy in as partners.
Kim DeProspero
Hank, I'll let you answer that. They are. We're in the process of it right now. We had a consultant last year. We use LPL's consultant. We've got our operating agreements done. We have our employment agreements done. They are now in the process of finalizing outside financing, and we're hoping no later than May or June 1st, they will buy in, each of them, to the practice. Very exciting.
Donald Patrick
That's fantastic.
Hank Cleare
And that process has been an evolution because, you know, first we taught them and work with them to develop their skills as advisors and financial planners and all the things that you have to do in this business. And then gradually we've been delegating to them how to run a business. And I think that's a part that a lot of people, might be good at one thing, your technical skills, but it's how do you run a business? And so they...
they manage the payroll, have oversight over the 401k, over the company benefits. In essence, everything from, know, we need a new copy machine. Well, okay, let's go out and get quotes and do we lease, do we buy? I mean, so we've put them in the position where they've had to learn that, albeit we're here, but in and maybe sitting at the table, but always trying to take that number two position and let them lead.
And so the idea now is once they do finally make that transition as partners, they know how to do everything. And that to some degree is part of our succession plan. It's part of our contingency plan. I mean, all those things are things that we've been working on for really over 10 years. And so, you know, I think we're really starting to reap the benefits and we've got a foundation.
One of the things that Kim and I talk about, we have not grown our practice at really the level we could have grown because we've tried to have been really intentional on that growth and how we get there. But we feel like now we've got the right players in place, the right staff, the right processes that we can really start to scale our business now going forward without necessarily increasing a lot of overhead.
Donald Patrick
And
Yeah. And you have the capacity. So, so you guys are in Italy several months out of the year. Um, how does that work? So are Chris and Nick pretty much running things while you're gone? Is that how.
Kim DeProspero
Mm-hmm.
Kim DeProspero
They are. They are. We've gotten now to where because we've got the right team and the right processes, we don't miss a beat, honestly. The first time we went there for six weeks, we thought, how is this going to work? Not a problem at all. And we do all of our client engagement, know, progress meetings while we're here in the States. And when we're there in Italy, obviously we're in communication with the office and in communication with clients, but it's really just
touching base, know, touching with the client, no progress meetings, nothing that they can't handle back here at the office, which is, which is great. And they love them. We're not here.
Hank Cleare
Yeah, and yeah, we don't give them things as much to do. Well, and also, yeah, we're not interrupting them all day long with like 10 new things. What also to Kim and I, allows us to have some very focused time on what I would call practice management, continue education, know, all the things. So I think what we've started to do is really concentrate. And that's what I think has made it made it really pretty.
Kim DeProspero
We're not giving them projects.
Hank Cleare
pretty smooth. mean, we really haven't had any issues. you know, aside from maybe a six hour time difference, it's no different that Nick is in Atlanta and I'm here, we're in the Keys. I mean, it just, it doesn't matter. This virtual world we live in makes it easy to communicate. So that's been a big plus. It did. There was only one...
Donald Patrick
COVID created all this, COVID and Zoom, just a game changer.
Kim DeProspero
It sure did.
Hank Cleare
I'm always hesitant to say it this way, but if there was one good thing that came out of that experience, it was, I think, this acceleration of technology and people's comfort with technology and just simply using a Zoom call or something like that. And I think that's made a big difference. even, I would come to Atlanta once a month and have meetings in Atlanta. And I think it was after that big snowstorm that you had that pretty much paralyzed the city.
I still remember coming up there one time in February and there was the potential that this was going to happen again. And of course, I've never experienced anything like it. Atlanta became a ghost town. And I know some people had some pretty harrowing experiences when the real one did hit. But there's a lot of times when we call clients and try to schedule an appointment, they're like, we can just do Zoom. also, I think the
being fearful that you couldn't form new relationships unless you were sitting across the table with somebody. I would say majority of the clients we've added since that time frame are virtual clients, not people that are local that walk in our office. So I think that's been a positive dynamic, I guess, with technology and continuing to be able to scale your business.
Donald Patrick
So where do most of your new clients come from? Referrals, marketing?
