WealthTouch
TEAM
WORKBOOK
Decisions and Notes
for Modules 1 – 5
BSMART
Business Simulation Management
and Relationship Training
MODULE ONE
Vision, Mission & Strategy
The Foundation of a Business
Your Vision
A vision statement describes the future state you are looking to
create – your desired end-game for the firm in 2020.
Preeminent provider of family office like services for executives,
business owners and families in the $2M - $10M range within the
New Jersey/New York region. Aspire to grow the business to $3B
AUM in the next 5 years through organic and inorganic growth
with expansion possibilities in South East region. We seek to create
an organization that provides a career path for our associates that
rewards then for their participation in our growth achievements.
A vision statement describes what you want your firm to look like in the future,
typically three to five years out, or longer, and is both an internal and an external
message. If you keep it front and center, it can help you stay focused on your goals.
It can also help inspire and motivate your staff, and instill confidence in clients that
you know where you want to be in the future.
As you craft a vision statement for your firm, ask:
•
What do we aspire to become in three to five years?
•
What does success look like for our firm over this period?
•
What does our end-state look like?
Your Mission
A mission statement describes why the organization exists – its core
purpose.
The WealthTouch Mission:
To secure and grow the wealth of our clients and future
generations.
To be the first point-of-contact for any financial decision in their
lives.
A mission statement describes why you are in business, and is primarily used
internally. It plays an important role in helping you assess your activities and
determining if they are in line with your core purpose. It can be used to “sanity
check” what you may be considering doing – if activities stray from your core
purpose, you may decide not to do them or to reevaluate your mission.
As you craft a mission statement for your firm, ask:
•
What is our purpose for being here? Why do we do what we do?
•
What needs do clients have when they come to us?
•
What are the most significant strengths of our business?
•
Why do clients choose our firm over other firms? What are our
differentiators?
Your Strategy
Our competitive advantage is…
WealthTouch – We specialize in solving the complex wealth needs of senior
executives, law firm partners, business owners and real estate executives.
We help our clients navigate the financial waters with strategies to grow
and protect their assets during their career, during their transition to
retirement and as they decide their legacy for future generations and
charitable organizations.
WealthTouch – With investment, financial planning, tax and real estate
expertise, WealthTouch is passionate about wealth management and
bringing our resources and over 130 years experience to provide
exceptional service and solutions to our clients.
WealthTouch – Our employees are active members of the community in
Northern NJ where we are proud to be the largest RIA.
Questions that may help:
• What makes us better than the competition?
• Why do customers choose us?
• What makes us unique?
• What do we have that others do not?
• What do we do that cannot be replicated?
• Why are we successful?
• What created our success to date?
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
• Experience/Reputation - Strong Team of Partners with
over 130 years of investment advisory experience.
•
Underinvested in Marketing & Business Dev –
Marketing & BD expense < 1% of firm revenue
• Total Turnkey Solution – True Comprehensive Wealth
Mgmt Services
•
Underinvested in Technology – Technology expense
1% of firm revenue
• Access to Capital – Partnership includes Private Equity
firm CCP
•
M&A Experience - Original Partners have little
experience in this area (inorganic growth)
• Niche Client Target Profile - Firm has a clear and well
defined target client profile
•
Organic Growth - Firm lacks true organic Business
Development strategy
• Service Delivery/Client Experience – well staffed and
trained service team provides high touch experience
•
Client Target Profile – have one in place, but should
we redefine? Is our footprint expanding, etc?
• Investment Offering/Resources - deep level of
expertise including Alternatives & Stock Plan Services
•
Compensation Plan – is the plan aligned with firms
business goals?
• Location – strong new business opportunities located
in NY/NY metropolitan area
•
Geographical Focus – Partners need decide on the
future business model/location strategy
• Top 100 Barron’s Advisor – firm partner recognized as
a top investment advisor
•
Defined Roles & Responsibilities - need to review &
then determine associates roles & org structure
•
•
Aging Client Population – need to define strategy to
retain existing clients and approach to Gen X&Y
•
Succession Plan – aging Partners and no clear
internal transition plan.
Strong P&L – compared/relative to reported Ensemble
metrics as well as Fidelity BM results
4
SWOT Analysis
George SLIDE to add couple
sentences at bottom
Opportunities
Threats
•
General movement away from traditional
brokerage/banking, toward “conflict-free”
advice.
•
Banks and BDs adopting “wealth
management” services and identifying
themselves as “wealth advisors.”
•
No clear next steps by regulators of
applying fiduciary standard to
brokerage/wire house industry – gives RIAs
a competitive leg-up vs. BDs.
