Serving Financial Advisors Worldwide

the

Vol. 9 No. 5 • May 2008 Official IARFC Publication www.IARFC.org

Applied Uses of the SelectiveExecutive Retirement Plan ... 12

“Just the Facts, Ma’am … ” New IARFCFinancial Planning Materials ... 14

What Does It Taketo Be a Pro? ... 25

made any changes to their parks or howthey do business? Absolutely not!”

Never before have more people been in greater need of solid financialplanning! Consumers want and deserveto do business with people they know andtrust, not someone they don’t know andwith whom they have no relationship. It isa fatal mistake to ignore the mostvaluable people in your business, yourexisting clients, who deserve most of your time.

One of the problems with the seminars ofold is that advertising costs are veryexpensive. Up to 60-70% of your budgetmight go toward advertising. Direct mail isthe most expensive form of advertising. Itcan be effective as it enables you to targetprecisely, but often it is just expensive.Whether you place an ad or inserts in yourlocal newspaper or send out mailers, itquickly becomes very costly.

People are tired of invitations for anotherboring dinner seminar. The reality is —most do not want to go to such agathering. If they do go, they are usuallyvery skeptical. In some reported recentcases — when the number of responses isvery low — advisors have simply not evenshown, leaving those who did attend verydisappointed and insulted.

To learn what is working now weinterviewed, Jerry and Nick Royer — afather and son team of RFCs.

After nearly three decades of providingretirement seminars with a dedicatedconcern to informing and educatingmembers of the public within ourmarket area, we learned that you haveto stay fresh and make appropriatechanges to keep up with your clientsneeds and provide them what theydeserve. Please note the mention ofkeeping up with “your clients needs.”Readers of the IARFC Register need tospend 80% of their time building andmaintaining their relationship with theirvalued clients — not spending most oftheir time trying to get new clients.

Why are the majority of those attending afinancial seminar so cautious, skeptical,and guarded? They don’t know thefinancial advisor hosting the event, theirtrustworthiness or their experience.Changing who you invite to an event canmake all the difference. It is easier to hosta seminar for people who know they cantrust you, who invest their hard-earnedmoney with you, and who bring their closefriends along with them. This is muchmore effective than attempting to informand educate a group of relatively unknownpeople who responded to a newspaperinsert or direct mail campaign. Accordingto Jerry, “This doesn’t mean you shouldnever do seminars for non-clients. Mypoint is that your clients deserve to be

Financial seminars have become more-and-more popular over the years, butmany advisors are having less successnow than ever before. Attendancedeclines with each passing month.Increasingly it is becoming more difficult toattract attendees. Financial advisors whouse “free dinner” and other seminars arebeing forced to work harder and harder.Consumers assume that a financialseminar is really only a sales pitch, and fartoo many of them are only that.

Direct mail companies now specialize in “format” marketing programs. Youhave many choices, i.e., free tickets,coupons, formal announcements,personalized letters, etc. Every market in the USA is bombarded. Consumersacross our nation report receiving, month-after-month, approximately ten to fifteen announcements or invitations, all urging them to attendfinancial workshops, seminars and mini-conferences. These mailings nowrank fifth on the list of complaints to the“Do Not Contact” list maintained by theDirect Mail Marketing Association.

It is obvious that the seminar market isoversaturated. The message being sentto the public by financial advisors is thesame as it was a decade ago! Virtually allof the financial retirement seminars beingconducted today are no different thanthey were 10 or even 20 years ago.Forrest Wallace Cato, the financialplanning communications leader, asks,“Do you think that Disney would be assuccessful as they are today if they never

Jerry and Nick welcome a few attendees including (from the left) the Commissioner ofDeltona, Florida, Herbert Zischkau, and his wife Julie; Jamison & Emily Jessup, owner of

lawflorida.com; Jack & Joan Heyen of Deltona, Florida; and former Deltona, Florida Mayor,John Masarczyk, and his wife, Barbara, with their friends Kerry and Janet Wildey.

The Client Appreciation Event took place on a three-hour cruise onboard the Rivership Romance.

What’s Better Than Seminars?

River in Sanford, Florida. Using thissystem will not only deepen yourrelationship with existing clients, but it willalso allow you to make a positivedifference in more people’s lives. Peopleneed and deserve help. The venue was aresult of listening to clients needs.

Their firm, Group-10 Financial, had atestimonial from a client who said,“Although we don’t have a lot of money,the Royer’s treat us as if we did. We wantto share our experience with our friendsand family.” Another client asked if theyheld any events where they could bringtheir friends and family to get to know theRoyer’s without having to get together fora one-on-one meeting. The natural stepwas to have a seminar specifically forclients and whoever they wanted to bring.

given the same attention and energy asyou did to earn them as your clients in thefirst place. Client Appreciation events notonly will give you an opportunity to thankthem for being your client but also give youa chance to offer your beneficial assistanceto those they bring with them, who areusually important or dear to them.”

Has customer service in our countryvanished? Many financial professionalsspend all their time, money and effortgetting new business, and they forgetabout what helped them build theirbusinesses… their clients. The results arefrightening. Customers go from advisor-to-advisor seeking someone new becausethe last advisor they had failed tomaintain their trust and relationship.Often prospects come to the advisor’sseminar or office, obtain some freeadvice, but then go to Merrill Lynch forexecution because Merrill Lynch has anongoing image-building program. Theirimage is managed to create theimpression of competence.