Kim DeProspero
Thanks.
No, I would say most all come from our existing clients, centers of influence and our strategic partners, which I know Don, you've heard me talk about them in the past, but we formed this group over 10 years ago. And just like everybody, you have an estate planning attorney, you refer people to, have a CPA, you have a payroll person, you have a senior care specialist.
We approached it a little differently over 10 years ago because all of these individuals own their own practice or own their own business. So instead of approaching it like a B &I, you you come to the meeting and you bring referrals, right, and you leave with referrals, we approached it in the beginning, very beginning, that we're business owners helping each other be successful as business owners. So literally each month when we would meet in the beginning, it was, how are you doing with staffing? How are you doing with hiring?
What are you using for IT services? What are you using internally for payroll? And it was all about how to be a better business owner versus are you bringing me referrals to this monthly meeting? And what happened over time is the relationships that grew every single month meeting with this group for the last 10 years, they refer to us and we refer to them. It's only natural.
But it wasn't expected at that monthly meeting. It just came from us liking each other, working with each other, helping each other as business owners. So all of our clients either come from referrals from our existing clients or from our strategic partners, which is our centers of influence.
Donald Patrick
Yeah.
Hank Cleare
Yeah, and I think that's the difference. We didn't call them Center of Involvement. We call them strategic partners. And when we would go out and talk to people that we thought might be a good fit, we had a couple criteria. And so the first idea was we wanted to have a strategic partner that we could call on to better assist our clients. So that might be a property casualty agent that we could send over during the financial planning process and have them look over their
homeowners or car insurance or umbrella policy and give us feedback on what they see. So that was a great example. Or a legal question or a tax question where we could pick up the phone and of course they're gonna answer right away and help us. They're not gonna charge us for that. They're not gonna charge our clients for that. They're a resource. And then what naturally evolved is...
You know, maybe the information we learn to better enhance their situation could result in maybe talk to our property and casualty agent because they can get you better coverage and better value. So that's really what happened. And then we get together once a month. So again, it's not this onerous thing that you have to be there like a, you know, a traditional B and I group or something. Not to say that's bad. works for a lot of people, but it wasn't where we wanted to be at our point in our careers.
and it's really served us well. we've had people retire, so we've had to replace and backfill some of those people. But our group is pretty big. So we even have a neuropsychologist as a strategic partner. And you might say,
Donald Patrick
my gosh. So when you say pretty big, what is that, 10, 20?
Hank Cleare
No, no, we're probably about 10 in total. Yeah. But not what you would consider your traditional. Remember everybody, you know, you have a CPA, you have a estate planning attorney. We've got a mortgage person. We've got a senior care manager. Very big in our business. And I can't tell you how many clients have come to us because they're dealing with their aging parents and they're like, we don't know what to do.
Kim DeProspero
8, 10. Yeah.
Hank Cleare
Well, we've got somebody that can help them and they've helped so many of our clients. mean, early on one of our relationships...
is so strong today because of that introduction to help him with his mother. Had nothing to do with what we were doing for him on a day-to-day basis. I mean, obviously we're doing a good job for him, but what really sealed our relationship was the fact that FSG is a resource that can help me in all aspects of our life. You hear it's common that seniors, there's a high percentage of depression that can happen to people after they retire.
having that neuropsychologist where you can get them in and get them reviewed to find out is it depression? Is it something that's, and those are the things that have come out of this that we've been really proud of to have those people that we can call on when we need them.
Donald Patrick
that's so unique, it's powerful. So you have an introduction and referral from wherever it came from.
How do you, how do you make that first contact? there's, client will say, I know, Jay, I'm going to give them your phone number. Of course it stops there. So how do you handle that?
