Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, with Commonwealth since 2004
Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, based her impartial advisory agency, SullivanKreiss Monetary, in 2004. Having spent the earlier 13 years as an advisor on workers with a publicly traded firm, she wished to depart massive 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 robust 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 wish to be handled. My goal is absolutely quite simple: to place our purchasers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the individuality that every consumer brings to our follow.”
Throughout our conversations, the pressure of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined by means of. The profitable progress of her agency may very well 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 change into a grasp of time administration. She has realized the way to function effectively and collect the required sources to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.
In case you’re trying to go impartial or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the facility of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions may make it easier to 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 individual you serve. As a way to develop a top quality follow, it’s important to make every consumer really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, nevertheless it’s necessary to maintain high of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for purchasers by means of on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to offer help, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout troublesome instances.”
A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary purchasers shouldn’t get voicemail after they name, and follow-up to requests and considerations should 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 desirous about “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common opinions to maintain abreast of modifications in purchasers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when growing a plan for a brand new consumer.
The end result? 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’ll be able to see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is instantly tied to her spending as a lot time as attainable with purchasers. Notably, like lots of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in consumer conferences than different business advisors. That’s in accordance with a 2020–2021 research performed by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 p.c extra time in consumer conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and impartial companies.
Actually, primarily based on additional evaluation of the information, 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 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.
Attaining 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 means of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the best workers and agency companion may also help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.
The facility of your individuals. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will be able to concentrate on client-facing work. With three full-time workers members (a director of consumer relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is obvious on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My workforce is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes permits 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 personal touch we commit to every consumer.”
In line with Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular progress has been pushed by her workforce’s steadiness of competencies. And that progress has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place extra 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 an extra advisor to the workforce.
When requested about recommendation for advisors trying to develop, she states, “One of the vital productive issues you are able to do is empower your individuals and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the best individuals on workers, notably those that have complementary expertise units to yours.”
The affect of your agency companion. 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 companion. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . it’s important to domesticate the best relationships with the best individuals. You have to have a companion behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”
Like different impartial advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss appears to be like to her agency companion 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, similar to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning workforce, available to speak by means of a posh planning or retirement downside.
As for funding administration, Sullivan-Kreiss acknowledges that this position is an ongoing problem for any impartial agency. She prefers customized portfolio administration and, with the help of her monetary analyst, does quite a lot 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 companion for specialised information. She receives that help from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis workforce.
In the end, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency companion 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 impartial 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 thrill of the current and accelerating much more progress sooner or later. Something is feasible along with her imaginative and prescient, a robust workforce, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.
In case you’re an advisor desirous to go impartial, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you’ll be able to. As for contemplating a agency companion, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however definitely not least, all the time remember that you wish to go the place you’ll be able to develop, even when it’s one step at a time.
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