Finding an advisor should not be basedon the trial-and-error process used by somany people. Once someone becomesthe RFC’s client, you should do whateveris necessary to build, strengthen andsafeguard that important relationship.

The Client Appreciation concept is a wayto show your sincere gratitude to yourexisting clients and to share your missionwith their beloved friends and loved oneswhile significantly lowering your overallseminar expenses.

Recently we held one of our ClientAppreciation events on a riverboat thatcruised for three hours on the St. John’s

So how do you do this new seminar? Ihope you understand by now howimportant it is to put more focus on yourcurrent clients and realize that theydeserve your ongoing and dedicatedattention. I’ve found that clients areeager to support your business when theyfeel like they’ve found an honest,competent, knowledgeable, up-to-date,responsible, plus — yes here is that wordagain — dedicated financial advisor, andthey really do want you to succeed.

The first step to planning a ClientAppreciation event is to pick the venue.Your location needs to be relaxed and fun,not in a hotel or bland meeting room.Consumers don’t want to go to a place thatis too business-like or which comes acrossas threatening. That type of location worksfor business men and women only. Thinkoutside of the routine and then if you’re notsure, ask your clients where they would liketo go. Consider dinner theaters, nicecountry clubs, a theme restaurant, or evenan affordable dinner cruise.

The relaxed atmosphere and fun idea of a“cruise” allowed clients and their friendsto actually be “excited” to be there.Imagine that… people excited about oreager to attend an event with a couple offinancial advisors!

After a fun venue is picked, you need toinvite your clients and their friends andfamily. Tell your clients that the dinner isfree, but the “price for admission” is tobring at least one other couple with them(often they will bring three or four). Oneclient (a couple in their sixties) admittedthat they love being able to bring theirfriends to a fun dinner evening. After you

Nick speaks to the crowd about the main issues facing retirees.

A couple enjoys a beautiful sunset during the Client Appreciation Cruise.

with a short (no longer than 25 minutes)presentation that is pleasant, uplifting, and not overly technical. Your goal should be to share your mission while helping them to laugh.Share a strategy or two, and let themknow that you are available to gettogether for a free consultation.

Your clients know that you will treat theirfriends and family with the same respectyou show them. Most financial advisorssubscribe to the “out of sight, out ofmind” approach. Your clients should getthe best you have to offer.

After your brief presentation, it’simportant to have everyone complete asmall questionnaire where they can checktheir topics of interest (lowering taxes,increasing income, preserving theirprincipal, providing a college education,etc.) and let you know if they want to setup their free consultation. Using these

know who the attendees are going to be,send a very informal confirmation letter,accompanied by a schedule of theenjoyable event you are going to have.

Let them know how much you appreciatethem and how glad you are to be workingtogether. On the day of the event, youneed to remember that your sole purposeis to share your gratitude with your clientsand their friends. In today’s world, we donot show enough appreciation, and ourclients definitely need to know that wecare about them and we will go above andbeyond to make sure their financial needsare met. These appreciation events willbond you even closer.

Make your event a big time affair! Havea professional photographer take picturesof everyone as they are having fun.People enjoy having professional picturestaken. Have a combination master ofceremonies and host to help welcome thepeople and make sure their needs arealways met. Your MC/host will dointroductions, announcements, and makesure no one is ignored. You could havesomeone from your office do this, but besure they are personable and friendly.

Have a check-in table and give all of yourclients a VIP decorated name tag. Yourclients always need and deserve to knowthat you think they are special. Givingyour clients a nice welcome gift furtherdisplays your respect for them and theirongoing support of your business.

The structure of the actual event is fairlysimple. A brief “warm” presentationfollowed by dinner and music if you have it. Why a brief presentation? An overwhelming number of our clientsrequested us to talk about recent changes in the financial world. Therefore, it became important to start each client appreciation event

sheets for the door prizes exciteseveryone and ensures you will collect all of them.

After the business part of the evening isfinished, you make sure to shakeeveryone’s hand and get to know them —if you have not already done this. This isyour chance to catch up with what’s newin your client’s lives, and tell them youappreciate being their financial advisor.As Nick says, “I never want people to thinkthat I’m ‘untouchable.’ I want them toknow I’m available to serve them and Icare about their needs.” After the eventmail each attendee a handwritten thankyou note for attending.

Hopefully you are beginning to see thevalue of doing this type of event for yourclients. It shows them that you careabout their business and provides anopportunity to help their friends andfamily. Financial seminars have becomeoutdated. Give your clients theopportunity to refer you to their friendsand family. This will not only grow yourbusiness, but prove that you are thefinancial advisor of choice.

For more information contact:

Jerry Royergroup10@aol.com

Nick Royersafetyofretirement@yahoo.com

www.group10financial.com

3567 Camelot Dr.Haines City, FL 338451-800-245-0546

Jerry and Nick have spoken to thousands of retirees in over a dozen states. Here Jerryeducates cruise attendees on how to use a few proven techniques to help in their retirement.

Jerry and Nick interact with their guests during the cruise.