Leverage the financial services evolution to maximize your firm's value The Essential Advisor presents an insightful handbook for advisors looking to navigate the changing face of financial services. The industry is evolving, consumers are evolving, and many advisors are being left behind as old methods become less and less relevant. This book shows you how to turn this shift into a positive, by positioning your firm to maximize these new opportunities, and deliver the results and experience increasingly expected of financial advisors. You'll learn how to provide the transparency, hands-on interaction, and around-the-clock access today's clients demand, and how to consistently deliver service that robo-advisors cannot duplicate. Emerging technologies do not have to be a threat to your practice—they are tools that represent opportunities to provide greater service to your clients, and smart technology integration will be a hallmark of firms that survive the shift. This guide provides a clear vision of the future of financial services, and an indispensable management framework for maximizing your firm's future value. Advisors are increasingly confused about what clients are seeking, and clients are equally confused about what advisory firms offer that alternatives cannot. This book helps clear the air on both sides by examining the client's perspective of financial services, and helping advisors better communicate their strengths. Articulate the value of your services Leverage new technology to complement your practice Capitalize on opportunities and maximize your firm's value Position your firm to benefit from the changing consumer population Financial advisors can only grow their businesses if clients know what they do, know how to hire them, and can access them affordably. The Essential Advisor shows you to bring your firm into the future successfully.

How you are perceived by clients is key for a professional advisor. Readers who take on board what The Advisor Playbook outlines will come away with an understanding of how they are perceived, of how to cast themselves as a consultant with a process rather than a salesperson with a quota, and will set a constantly rising bar for their own success.

Beside talent and a sterling portfolio, what can world-class consultants like Deloitte & Touche, Societe General and Towers Perrin boast has helped them achieve success in our entrepreneurial economy? They all have the inside track on the indispensable "Trusted Advisor" model for client relationships, created by renowned experts Charles Green and Robert Galford. Now Green and Galford have teamed up with the acclaimed David Maister in order to help their latest high-profile, fast-forward client: you. In this straightforward guide, Maister, Green and Galford show readers that the key to professional success goes well beyond technical mastery or expertise. Today, it's all about the vital ability to earn the client's trust and thereby win the ability to influence them. In these high risk times, trust is more valuable than gold. With this critical, highly detailed and accessible resource, readers will learn the five crucial steps for developing, managing and improving client confidence. For both emerging and established entrepreneurs and consultants, THE TRUSTED ADVISOR is the first truly indispensable business book of the decade.

The Supernova Model is a client service, client acquisition, and practice management model that drives an explosive acceleration in revenue and client satisfaction by capitalizing upon the 80/20 Rule. First implemented by financial advisors at Merrill Lynch—under the leadership of author Rob Knapp—it has grown increasingly popular within the financial services industry. The Supernova Advisor skillfully outlines this proven model and reveals how it can be used to create an exceptional experience for your clients, while significantly growing your business.

"Jeff Rattiner has found another way to help producers. This book is a must-have for financial advisors, especially those that aspire to be Million Dollar Producers." -Thomas B. Gau, CPA, CFP President and CEO of Million Dollar Producer "Jeff Rattiner has done it again! His book displays all the essential tools and techniques necessary for advanced planners to succeed in this business. Rattiner's easy-to-read style provides the best in marketing and practice management ideas. This book will help you if you have hit a dead end in your practice. Rattiner tells it like it is by providing a no-nonsense approach to truly taking your practice to the next level. A must-read for the serious financial advisor." -Jim Cannon, President, SunAmerica Securities, Sentra Securities Corporation, and Spelman & Co., Inc. Financial planners provide a variety of services to an array of clients but lack a uniform system for creating a profitable business. Rattiner's Financial Planner's Bible: The Advisor's Advisor collects best practices from the nation's leading financial planners, presenting a prototype turnkey model for achieving financial success for both the client and the practice. Financial planning expert Jeffrey Rattiner emphasizes an ethical, practical approach to financial advising, placing paramount importance on "doing what's best for the client." Drawing on extensive interviews and his own experience, Rattiner delivers can't-miss tips on marketing a financial planning practice, developing an infrastructure, crafting strategic alliances, assessing a business's profitability, and creating the model twenty-first-century practice. This authoritative guide also covers: * Forming a planning advisory board * Establishing a realistic chain of command * Delegating responsibility * Making technology work for you * Charging clients appropriately Running a financial planning business need not be an exercise in trial and error. Rattiner's Financial Planner's Bible delivers a compelling model for advising success.

The financial services world is changing. Technology is enabling an automated approach to investing that should bring down the cost of commodity services. No longer do you have to fund the lifestyle of a broker or advisor to have him tell you how to diversify or where to find the next investment that cannot be missed. This book will provide the tools for calculators that tell you most of what you need to know; from how much insurance you need to have to how you should diversify. The book will help readers with the following: Understand what you have Plan your long-term goals Start to save (maximizing your 401k) Reduce debt Run your Monte Carlo Simulation Determine the appropriate asset allocation Set up your auto-rebalancing and periodically (annually, perhaps) re-examining your asset allocation to account for globalization Deploy the asset mix through low cost, tax-efficient strategies Look at it once per year This book will provide a better understanding of your investment decisions. But, we all cannot be do-it-yourselfers. Advisors serve as an important resource for consumers when they are both capable and understand their duty to serve you, the customer, first. To complement their moral station, they must have the skills to deliver appropriate advice. The book, much like the company Steve founded, will simplify standards for consumers and audit advisors to those standards.