•
Potential movement by regulators to apply
fiduciary standard to BDs could neutralize
RIA’s competitive edge in terms of standard
of customer care.
•
Greater activity from roll-up/aggregator
firms providing capital for investment in
infrastructure, and/or M&A.
•
Deployment of capital from parent subject
to the whims of senior management team
could be contrary to that of WealthTouch.
•
•
Strong/re-bounding real estate market.
General volatility of real estate market –
downturn such as 2009 could spook
investors.
•
Ability to manufacture proprietary real
estate funds/alternative investments.
•
Investor demands for transparency in
alternative investments, compliance costs.
•
Technology enhancements providing scale
at an exponential rate.
•
Changing demographics of investors and
future wealth (Gen X/Y); proliferation of
“robo-advisors.”
4
Initiatives and Notes
Initiatives for Improvement
Write down and agree on Strategy initiatives in your firm and elect a “champion” for
each initiative.
Improvement Opportunity
Who Will Complete
1. Make Better Use of Tech & Enhance Internal
Infrastructure
Chuck
2. Evaluation of compensation plan and
organizational restructuring
Art
3. Develop/Define a true growth plan strategy
(organic, inorganic, geographic expansion)
Paula
4. Develop a Succession Plan
Price
5. Compliance/Risk Strategy
Carry
Notes
The responsibility of these 5 initiatives can be discussed, but we felt this is a great starting point.
Some are also listed here as there are some “unknowns” within the firm – see #2 on Comp Plan and
Org Structure, understanding the number of “Advisors” we have on staff that includes or does not
include the “Professional Staff” is an example.
Last but not least, large firms require a sound Compliance & Risk Strategy and we felt this is a year to
year as well as long term strategic initiative that must be documented, planned for and tracked.
MODULE TWO
Growth
Building the Firm
Ideal Profile
Business You
Would Like
To Win
CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE IDEAL CLIENT
CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE NOT-SO-GREAT REFERRAL
$2M - $10M invest amounts
Small balance, low revenue
producing
Short term results driven
Senior Exec, Partners, Real
Estate Executives
Complex Wealth needs (tax,
legal)
Referencable
Large network of family,
friends, and professionals
CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE IDEAL COI
COI Relationships
You Would Like To
Have
Compliment WealthTouch
services
”Succeed together” mindset
Passion for what they do
Potential acquisition for
WealthTouch
Growth mode
Territory leader
History of switching financial
advisers
CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE NOT-SO-GREAT COI
Duplicating/overlapping
services
Numerous COI relationships
already exist
Unable to articulate story or
mission
Initiatives and Notes
Initiatives for Improvement
Write down and agree on Growth initiatives in your firm and elect a “champion” for
each initiative.
Improvement Opportunity
Who Will Complete
1. Create a business development organization via
compensation goals, incentives and an organizational
structure Human Capital audit.
Paula
2. Explore inorganic growth thru acquisition or merger.
Price
3. Develop external lead sources i.e. WAS, COIs,
professional organizations related to our client base.
Carry
4. Build infrastructure (i.e. technology and marketing
materials) as well as procedures to support growth.
Chuck
5.
Institute a business development culture through
Notes
training and best practices; referral growth strategies
targeting ideal client profile and existing clients.
Carry
Notes
Above, we’ve identified the underlying improvement opportunities and initiatives which roll-up into
the overall growth plan strategy we identified as one of our top 5 strategic initiatives: to develop and
define a true growth plan strategy (organic, inorganic, geographic expansion).
MODULE THREE
Staffing and Compensation
Attracting, Retaining and Organizing Talent
Organizational Chart
Draw your firm’s organizational chart. Label the positions.
Compensation Philosophy
What is your compensation philosophy?
WealthTouch’s compensation philosophy demonstrates our commitment to how we
value employees. It is designed to be consistent and provide a frame of reference for
all compensation discussions.
The goal of WealthTouch’s compensation philosophy is to attract, retain and motivate
employees. Wealthtouch’s compensation philosophy is designed to track the
development of skills and reward employee proficiency, rather than longevity. To
accomplish these goals, we use a mixture of three main components of a
compensation plan: base salary, variable incentive pay, and non-cash award pay.
•
Competitive Base Salary – not overly aggressive, but a base that an employee
could find elsewhere, though slightly over market.
•
Variable Incentive Pay – based upon pre-defined metrics regarding employee
skills, proficiency, and performance. Designed simply so that high performance
employees are highly compensated.