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, that's a great question. It's a process. Chris is our business development person. So any referral, regardless of where they come from, go through Chris. And what that means is Chris sets up an introductory phone call with that individual and has a 30 minute conversation about what we do, how we do it, what that looks like, what that feels like, and then try to get a feel for what they're looking for and if there's a match. And then if there's a match, he then will quote our planning fee.
and what is involved in that planning fee and what you get for that planning fee. And then, you know, an agreement is made or not made or a follow-up meeting is made from that point. And the follow-up meeting will be made whether it be with Hank, whether it be with me, whether it be with Nick, depending on where the relationship started or where the referral came from. But it flows through CRISP, business development, and goes through that planning, the initial planning process. And then from there, the first meeting is the discovery meeting.
finding out about the client, what the client is looking for. So it's a process from Chris to then a discovery meeting and then obviously then the pair of financial planning departments doing the work and then plan presentation.
Donald Patrick
So when you're, when you're discovery meeting, do you make the clients fill out a form or just have them bring their stuff in?
Hank Cleare
and... Well, what I was gonna say...
Kim DeProspero
No, no, no. They have to, in fact, we don't have a discovery meeting unless they fill it out. Unless they fill that out and send all their documents. And not all of them. I mean, there'll be some that we don't need. But yeah, I mean, they've agreed and they've paid a fee upfront. And so what we learned over the years, 3500 to 4500. And what we've learned over the years is that when we didn't charge the fee, they didn't do it. We have no problem with them doing it when they pay the fee. Zero.
Donald Patrick
is that right?
Donald Patrick
and roughly what do you charge?
Kim DeProspero
They do it.
Hank Cleare
Well, and I will say that one of the things that I do think has had a significant impact on our business is we always talked about Chris, 50 % of his role when he first started with us was going to be business development and 50 % was going to be a servicing advisor. So, you know, that was kind of his role. Nick is really 100 % servicing advisor. And we made a conscious decision that every single referral
would go through Chris and he would manage that because I don't I think you mentioned you know when you're in meetings all day and you're meeting with clients and you're busy you get a referral when are you going to make that phone call to contact that person and some and we're all guilty of this that sometimes a couple of days could go by and you know that's you know they always say it's the golden ticket you know you've got someone who's interested you should jump on that right away and sometimes it's just not feasible and so that changed the way we talk to people.
So if I met you for the first time and you had expressed interest in that conversation with you, I'd say, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to have Chris Rios give you a call and help us arrange a time to get together. he would have it, you know, I would send him the email and within an hour it'd be done. And so that kind of responsiveness, I starts even to establish for the client, hey, these people are serious. Like they've got a process. They've got a way of doing things. And it's really worked great.
I mean, it's and so for Chris, sometimes, you know, in the beginning, we were involved in everything. But now sometimes maybe Chris just does that initial meeting. Maybe Chris and Nick do that meeting. Chris uses his judgment to decide, you know, would it be better to pull Kim in on this meeting or Hank in on this meeting? That kind of initial meeting, if you will. And then we'll have the discovery meeting. I will tell you a lot of times the discovery meeting becomes then Nick.
Chris and Matt and maybe we're not even involved in the discovery part, but we are involved in the plan presentation. So it's really worked well and I think it's allowed us to deliver a consistent product, if you will.
Donald Patrick
I like that. And yeah, you're right. I mean, your whole point, they immediately understand that you got your act together. You've got process.
Hank Cleare
We also established that you're working with a team, you're not working with one person. And so usually by the time a client, let's say they go through the financial planning, that's the first piece, at that point they could walk away. And our financial planning service is structured that way. We've given them the information they were looking for. If they decide, hey, can you help me now manage this? That's really phase two. But by the time we get to phase two,
they've probably talked with and met with every single member of our team, whether that's know, Jocelyn calling to confirm an appointment or follow up on something to the discovery meeting that might have involved one of the advisors or all of us.
Donald Patrick
So you have the initial kind of mutual selection phone call. You have the discovery meeting. You have the planned presentation. And then it's up to them whether or not they want you to manage the assets. And so is this the only time you charge a fee? If they want you to manage the assets, does it all get kind of swept in under the AUM?
Kim DeProspero
Correct.
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, do the initial planning, we charge the fee for. If they become a client, the ongoing updates of financial plans is part of the advisory fee. We don't continue to charge an additional fee for the planning.
