Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, with Commonwealth since 2004
Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, based her unbiased advisory agency, SullivanKreiss Monetary, in 2004. Having spent the earlier 13 years as an advisor on employees with a publicly traded firm, she needed to go away massive company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was desperate to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary accountability to shoppers.
As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve all the time primarily based my enterprise on the elemental principal of treating others as I want to be handled. My goal is admittedly quite simple: to place our shoppers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the distinctiveness that every shopper brings to our observe.”
Throughout our conversations, the drive of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient all the time shined via. 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 personalised concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has turn into a grasp of time administration. She has discovered tips on how to function effectively and collect the mandatory sources to maintain progress and construct economies of scale.
Should you’re trying to go unbiased or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the ability of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions might assist you to chart the way in which towards optimizing your time and setting your agency up for long-term progress.
Constructing One thing Particular
For Sullivan-Kreiss, constructing shopper relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every particular person you serve. With a purpose to develop a high quality observe, you must make every shopper really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, nevertheless it’s vital to maintain prime of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for shoppers via on a regular basis moments, celebrating life’s main milestones, and serving to to offer assist, encouragement, and, hopefully, consolation throughout troublesome instances.”
A proactive service mannequin. Ideally, SullivanKreiss Monetary shoppers shouldn’t get voicemail after they name, and follow-up to requests and considerations should 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 interested by “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common evaluations to maintain abreast of adjustments in shoppers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when growing a plan for a brand new shopper.
The end result? Sullivan-Kreiss has constructed one thing particular: a extremely engaged group of long-term shoppers. For her, that’s what makes the advisory enterprise rewarding and enjoyable. And there’s icing on the cake: in accordance with 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 straight tied to her spending as a lot time as potential with shoppers. Notably, like lots of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in shopper conferences than different business advisors. That’s in accordance with 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 shopper conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and unbiased corporations.
The truth is, primarily based on additional evaluation of the information, Commonwealth’s Follow Administration staff decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the prime decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, primarily based on gross income, progress price, and period of time spent with shoppers. This statistic speaks to the vital work Sullivan-Kreiss undertakes day in and day trip with the people she serves.
Attaining Scale and Effectivity
So, how is Sullivan-Kreiss capable of spend a lot time with shoppers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored via fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss discovered that having the precise employees and agency accomplice may also help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.
The facility of your folks. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will be able to deal with client-facing work. With three full-time employees members (a director of shopper relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is evident on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My staff is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes allows 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 commit to each shopper.”
In response to 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 employees is critical. To deal with the amount of labor and hold her productiveness excessive, Sullivan-Kreiss plans so as to add an funding supervisor and an extra advisor to the staff.
When requested about recommendation for advisors trying to develop, she states, “Probably the most productive issues you are able to do is empower your folks and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the precise folks on employees, notably those that have complementary abilities units to yours.”
The influence of your agency accomplice. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has all the time acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency accomplice. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . you must domesticate the precise relationships with the precise folks. It’s good to have a accomplice behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”
Like different unbiased advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems to be to her agency accomplice for a wide selection of back-office sources and assist. As a result of her work is grounded in monetary planning, she appreciates having specialists, similar to Commonwealth’s Superior Planning staff, available to speak via a posh planning or retirement downside.
As for funding administration, Sullivan-Kreiss acknowledges that this position is an ongoing problem for any unbiased agency. She prefers customized portfolio administration and, with the help of her monetary analyst, does an excessive amount of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a shopper is on the lookout for a particular funding technique, she needs 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.
In the end, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency accomplice should be capable of present a “phenomenal stage of assist” that’s tailor-made to your wants.
Cementing the Cornerstones of Success
Being an unbiased advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to fully align her agency together with her values and shoppers’ finest pursuits. She’s been capable of construct the agency she’s all the time dreamed
of, one primarily based on placing her shoppers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s centered on the fun 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.
Should you’re an advisor desirous to go unbiased, 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, all the time 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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