A Prime Commonwealth Advisor on Driving Productiveness

CashStrive

Jun 13, 2023 — 6 min read

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Photo Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss — 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 employees with a publicly traded firm, she needed to depart large company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was desperate to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a powerful tradition of fiduciary duty to purchasers.

As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve at all times based mostly my enterprise on the elemental principal of treating others as I want to be handled. My goal is de facto quite simple: to place our purchasers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the distinctiveness that every shopper brings to our apply.”

Throughout our conversations, the power of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient at all times shined by. The profitable development 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 turn into a grasp of time administration. She has discovered how you can function effectively and collect the required sources to maintain development and construct economies of scale.

For those who’re seeking to go unbiased or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the facility of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions might aid you chart the best way towards optimizing your time and setting your agency up for long-term development.

Constructing One thing Particular

For Sullivan-Kreiss, constructing shopper relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every individual you serve. So as to develop a top quality apply, you need to make every shopper really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, nevertheless it’s necessary to maintain prime 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 supply help, 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 considerations 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 taken with “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common evaluations to maintain abreast of modifications in purchasers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when growing a plan for a brand new shopper.

The consequence? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged neighborhood of long-term purchasers. For her, that’s what makes the advisory enterprise rewarding and enjoyable. And there’s icing on the cake: in accordance with Sullivan-Kreiss, “Nearly all of my agency’s new purchasers come from referrals from present purchasers.”

Spending Extra Time with Shoppers

As you possibly can see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is straight tied to her spending as a lot time as potential with purchasers. Notably, like a lot of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in shopper conferences than different business advisors. That’s in accordance with a 2020–2021 research carried out by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 % extra time in shopper conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and unbiased corporations.

In reality, based mostly on additional evaluation of the information, Commonwealth’s Follow Administration group decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the prime decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, based mostly on gross income, development charge, and period of time spent with purchasers. This statistic speaks to the necessary work Sullivan-Kreiss undertakes day in and day trip 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 precise employees and agency accomplice might help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.

The facility of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will be able to concentrate on client-facing work. With three full-time employees members (a director of shopper relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is obvious on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My group 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 help—the personalized effect we commit to every shopper.”

In keeping with Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular development has been pushed by her group’s steadiness of competencies. And that development has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place extra employees 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 an extra advisor to the group.

When requested about recommendation for advisors seeking to develop, she states, “One of the vital productive issues you are able to do is empower your folks and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the precise folks on employees, notably those that have complementary expertise units to yours.”

The influence of your agency accomplice. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has at all times acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency accomplice. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . you need to domesticate the precise relationships with the precise folks. You have to have a accomplice behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”

Like different unbiased advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to be to her agency accomplice for a big selection of back-office sources and help. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, akin to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning group, 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 shopper is searching for a particular funding technique, she needs to have the ability to depend on her agency accomplice for specialised information. She receives that help from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis group.

Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency accomplice should have the ability to present a “phenomenal degree of help” 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 together with her values and purchasers’ finest pursuits. She’s been in a position to construct the agency she’s at all times dreamed
of, one based mostly on placing her purchasers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s centered on the thrill of the current and accelerating much more development sooner or later. Something is feasible together with her imaginative and prescient, a powerful group, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.

For those who’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 accomplice, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however actually not least, at all times needless to say you wish to go the place you possibly can develop, even when it’s one step at a time.