Hank Cleare
One thing we don't do that I know some advisors do is they'll do that whole thing like, well, this is the fee, but if you implement with us, we'll give you the feedback or something like that. We make a very distinct, the service we give on financial planning is very comprehensive. And so, we don't believe in giving that away. I remember the old days, remember the financial planning was almost the hook? We'll give you a free financial plan.
Kim DeProspero
Well, interestingly, the persons or the person that made us keep increasing our financial planning fee was Chris and Nick because being back office, they saw the amount of work, the amount of time, and they were like, you're not charging enough or you're giving it away and we're not a charity. And so they really were instrumental in us realizing that because the old days, that's what we did. You know, we said, we'll do the planning. We want your assets.
Donald Patrick
They knew how much work it was.
Kim DeProspero
And to your point about them getting us the information, we never have a problem with them getting us the information because they pay the fee upfront.
Donald Patrick
Yeah. So that's always been a, I've seen so many planners under charge and I go to the fact that they call them landscapers. They mow your lawn, trim your bushes. It's at least 2,000, 2,500 a year just to mow the lawn and bringing all this knowledge and experience and intellectual. And so somebody charges $1,500 for a plan. It's like, really?
Kim DeProspero
Right.
Hank Cleare
Well, and the consistent follow-up. know, Nick or Chris has business development. Not only does he have that initial outbound call to get that first meeting scheduled, but he will manage the process until the fee agreement is signed and the fee is paid. At that point, he has to decide then, does he hand that off to Nick and Matt in the financial planning department or is he going to be the advisor on that relationship?
What we've tried to do is we always want Chris to have one or two plans in the pipeline. And so if he already has two in the pipeline, then he knows he's going to hand this relationship off to Nick and work either with Kim and I. And so that's so he's kind of built his own book as well through that process of where he's, you know, he's the servicing advisor, not only, but he's brought them in and taken them through the whole process.
And so it's worked really well in that regard.
Donald Patrick
So with existing clients, what does the cadence look like on an annual basis? Meetings, communication.
Kim DeProspero
as far as how many times we're touching them.
Donald Patrick
I mean touching them meetings. What does that
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, I mean, it depends on the client. Obviously, our, as we say, A and A plus clients are getting quarterly touches. One annual full review, update review, bucket update, reviewing the state docs, reviewing beneficiaries. I mean, a full financial plan review every year at least once. better, A and A plus clients is a quarterly touch.
Also from a marketing standpoint, we have a personal newsletter that we mail out every quarter. We have monthly blogs that we do, birthday gifts, anniversary gifts. So they're getting touched, in my opinion, quite a bit.
Hank Cleare
And the progress meetings are somewhat.
tailored to the client and their particular needs. So of course, always we're meeting with them once a year, but some people are set on to meet with twice a year. Some might be, we meet with quarterly. So we kind of establish what the need is and also for the client, what they want. A lot of times, you know, after you've worked with somebody and they're obviously confident you're doing a good job, they're like, we really don't need to meet. Is there something you need to tell me about?
And I'm like, no, everything's fine. But you know, want to stay in touch with you. They're like, we're OK. We already had our meeting for the year, and that's fine. Call me if something changes. And then we're also doing a lot of other things. So we try to break up and do some tax reviews and meeting maybe with their tax advisors the second half of the year. So some of the meetings are maybe looking at Roth IRA conversions and things of that nature.
Some of this gets set up in the first half of the year and then the follow-up is in the latter half of the year. So that's where a lot of this kind of evolves throughout the year and evolves the type of contact we have with them.
Donald Patrick
So what kind of technology are you using for all this, everything you're doing, planning software?
Hank Cleare
You want to cover that,
Kim DeProspero
No, but I mean we're using a lot of technology. Don't we all complain about that? We're adding on another one. We're adding on another one. We've refused to switch from Red Tail just because it works and we have no reason to and the software really that we live and die from is what Hank?
Donald Patrick
I know
I
Hank Cleare
Well, we did make a big change last year. Airtable is something that we have found to be very scalable and used for very different things. And so one of the most recent things that we've implemented is for each advisor to track your servicing advisor clients and whether or not they have a trusted contact in place, whether they have their power of attorney in place, and when was it last verified.
