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 employees with a publicly traded firm, she wished to go away huge 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 robust tradition of fiduciary accountability to purchasers.
As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve all the time primarily based my enterprise on the basic principal of treating others as I wish to be handled. My goal is basically 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 pressure of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined by way of. The profitable development of her agency might 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 customized concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has turn into a grasp of time administration. She has realized easy methods to function effectively and collect the mandatory sources to maintain development and construct economies of scale.
Should you’re seeking to go impartial or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the ability of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions might provide help to 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. With a view to develop a top quality apply, it’s a must to make every shopper really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, however it’s necessary to maintain high of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for purchasers by way of on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to supply assist, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout tough instances.”
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 interested by “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common critiques to maintain abreast of modifications in purchasers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when growing a plan for a brand new shopper.
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 line with Sullivan-Kreiss, “Nearly all of my agency’s new purchasers come from referrals from current purchasers.”
Spending Extra Time with Purchasers
As you may 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 shopper conferences than different business advisors. That’s in line with a 2020–2021 examine carried out by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 p.c extra time in shopper conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and impartial companies.
The truth is, primarily based on additional evaluation of the information, Commonwealth’s Apply Administration staff decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the high decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, primarily based on gross income, development fee, and period of time spent with purchasers. This statistic speaks to the necessary work Sullivan-Kreiss undertakes day in and time out with the people she serves.
Reaching Scale and Effectivity
So, how is Sullivan-Kreiss capable of spend a lot time with purchasers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored by way of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the proper employees and agency associate might help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.
The facility of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will deal with client-facing work. With three full-time employees members (a director of shopper relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is evident on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My staff 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 enable the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personal touch we commit to each shopper.”
Based on Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular development has been pushed by her staff’s stability of competencies. And that development has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place extra employees is critical. 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 staff.
When requested about recommendation for advisors seeking to develop, she states, “One of the crucial productive issues you are able to do is empower your folks and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the proper folks on employees, notably those that have complementary abilities units to yours.”
The influence 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 . . . it’s a must to domesticate the proper relationships with the proper folks. You must have a associate behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”
Like different impartial advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to her agency associate for a wide selection of back-office sources and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, comparable to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning staff, available to speak by way of a posh planning or retirement drawback.
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 an excessive amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a shopper is on the lookout for a particular funding technique, she desires to have the ability to depend on her agency associate for specialised data. She receives that assist from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis staff.
Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency associate should have the ability to present a “phenomenal stage of assist” that’s tailor-made to your wants.
Cementing the Cornerstones of Success
Being an impartial advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to utterly align her agency together with her values and purchasers’ greatest pursuits. She’s been capable of 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 targeted on the thrill of the current and accelerating much more development sooner or later. Something is feasible together with her imaginative and prescient, a robust staff, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.
Should you’re an advisor desirous to go impartial, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you may. As for contemplating a agency associate, be thorough about due diligence and align with a agency whose values mirror yours. Final, however actually not least, all the time remember the fact that you need to go the place you may develop, even when it’s one step at a time.
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