The Practice Doctor is IN

Al Depman, CLU, ChFC, CMFC, BH

Practice Management Consultant

Legacy

Bill and his son, Keith, contacted me in early 2010. Bill was ready to wind down his 40-year career and had recently brought aboard his 25-year-old son as successor. We began implementing a transition process. Keith was new to the business, so the learning curve was steep. Bill began introducing him to his top clients and reviewing their holdings as well as their histories.

Less than a year later, Bill was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away this past May. Needless to say, the result was a whirlwind of mourning and emotion. The practice is just now getting back to a place where Keith can pick up the reins and begin to make it his own. 

Along the way, one of Bill’s A-level clients sent the following note to Keith and firm management. I record it here as a testament to a career. The sentiments expressed provide a glistening example of what Stephen Covey means by the highly effective habit “Begin with the end in mind” (Habit 2). He begins his discussion by having the reader imagine what you would like people to say at your funeral and asks if you’ve been consistent with those statements in real time. It’s also known as “walking the talk.”

I should think any advisor worth his or her salt would like to believe they would receive this posthumous letter.

It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing Bill. My sympathies go out to you and his family and coworkers as I am sure he will be greatly missed. Bill had been my financial advisor for almost 20 years. He had worked with my family for even longer. In those 20 years, I had opportunities to work with other financial advisors but never gave it a moment of consideration. I felt nobody understood how to amass wealth better than Bill. Bill understood that wealth meant more than money in the bank and stocks in a portfolio. Bill helped me buy a house that I could afford and love. He guided me through retirement planning and I now have the comfort of knowing my future is secured. He took the time to understand what my wants and desires were for financial planning and created a plan that complemented it.

But I am not writing you because I thought Bill was a good financial planner. I have many professionals that I work with––lawyers, doctors, real estate agents, etc.––that I believe do a good job. But Bill was different. I looked forward to our meetings because I looked forward to being in the same room with Bill. From the moment he firmly shook my hand and smiled at me, to the moment I said goodbye, my meetings with Bill were special. He was a happy, warm man who cared about me not as a client but as a human being. I enjoyed hearing about his family, his vacations, his experiences as a referee. I work every day with famous celebrities and I admire none of them as much as I admired Bill.

Someone once said that a man's true wealth is not measured in dollars and stocks but in the quality of friends they held. I am a wealthier man not because Bill guided my finances. I am a wealthy man because I can say Bill was a friend.

Keith has some big shoes to fill. Fortunately, Bill had the foresight to bring Keith into the practice when he did. Now all Keith has to do is live up to the good will engendered by his father. No easy task…but we have a plan.

Habit #2 remains a prescient one in succession planning: beginning with the end in mind. You and your team should create that picture. So it is that Keith has had to quantify the specific geniuses that drove his father’s practice. From the letter we can deduce some of them:

• But I am not writing you because I thought Bill was a good financial planner. I have many professionals that I work with––lawyers, doctors, real estate agents, etc.––that I believe do a good job. Solid, thorough, bullet-proof financial planning is an expectation of Keith as a financial professional. As we enter a new era of fiduciary responsibility, this will entail having a consistent, replicable case development process that covers all the financial bases. Examine your discovery tools and analysis software programs to ensure this professionalism and compliance with what you promise to your clients.
• Bill had been my financial advisor for almost 20 years. He had worked with my family for even longer.  Keith must realize that the client who wrote the letter is part of a legacy relationship. Bill had developed the initial client and had built enough credibility to be introduced to subsequent generations. Will Keith be able to work with the author’s children?
• He was a happy, warm man who cared about me not as a client but as a human being. Bill went far beyond the mere monetary and did some true life planning, aligning the financial planning to the real person. Recognizing a person’s humanity and embellishing it is about as good as it gets from the client’s perspective.
• I am a wealthy man because I can say Bill was a friend. One of the enduring characteristics of a prime-performing advisor is that it is often difficult to distinguish between top clients and friends––the two blend together. Here’s a great example of that phenomenon.

And so Keith begins his journey carrying the burden of a strong personality-driven practice and making it his own. Let’s hope the systems we put in place prior to Bill’s passing are enough of a boost for a smooth transition so that 40 years from now, Keith’s successor will receive a similar note about him. 

The Doctor is OUT.

Al Depman, CLU, ChFC, CMFC, BH, a.k.a. “The Practice Doctor”, is MitchAnthony.com’s Business Practice Consultant. He is the creator of “The Practice Management Assessment” tool and materials and has authored numerous articles in professional publications on practice management, and author of the book, How to Build Your Financial Advisory Business and Sell It at a Profit, now available from McGraw Hill. Al combined his Liberal Arts studies with 10 years of management experience with McDonald’s Corporation to enter the financial services world 25 years ago. Since then, Al has evolved from an MDRT-level sales rep into a full-time consultant specializing in helping others engineer their business practices to the next level. Contact him at al@mitchanthony.com.

© 2011 Al Depman