Donald Patrick
project management.
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, the project manager. Two years ago now.
Hank Cleare
And so we've been making a real push for that because of some issues that have come up over time to really make sure we've done that. Because a lot of the new documentation has that, but a lot of the older clients don't. And so that's just a great example now where we can go in and take a look at that. We have a tracking sheet for tracking of fixed annuities and when they mature.
and really staying on top of that kind of stuff. We have a tracking sheet for our progress mate. we're, Airtable has really become a big part of what we do. And what's nice is we can customize it. So everything that we're tracking has its own customization and everybody's using it. We used to be on Wealthvision, which of course is LPL's brand of e-money. We made the decision last year to move completely to e-money and we had to do that manually.
because LPL was not willing to just release the data. And that was a big project that actually Matt led and did a phenomenal job. The benefit was he got to know every one of the clients. So again, enhancing that whole team concept that we have. What was really surprising is that there's a lot of functionality that eMoney has that we weren't getting through Wealth Vision. A lot.
Donald Patrick
That was match project.
Donald Patrick
I didn't know that.
Kim DeProspero
Mmm, a lot.
Hank Cleare
a lot. so even like Roth IRA conversion, some of the different things. And so I think for some reason, maybe when eMoney, as they're developing new things, they launch it. But I suspect it has to go through some kind of approval process or something before maybe it rolls out to Wealth Vision. So that's been huge. So making that change. Kim mentioned
Donald Patrick
Ugh.
Kim DeProspero
We also use Halista Plan with all of our clients. We're now you nitrogen. We're now you we still use I call it income for life even though I know that's not what it's called anymore. But that's a large large part of our planning process. In fact our clients come in and say just show me the buckets. I want to see the buckets. I mean we've been doing that for over 20 25 years and it works and the income distribution.
Hank Cleare
nitrogen.
Hank Cleare
Wealth 2K or income conductor. It's income conductor, that's the one we use.
Kim DeProspero
strategies that we implement with our clients. We've added
Donald Patrick
So let me just clarify, you use an income conductor for that.
Kim DeProspero
Yes. Yes. So we have the income conductor and then we have a one-page spreadsheet that we use, which is not allowed to give to the client and we don't, but we're able to show it to them. So they understand, you know, what bucket 1, 2, 3, 4 looks like. And that makes it just so easy for the client to understand the different buckets of money and where money or income is going to come from. We just recently added the box.
Hank Cleare
Correct.
Kim DeProspero
Is that what it's called, Hank?
Donald Patrick
Box,
Hank Cleare
Yeah, for secure uploading. No, that's great. And I will tell you that anybody that's not using this should consider it. for LPL has a negotiated price, I think it's like $35. Everybody can have a secure link in their email. So that means everybody in the firm can say, look below my signature, click on the secure upload, and you can upload the documents there.
Kim DeProspero
Proud of me.
Hank Cleare
So no more of this, I'll send you a secure email and then you upload your files and hopefully they're not over 25 megabytes and all that kind of stuff. So Jen, the little incremental things that sometimes cause friction and slow things down. So we've got that going now. That was our theme by the way, is every year when we do our business planning, we come up with a theme. And our theme this year is efficiency.
and everybody in the office laughs at me, but I've got an ongoing Excel spreadsheet that I think has over 30 different item now that we have, that we're either working on, want to work on, or have already completed. And, you know, sometimes it's as small as the person scheduling the meeting has the ability to immediately create the Zoom link and put everything into Red Tail.
so that everybody now can go on to the next step. Sometimes that requires maybe you gotta have an extra subscription or something. But versus, you schedule the meeting and then you send an email to Jocelyn or to the advisor saying, can you schedule the Zoom link? Well, that's just crazy. So those are the kind of things that we're really working on this year. And to do that, we had to have a meeting with the team. And things like, well,
It takes me forever to get statements from different annuity companies. Can we add them as a user so they can have access to it? Because now with two-factor authentication, they can't get to it. So we've really worked hard on trying to do as many of those as we can.
Donald Patrick
Right.
Donald Patrick
That's great. Any other technology? Using my rep chat.