•
Non-cash Award Pay – longer-term incentive for phantom stock options, and
possibility of ownership in WealthTouch.
WealthTouch’s compensation plan is consistent, will not discriminate in any way, and
will not be arbitrary. In addition, WealthTouch communicates its compensation
philosophy to all associates throughout the organization.
Initiatives and Notes
Initiatives for Improvement
Write down and agree on Human Capital initiatives in your firm and elect a
“champion” for each initiative.
Improvement Opportunity
Who Will Complete
1. Human Capital audit (review of
employees, productivity, responsibilities)
Art
2. Deliver/refine organizational structure
with clearly defined roles and
responsibilities including specific
measurable growth goals per employee.
Art
3. Creation of professional development
plans (i.e. sales and technology training)
Wendle
Notes
4. Compensation alignment/audit
Art
5. Creation of succession and career
paths for roles.
Wendle
Notes
Above, we’ve identified the underlying improvement opportunities and initiatives which roll-up into
the overall Human Capital strategies we identified as two of our top 5 strategic initiatives: evaluation
of compensation plan, organizational structure and develop a succession plan.
Handouts in the Appendix
•
•
Advisor HR Solutions
Sample Compensation Profiles
MODULE FOUR
Operations and Technology
Role of Operations
Service and Deliverables
•
Estate Planning
•
Financial Planning
•
Tax Planning
•
Business Lending /Loan Negotiation
•
Retirement Planning
Component-level Role
Financial Planning
Investment Management
•
Client/Prospect-data gather for asset
allocation
•
Rebalancing and Trading
•
Taxes: gather tax info/complete
return
•
Investment Research/ Alts
•
Estate Planning-data gather/draft
and execute plan
•
Portfolio
Construction/Reconcilliation
•
Retirement Planning
•
Implementation
•
Risk Profile
•
Produce customized quarterly
reports
List and Documents
Services
Process
Portfolio Management & Reporting
Document Management
CRM
Financial Planning
Client Reporting
Fee Billing
Purpose
To execute the administrative tasks of account servicing and implement decisions
made between the advisor and the client. Our reporting is intended to support our
investment decision making . WeathTouch will closely monitor the portfolio and send
quarterly performance reports. Reports will provide a detailed illustration of current
holdings vs target allocations for each asset class. We will continuously review ,
consult and customize our strategies to the unique needs of each client.
Budget
$164K- spread out across all technologies: PMS, CRM, Billing, Document Mgmt,
Financial Planning. Our current spend is $47. Our goal for this initiative is to align our
technology investment with Best Managed Firms that have revenue of at least $5MM
Resources Evaluate how well resource components are satisfied.
With our firm size of 26 individuals, we are near the benchmark
per the Fidelity RIA benchmark for $1b+ firms. That being said,
with the additional investment in technologies, our goal is to
take advantage of any excess human capital capacity to dedicate
to growth initiatives, technology initiatives and improvements in
our high-touch servicing of clients.
Available
Scalable
Attainable
Sustainable
Initiatives and Notes
Initiatives for Improvement
Write down and agree on Operations initiatives in your firm and elect a “champion”
for each initiative.
Improvement Opportunity
Who Will Complete
1. Technology Audit
Chuck
2. Service Offering Audit
Wendle
3. Update Written Policies and
Procedures as well as Document
Workflows
Wendle
4. Explore potential outsourcing
opportunities e.g., compliance, data
reconciliation, cloud computing
Price
Notes
Our vision for this Operations initiative is to better align our high touch service with the ever
changing and evolving needs of our clients. Because of our customized/family office approach to
client relationships, we’ll need to make sure we leverage technology, when applicable, and identify a
areas where a scalable and repeatable process can be utilized to meet the demands of our clients.
Our current technology spend is $47k. We would like to align our technology spend with ‘Best
Managed’ firms in this area that have at least $5MM in revenue. Therefore, our budget is
approximately $164K.
Handouts in the Appendix
•
Six Tell-Tale Signs That Your Business Processes May Need Attention
MODULE FIVE
Financial Management
Making the Numbers Work
Initiatives and Notes
Initiatives for Improvement
Write down and agree on Financial initiatives in your firm and elect a “champion” for
each initiative.
Improvement Opportunity
Who Will Complete
1. Assess revenue per staff member
Price
2. Evaluate productivity and create a plan
for utilizing capacity based on Human
Capital and Service Offering Audit
Paula
3. Assess investment in marketing and
technology
Chuck
4. Asses and re-evaluate advisor (nonpartner) compensation
Art
Notes
Handouts in the Appendix
•
Key Drivers of Firm Valuation