Financial advisors need to look at client onboarding in a whole new light

Good topic and our experience matches most of the points mentioned. This is a complex topic and could be a long discussion but we’ll make it short.

We are business development consultants to see the process from delivery of the pre-qualified prospect to our client’s principals who close the sale and transition the new client. The best business development in the world is crippled if the new client transition is boggled. it can often be.

We see the following:

- RIAs and advisors are hyper-focused on existing clients and processes serving them — for good reason.

- There are rarely any business processes in place for new client transitions. Few even have CRM systems which form the basis of fact-gathering and collecting new client information and data.

- Handling new clients is generally haphazard and ad hoc. Again, understandable.

New client transitioning should be a core capability of each firm. But maybe it could be outsourced. Interesting idea. We are hired to generate a steady flow of new prospects but we often end up with these responsibilities, ad hoc, without getting paid to do so!

Case Study: One of the top estate planning firms in Chicago, many of their clients are global UHNW/family offices/billionaires:

- Differentiate themselves by their staff support for all administrative aspects of the estate plan implementation and execution.

- These tasks are identical to bringing on a new RIA/advisory business client

- Effectively ALL of their very successful,capable and uber-wealthy clients have huge holes in the administration of their affairs.

Yes, you can grow your business and beat your competitors just getting the administrative details right for new clients — and highlighting that in sales meetings and marketing!

NOTE: Avoid using the word “on-boarding” with wealthy clients — it’s dehumanizing.