Hank Cleare
We use My Rep Chat and Slack.
Kim DeProspero
yeah, absolutely. Use repchat and slack every day. Yep.
Donald Patrick
Slack, Slack. Do you use the scheduling tool?
Hank Cleare
Highly, right.
Kim DeProspero
No.
Hank Cleare
No, we found that hard to integrate.
Donald Patrick
Jump
Kim DeProspero
It was very hard with so many advisors. Honestly, if it was just me, that's easy. But we got two different people scheduling for four advisors and sometimes the advisors are in meetings together. So it didn't work.
Donald Patrick
Sure.
Hank Cleare
Didn't work.
Hank Cleare
Right. We use Jump AI. I am using it. No one else really in the firm is. I found it to be highly effective. I was actually one of the, when we had that temporary use of, think was it Zoc, ZocDoc or something like that. I used it then and I really liked it. I've been happy with the Jump AI. I don't think we've fully explored its capacity, but it works. It's working.
Donald Patrick
Yes, I.
Hank Cleare
And so we're learning as we go.
Donald Patrick
Amazing. So let me, you don't have to get detailed, but high level. How was the comp structure worked out? Is it a salary bonus? with, all the advisors, what does that look like?
Hank Cleare
salary bonus.
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, we've always focused on fixed comp with bonus incentive comp, always. And it remains that. And it's just different each year depending on what the incentive comp is based on and depending on the individual.
Hank Cleare
And one of the things I will say for, you maybe other practices might find this interesting is, you know, we used to spend a lot more time where maybe you have a lower base and a higher amount that would be paid out in like a quarterly bonus. And then you'd tie that quarterly bonus to meeting certain expectations or achieving certain goals. What we learned basically is,
If people aren't doing their job, they're not going to be here. So we start on the assumption that everybody's going to do their job and everybody's going to meet their goals. So what we found is it was actually more helpful to our staff, to our employees, to basically pay them a higher salary and have less of it focused on the bonus. Just because things are expensive, especially down here in South Florida. And so
If at the end of the year, the comp was going to be quote unquote the same, then just pay them a higher monthly salary, a fixed comp. And we found that that worked well. We also try to do, occasionally we will have like a big project, like, you know, that whole integration from Wealth Vision to eMoney. We tied a big bonus to that and basically said, you know, this is kind of our expectations for you to get it done.
Kim DeProspero
Fix comp. Yep. Yep.
Hank Cleare
but as soon as you get it done, you get the bonus. you know, it's kind of like you're in the driver's seat. And then sometimes we will give just...
Kim DeProspero
Random.
Hank Cleare
random bonuses for certain situations We gave a bonus one year because I Can't remember which staff member but somebody one of our accounting firms got hacked and and people got access to all their client information and So we started having phone calls to our office Impersonating our clients trying to get access to their account
Somebody bypassed us and went straight to LPL, had all the information, right? Data birth, self-security number, all that kind of stuff, got LPL to place a trade. Through notifications, one of our staff people saw that there was a trade in somebody's account and knew that they weren't the ones to put it in and followed up on it. And it actually was somebody mimicking one of our clients that talked directly to LPL.
We caught it before anything else happened and we actually got it fixed in a day. We gave a bonus for that. You know, just trying to do those kind of things that, you you're not just coming here and doing a job and we were taking care of people. We're taking care of families. And so that extra effort, you know, that extra phone call to let them know what's going on, whether you have an answer or not, just to let them know you're still working on it.
Donald Patrick
That's amazing. Absolutely.
Donald Patrick
That's great. That's huge. Well, I'm going to kind of start wrapping up with some fun questions. And Kim, I'll start with you and use three words that describe your talents and strengths.
Kim DeProspero
Hank and I last night when we were home, we switched.
Donald Patrick
But that's right. Yeah
Hank Cleare
We couldn't think of any, yeah. Yeah, we couldn't think of any.
Donald Patrick
Well, it's better it's more objective that way.
Kim DeProspero
Right?
