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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Client Clues for Wealth Management Opportunities

leader addresses co-workers
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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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Exceptional Teams Are Key to High-Net-Worth Practices

Six businesspeople in meeting around tableHow 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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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Four Keys to an Elite Wealth Management Team

Business people having meetingPut 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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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Four Core Principles of Elite Wealth Management

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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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Why Accountants Don’t Get Referrals from Wealth Managers

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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FEATURED

The Biggest Obstacle to Taking Your Firm Upmarket

Executive woman and man in business meetingWho do your referrals come from?

By Russ Alan Prince

Moving upmarket refers to working with wealthier clients. The desire to move upmarket is becoming more pervasive and stronger because of many factors, such as economic volatility, increased competition and fee compression. For many accountants to do well going forward, they need to work with wealthier clients. They need to move upmarket.

MORE: What the Wealthy Getting Wealthier Means for Your Practice | Growth During a Recession? Here’s How | Five Business Models for Wealth Management | Wanna Know What Clients Say About You?
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For a substantial percentage of accountants with high-net-worth practices, they likely have to change their business model to move upmarket. For example, the ultrawealthy – individuals and families with a net worth of US $30 million or greater – commonly require accountants to have a different business model than clients of lesser affluence.
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FEATURED

What the Wealthy Getting Wealthier Means for Your Practice

Young businesswoman using smartphone and tablet at outdoor cafeClient referrals are not enough.

By Russ Alan Prince

The phrase “the rich are getting richer” is right on point. But, in today’s economy, it is a little deceiving.

MORE: Growth During a Recession? Here’s How | Wealthy Drive Expansion of Family Offices | Does Wealth Management Make Sense for Your Firm? | Five Business Models for Wealth Management | The Life Insurance That Your Firm Needs | Create Family Dynasties and Add Value, ROI | Four Core Principles for Elite Wealth Management
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Looking at what’s happening, we find that the affluent are under pressure while the wealthy and especially the ultrawealthy, and even more so the super-rich, are still financially distancing themselves from everyone else. What we are seeing is a greater bifurcation of the wealthy.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Growth During a Recession? Here’s How

It’s a strong opportunity for your high-net-worth practice.

By Russ Alan Prince

There is a high probability that the U.S. will go into a recession. A recession, especially a severe recession, can be very detrimental to the accounting business. There are likely to be fewer wealthy clients looking to their accountants for advice and services.

MORE: Wealthy Drive Expansion of Family Offices | 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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On the other hand, a recession can prove – from a business development perspective – very advantageous to proactive, astute accountants working with wealthy individuals and families. Generally speaking, many wealthy individuals and families are poorly served in the best of times. A recession can act as a catalyst for the wealthy to realize they can get much more value than they’re currently receiving by working with competent accountants who are genuinely client-centered.
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