Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, with Commonwealth since 2004
Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, based her unbiased advisory agency, SullivanKreiss Monetary, in 2004. Having spent the earlier 13 years as an advisor on workers with a publicly traded firm, she needed to depart huge company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was desirous to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a powerful tradition of fiduciary duty to purchasers.
As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve all the time primarily based my enterprise on the elemental principal of treating others as I want to be handled. My goal is basically quite simple: to place our purchasers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the distinctiveness that every consumer brings to our observe.”
Throughout our conversations, the power of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined by. The profitable progress of her agency could possibly be seen as emblematic of the depth with which Sullivan-Kreiss engages with purchasers. It additionally highlights her extremely environment friendly use of time. To offer the personalised concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has develop into a grasp of time administration. She has discovered function effectively and collect the mandatory sources to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.
In case you’re trying to go unbiased or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the ability of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions may assist you chart the best way towards optimizing your time and setting your agency up for long-term progress.
Constructing One thing Particular
For Sullivan-Kreiss, constructing consumer relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every particular person you serve. To be able to develop a high quality observe, you need to make every consumer really feel particular. That will sound elementary, nevertheless it’s essential to maintain high of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for purchasers by on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to offer assist, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout troublesome occasions.”
A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary purchasers shouldn’t get voicemail after they name, and follow-up to requests and issues have to be speedy and correct. However concierge service is greater than that: it’s being proactive versus responsive, going above and past what’s anticipated. Sullivan-Kreiss focuses on long-term, complete monetary planning; she isn’t enthusiastic about “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common critiques to maintain abreast of adjustments in purchasers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when growing a plan for a brand new consumer.
The outcome? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged group of long-term purchasers. For her, that’s what makes the advisory enterprise rewarding and enjoyable. And there’s icing on the cake: in line with Sullivan-Kreiss, “The vast majority of my agency’s new purchasers come from referrals from current purchasers.”
Spending Extra Time with Shoppers
As you possibly can see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is instantly tied to her spending as a lot time as potential with purchasers. Notably, like lots of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in consumer conferences than different trade advisors. That’s in line with a 2020–2021 examine performed by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 % extra time in consumer conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and unbiased companies.
Actually, primarily based on additional evaluation of the info, Commonwealth’s Follow Administration workforce decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the high decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, primarily based on gross income, progress fee, and period of time spent with purchasers. This statistic speaks to the essential work Sullivan-Kreiss undertakes day in and time out with the people she serves.
Reaching Scale and Effectivity
So, how is Sullivan-Kreiss in a position to spend a lot time with purchasers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored by fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss discovered that having the suitable workers and agency associate may help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.
The facility of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will give attention to client-facing work. With three full-time workers members (a director of consumer relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is evident on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My workforce is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes allows me to be good at my job and spend as a lot time as I can with my purchasers. Their strengths permit the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personal touch we dedicate to every consumer.”
In line with Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular progress has been pushed by her workforce’s stability of competencies. And that progress has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place further workers is important. To deal with the amount of labor and hold her productiveness excessive, Sullivan-Kreiss plans so as to add an funding supervisor and a further advisor to the workforce.
When requested about recommendation for advisors trying to develop, she states, “One of the productive issues you are able to do is empower your folks and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the suitable folks on workers, notably those that have complementary expertise units to yours.”
The affect of your agency associate. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has all the time acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency associate. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . you need to domesticate the suitable relationships with the suitable folks. You might want to have a associate behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”
Like different unbiased advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to be to her agency associate for a big selection of back-office sources and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, similar to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning workforce, available to speak by a posh planning or retirement drawback.
As for funding administration, Sullivan-Kreiss acknowledges that this function is an ongoing problem for any unbiased agency. She prefers customized portfolio administration and, with the help of her monetary analyst, does a substantial amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a consumer is searching for a selected funding technique, she desires to have the ability to depend on her agency associate for specialised information. She receives that assist from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis workforce.
In the end, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency associate should have the ability to present a “phenomenal degree of assist” that’s tailor-made to your wants.
Cementing the Cornerstones of Success
Being an unbiased advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to fully align her agency along with her values and purchasers’ finest pursuits. She’s been in a position to construct the agency she’s all the time dreamed
of, one primarily based on placing her purchasers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s centered on the fun of the current and accelerating much more progress sooner or later. Something is feasible along with her imaginative and prescient, a powerful workforce, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.
In case you’re an advisor desirous to go unbiased, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you possibly can. As for contemplating a agency associate, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however definitely not least, all the time understand that you wish to go the place you possibly can develop, even when it’s one step at a time.
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