Hank Cleare
Yeah. So I'll start with Kim, some words for Kim. So one, and it's kind of a broader term, but Kim, empathetic. And I think empathetic then rolls into being engaging and caring. I kind of look at it as all one thing. I think she's great at connecting with people. She's great at asking questions and
Donald Patrick
Okay.
Hank Cleare
Genuinely showing a real interest in people. I think that's one of her great skills She's also a great listener She is our office therapist That psychology degree that she got at Auburn Paid off The joke is she probably should just have a lounge couch in her office and people would come down and come in and just lay down and talk to her about what's going on in their lives
Kim DeProspero
Paid off.
Hank Cleare
Not only she does that for her clients, but she does it for lots of her friends and half the time, total strangers that feel comfortable talking with her. We always joke when the, used to go on family trips with the boys and we'd go and stop at the gas station. Kim would run in the store and pick up something for us to eat or drink. And then she'd come out and the first one of us would ask, so who'd you meet? She goes, I met Sarah. She works behind the cashier.
She's going through a really rough divorce right now, but she's got two amazing kids. I mean, so this became the ongoing joke, but the fact is, is it was true versus, you know, I would have probably walked in and smiled, paid and said, thank you and walked out. the difference, I would have been nice and polite. Also, I think the next word would probably just be positivity. Kim's got a very positive outlook, even in crisis.
I mean, I think people can be half full or half empty and she's definitely on the half full side. So I think those are some of her talents. One, makes her the person she is but also very successful in her role as a financial planner.
Donald Patrick
I've seen it.
Donald Patrick
I agree. And I've always said that in my opinion, the best degree in college for this profession is psychology. It's a people business.
Kim DeProspero
It is, and it's 80 % of what we do, right? As I often tell individuals, obviously the investment management side is so important because it's your money, it's your life savings, it's your bucket. But getting us there and how we do it and with whom you do it is that's psychology, that's relationships, that's trust, that's listening, that's having empathy, all of that, you know, and often...
Hank Cleare
.
Kim DeProspero
our experiences in our life, or I should say most often the experiences we've been through, whether it be divorce, death, illness, all those things, help us be better financial planners. Right? Because we understand. You know, and that's what I love about Hank and I working together because his qualities are all the things I'm not, which, you know, he's so damn intelligent and smart. I'm not saying I'm not smart, but he's so smart.
Donald Patrick
correct.
center.
Kim DeProspero
And he's so analytical that he loves to dive in, you know, and as a business owner, that's a big important part of what we do. And so when we talk about working on our business, I am so grateful that Hank has the mindset and the talents he has because he loves diving deep and getting analytical and looking at the why and how do we fix it and how do we solve it and how do we come up with another solution? Whereas my brain is like, you know, just solve it.
Right? I want to talk to people. I don't want to solve the problem. And he's a problem solver. And he's a problem solver a lot of times, you know, when it comes to situations with my sons. You know, they are still my boys. They are still my babies. Even though they are soon to be partners and we work together in business all these years, he is the intermediary. He's the problem solver, which is amazing. You know, and that's why we work well together.
Donald Patrick
That's great.
I love it. I agree with both of your observations of each other. Absolutely. So Hank, tell us something that surprising that maybe other people don't know about you.
Kim DeProspero
pretty right on.
Hank Cleare
So again, we're gonna flip this, because I looked at Kim and I go, there's nothing surprising.
Kim DeProspero
Shall I tell them?
Kim DeProspero
He couldn't think of one thing and I thought of two. Okay, first, when he and I met, he was never a cook. I mean, he was a frozen dinner kind of guy, pick up at the restaurant, never cooked. It's true. COVID hit and he developed a desire to cook. Well, I've always loved to cook, but he has taken it to a new level. Like literally gourmet cook.
Donald Patrick
I can't believe, okay, let's hear one.
Donald Patrick
Yeah, you're great.
Kim DeProspero
eight course meal, nine course meal, sit down with a menu, have every meal plated in a specific way. And he's had these types of dinners and celebrations for friends and family members. Amazing, amazing cook. He just had a guy's weekend in the Keys, some college and high school friends, and they walked away. He cooked every meal, three meals a day. They're like, my gosh, where'd you learn this? How come you didn't do this in college? So anyways, an amazing chef.
