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How to grow your firm outside of wealth management.

By Russ Alan Prince

A pervasive problem many accounting firms face with wealth management practices is how little wealth management business they generate. Having an arrangement with a wealth manager or establishing their wealth management practices does not tend to result in very much business.

MORE: Exceptional Teams Are Key to High-Net-Worth Practices | Four Keys to an Elite Wealth Management Team | The Biggest Obstacle to Taking Your Firm Upmarket | Wealthy Drive Expansion of Family Offices | Build Your High-Performing Family Office Practice | Are You Missing Maximum Potential?
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Indeed, some accountants will send clients over to the wealth management practice because the client asks them to. However, relying on clients to initiate the referral is something other than a solid business development strategy. Instead, the wealth manager must show accountants how to identify opportunities and make the proper connections.
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How to build and manage them.

By Russ Alan Prince

In serving the wealthy, polymaths do not exist. One individual cannot possibly have the knowledge, skills and wherewithal to deliver the diverse array of solutions the wealthy need and want; consequently, an exceptional team is required.

MORE: Four Keys to an Elite Wealth Management Team | Four Core Principles of Elite Wealth Management | What the Wealthy Getting Wealthier Means for Your Practice | Does Wealth Management Make Sense for Your Firm? | Create Family Dynasties and Add Value, ROI | Is Elite Wealth Management Right for You? | Why Accountants Fail at Wealth Management
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Your ability to surround yourself with high-caliber professionals is often essential to building a very successful high-net-worth accounting practice. You not only have to identify the specialists with whom you need to work, but you also need to manage the relationships between your experts and your affluent clients.
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Put care into negotiating roles.

By Russ Alan Prince

Building and growing your accounting firm’s elite wealth management practice hinges on a team of accountants, elite wealth managers, and other talented and capable professionals and providers working under close direction.

MORE: Four Core Principles of Elite Wealth Management | Why Accountants Don’t Get Referrals from Wealth Managers | Growth During a Recession? Here’s How | Five Business Models for Wealth Management | Four Core Principles for Elite Wealth Management | Wanna Know What Clients Say About You?
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In the team approach that is pretty characteristic of the wealth management industry, the wealth managers have contacts with other experts they can refer to or call upon to help address various client matters. Unfortunately, from the client’s perspective, this approach is commonly very inconsistent and sometimes even counterproductive. Also, accountants usually play a subservient role, diminishing the value clients receive.
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You may have to reorient your thinking.

By Russ Alan Prince

The four core principles are not malleable or debatable for accounting firms that want to provide the highest quality wealth management expertise and an extraordinary experience to clients. Let us take a closer look at these four core principles.

MORE: Why Accountants Don’t Get Referrals from Wealth Managers | The Biggest Obstacle to Taking Your Firm Upmarket | Wealthy Drive Expansion of Family Offices | Build Your High-Performing Family Office Practice | Are You Missing Maximum Potential?
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Core Principle #1: The Primary Goal of an Elite Wealth Management Practice Is to Help Optimize the Financial Lives of Clients

The goal of an accounting firm’s elite wealth management practice is not to generate more revenues for the firm. That will undoubtedly happen, but that is not the goal. With elite wealth management, providing financial strategies and products is the way to help optimize clients’ financial lives.
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Reconsider your focus.

By Russ Alan Prince

For accountants with high-net-worth practices, research study after research study has shown that there is no question that wealth managers and attorneys are the best referral sources for wealthy clients. Moreover, accountants have enormous opportunities with these clients as a significant percentage are not getting optimal results.

MORE: The Biggest Obstacle to Taking Your Firm Upmarket | What the Wealthy Getting Wealthier Means for Your Practice | Does Wealth Management Make Sense for Your Firm? | Create Family Dynasties and Add Value, ROI | Is Elite Wealth Management Right for You? | Why Accountants Fail at Wealth Management
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Generally speaking, quite a few of the wealthy up to multibillionaires are satisficing instead of maximizing. The results they are getting are good enough, and they do not know they can get more. However, once they understand they are not getting optimal results, they will likely change the professionals they’re working with. While the possibilities for accountants with high-net-worth practices are extensive, there is still the matter of being introduced to the wealthy clients of wealth managers and attorneys on a preferential basis.
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