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 needed to depart massive company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was wanting to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary accountability to shoppers.
As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve at all times based mostly my enterprise on the basic principal of treating others as I want to be handled. My goal is actually quite simple: to place our shoppers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the distinctiveness that every consumer brings to our follow.”
Throughout our conversations, the power of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient at all times shined by way of. The profitable progress of her agency could possibly be seen as emblematic of the depth with which Sullivan-Kreiss engages with shoppers. It additionally highlights her extremely environment friendly use of time. To supply the customized concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has turn into a grasp of time administration. She has discovered easy methods to function effectively and collect the required assets to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.
For those who’re trying to go impartial or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the facility of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions might assist you 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. With the intention to develop a top quality follow, you must make every consumer really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, nevertheless it’s essential to maintain prime of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for shoppers by way of on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to supply assist, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout troublesome occasions.”
A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary shoppers shouldn’t get voicemail once they name, and follow-up to requests and issues 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 all in favour of “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common evaluations to maintain abreast of adjustments in shoppers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when creating a plan for a brand new consumer.
The outcome? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged neighborhood of long-term shoppers. For her, that’s what makes the advisory enterprise rewarding and enjoyable. And there’s icing on the cake: in response to Sullivan-Kreiss, “The vast majority of my agency’s new shoppers come from referrals from present shoppers.”
Spending Extra Time with Shoppers
As you possibly can see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is instantly tied to her spending as a lot time as attainable with shoppers. Notably, like lots of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in consumer conferences than different trade advisors. That’s in response to 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 corporations.
In actual fact, based mostly on additional evaluation of the information, Commonwealth’s Apply Administration staff decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the prime decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, based mostly on gross income, progress fee, and period of time spent with shoppers. This statistic speaks to the essential 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 shoppers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored by way of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss discovered that having the appropriate workers and agency accomplice might help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.
The ability of your individuals. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will 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 staff 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 shoppers. Their strengths permit the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personal touch we dedicate to every consumer.”
In line with Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular progress has been pushed by her staff’s steadiness of competencies. And that progress has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place further workers is important. To deal with the quantity of labor and preserve 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 trying to develop, she states, “Some of the productive issues you are able to do is empower your individuals and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the appropriate individuals on workers, notably those that have complementary expertise units to yours.”
The affect 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 must domesticate the appropriate relationships with the appropriate individuals. You should have a accomplice behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”
Like different impartial advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss appears to her agency accomplice for a wide selection of back-office assets and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, resembling Commonwealth’s Superior Planning staff, available to speak by way of a fancy 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 a substantial amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a consumer is on the lookout for a selected funding technique, she desires to have the ability to depend on her agency accomplice for specialised data. She receives that assist from Commonwealth’s Funding Administration and Analysis staff.
Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency accomplice should have the ability to present a “phenomenal degree 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 shoppers’ 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 shoppers’ 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 together with her imaginative and prescient, a robust staff, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.
For those who’re an advisor desirous to go impartial, 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 definitely not least, at all times understand that you wish to go the place you possibly can develop, even when it’s one step at a time.
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