Donald Patrick
my god.
Donald Patrick
I it.
Donald Patrick
That's amazing.
Kim DeProspero
And secondly, a lot of people don't know that he is a performer. He can sing. well, you know, and once a year with 10, he goes to Key West once a year with 10 of his buddies and they dress in full garb Elvis outfits and go from bar to bar performing. And he's the lead singer, of course. Of course.
Donald Patrick
All we know.
Donald Patrick
Well, anybody at some of the retreats know.
Donald Patrick
Alright Kim, how about you?
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, you know, I...
Hank Cleare
Well, let me touch on this. So we were talking about Kim and Kim. One of the things we concluded is, are there any surprises? Because Kim's an open book. part of her personality is she's not afraid to share. But I'd be curious what other surprises she has under her sleeve. Obviously Hooters. I didn't know she worked at Hooters. So that's, whew, all right.
Kim DeProspero
Yeah, you know the-
Donald Patrick
I That was a surprise.
Kim DeProspero
I I just said that. Never worked at Hooters. I mean, probably one of the things people don't know is I come from a very musical family. I mean, my grandmother was an opera singer. My father was an opera singer. He was in New York to be an opera singer on Broadway when he met my mom and then had to find a job. And that's how he got in the insurance business. I played four instruments growing up because that was mandated. My grandfather was a conductor of an orchestra.
Hank Cleare
Yep. Yep.
Donald Patrick
my god.
Kim DeProspero
And so I keep telling my children that one of the grandkids is going to get that gene. Because none of us kids got it. I mean, I played four instruments, but I certainly was not the musician. And my kids didn't get it, and none of my nephews got it. So let's hope it skips generations. Yeah. Let's hope.
Donald Patrick
You
Donald Patrick
skip a generation. Yeah, I had no idea. was surprising to me. All right, last question. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Kim DeProspero
For me, it probably goes to my positive attitude. Both my parents were of the mindset and would say to us, you have a choice every day. You have a choice every day to decide how you face the day. And you can either be happy or not be happy, but it's your choice. And my kids even make fun of me to this day. Yeah, you have a choice.
Hank Cleare
that where it came from? I hear that a lot, Don.
Donald Patrick
Perfect. I agree. How about you, Hank?
Hank Cleare
You know, when I was thinking about this, I don't think it was somebody that gave me a specific piece of advice, but some of this was gleaned, I think, from watching other people and witnessing maybe certain situations. But one of the reasons I do what I do is I'm a big believer in maintaining some type of financial independence. I think that if people
focused on building wealth even outside of maybe the job they have. I had a godfather who was into real estate and even had storage facilities as you know creating that reoccurring revenue and was a business owner. And then I witnessed a situation with my own family where my father late in his career kind of at his peak earning years you know management changes new people come in people get pushed out.
And just being in a position where you really don't control your destiny or you hear about people all the time that they're in a job that they hate, but they just don't have a choice because they've made decisions to take on too much debt and do things like that. you know, the big part I think is how do you reach some level of financial independence? And I think you can do that early in life. You don't have to wait till you're 60 years old.
independence might look a little different, but I think it's just giving yourself flexibility and giving yourself options and not backing yourself into a corner that takes those options away. So those are probably the big things.
Donald Patrick
So I want to thank both of you for taking this time and effort and sharing, and you've been doing it for over since really the beginning of I F G. I mean, Kim, you were on the advisory board for 20 years, I think. And that's a big deal. Hank, you were on it. You both do so much. You were on the first one. Yeah. That's right. you both dedicated so much to the consortium and it's been fabulous.
Kim DeProspero
Hmm. Long time. Yep.
Donald Patrick
Anyway, can't thank you enough for this. has been fun and I love worrying about Hooters. had no idea. No. believe me, the whole consortium was going to know.
Kim DeProspero
It's awesome.
Our pleasure. my gosh. Are you going to erase that?
Kim DeProspero
my gosh, that's great. Houston's.
Donald Patrick
Alright, see you guys. Bye.
Kim DeProspero
Thanks Don, it was fun.