Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 515th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Sarah Baker. Sarah is a senior wealth advisor at Mason Companies, an RIA based in Reston, Virginia, where she manages $260 million for 60 client households.
What’s unique about Sarah, though, is how she focuses on building closer client relationships (for example, by often meeting them where they are comfortable rather than in her office), which has allowed her to build greater loyalty and generate more referrals.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Sarah seeks to identify and address a client’s “greatest felt need” to ensure she’s hitting their primary pain point (while also addressing the full range of planning issues), why Sarah moved away from a standardized client service calendar in order to have more bespoke interactions with clients facing a range of life circumstances, and how Sarah mixes in regular in-person and virtual client events to grow her client relationships between scheduled meetings.
We also talk about why Sarah decided to leave two firms (including one where she had worked for 11 years) after they were acquired by larger enterprises (and how she found new advisory homes), why Sarah has intentionally avoided restrictive employment agreements (non-acceptance and non-compete agreements in particular) to be able to maintain relationships with her current clients if she ever ended up at a new firm, and why Sarah has chosen to remain a salaried employee (rather than taking revenue-based compensation or partnership stakes) in part to provide a more consistent lifestyle for herself and her family.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Sarah shares how being there for clients during their most challenging life moments is a part of a human advisor’s value that is hard for digital tools to replicate, why Sarah often works on a new client’s portfolio allocation before digging deep into financial planning issues (in part to achieve quick wins in terms of cost savings), and how Sarah has ultimately found success by providing her clients (who have often gone through challenging life transitions) with greater peace of mind that is hard to value in dollar terms.
