Advisor Business Management Dashboard – Repeatability

[Part 2] Efficiency + REPEATABILITY + Scalability = Profitability

Recap

Can you imagine doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling your advisory firm’s profitability? In a time of fee compression and shrinking margins, it seems that the only direction compensation is going is down. However, increasing your firm’s efficiency, repeatability, and scalability is the secret recipe to boosting profitability. In this special four-part article series, we are going to share how retirement plan advisors can achieve greater profitability.

Repeatability

Repeatability is the core of an efficient process. Click here for Part 1 – Efficiency of this series. From investments to fee benchmarking, and everything in between, as a retirement plan advisor, your ability to sustain and grow your practice is dependent on being able to perform similar tasks, for multiple clients time after time.

So, when it comes to operating your own business, how repeatable are your internal processes?

Many times when speaking with advisory firms, we hear that they are servicing clients at different fiduciary levels, working with tens of different recordkeepers while screening hundreds of investments. Each of these small, seeming inconsequential differences doesn’t appear to be much, until you step back and realize that there is very little repeatability.

If you want your business to be scalable, your process needs to be repeatable.

While it might sound interesting to implement a repeatable business process with standardized service models, a tightknit core of carefully vetted recordkeepers, and specific investment menu lineups, it might not be worth the effort. It would be a huge undertaking and possibly not merit the time needed from your internal resources. But, maybe there is another way.

>> Develop client service templates

When your retirement plan advisory tools are integrated, it is easier to develop standardized client service tiers. Then, you can apply the tier template that aligns with your client’s signed service agreement (broker of record, 3(21), 3(38), education, consulting, etc.). Such contract standardization allows you to easily match your completed services to an executed service agreement. This helps confirm that services promised are services rendered. Additionally, it helps you benchmark your services and continually demonstrate value.

>> Link client data feeds

Leveraging linked technology can plug into the backend of different recordkeeper systems and pull your plan’s specific data. One login: all access data. Think of the immediate time savings! Wouldn’t that be nice?

>> View all of your watch list funds in one place

For investment screening, some advisory firms have two, three, or even four different investment screening tools they subscribe to and use for their clients. Therefore, by using an agnostic aggregator tool, you can easily view all of your client’s watch list funds in one place.

These features are all possible. It happens when advisory firms access an overlay tool that aggregates and rolls up plan data regardless of the service model, recordkeeper, or investment selection. It’s an executive dashboard – the preferred business model for the efficient, repeatable fiduciary advisor.

Repeatable and Portable

As the retirement plan industry continues to expand and aggregate, technology needs to be portable. When an office joins another broker/dealer, RIA, wirehouse, or benefits shop, it can be a huge business interruption. We have often heard retirement plan advisors admit that their businesses came to a grinding halt as they waited on new paperwork to be processed and systems to be updated.

When we created the FDI Business Management Dashboard, we made sure it would work for all home offices. Yes, all home offices. If you change home offices, that’s okay; the tool easily moves with you, keeping all your plan data, with no interruption in your business. We built it this way on purpose since we understand our clients’ need for flexibility.

Lastly, at Fiduciary Decisions, when we build tools for the retirement plan advisor, we strive to look ahead and see where our industry is going. We have developed technology that anticipates the needs of our clients and helps them operate a more efficient, repeatable, scalable, and profitable business.

Contact us today to preview the Business Management Dashboard and learn how it can increase your efficiency, repeatability, scalability and – profitability.