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A Prime Commonwealth Advisor on Driving Productiveness


Photo Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss

Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, with Commonwealth since 2004

Kerri Sullivan-Kreiss, CFP®, AIF®, based her impartial advisory agency, SullivanKreiss Monetary, in 2004. Having spent the earlier 13 years as an advisor on employees with a publicly traded firm, she wished to go away huge company agendas and proprietary funding merchandise behind. As president of her personal enterprise, Sullivan-Kreiss was wanting to develop a concierge service mannequin constructed round a robust tradition of fiduciary duty to shoppers.

As Sullivan-Kreiss says, “I’ve at all times based mostly my enterprise on the basic principal of treating others as I wish to be handled. My goal is absolutely quite simple: to place our shoppers’ pursuits first, act with integrity, and embrace the distinctiveness that every consumer brings to our apply.”

Throughout our conversations, the pressure of Sullivan-Kreiss’s dedication to this imaginative and prescient at all times shined by means of. The profitable development of her agency may very well 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 customized concierge service that Sullivan-Kreiss believes makes her agency particular, she has turn into a grasp of time administration. She has realized the right way to function effectively and collect the required sources to maintain development and construct economies of scale.

In the event you’re seeking to go impartial or develop a longtime advisory enterprise, understanding the facility of Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise decisions might provide help to chart the way in which towards optimizing your time and setting your agency up for long-term development.

Constructing One thing Particular

For Sullivan-Kreiss, constructing consumer relationships is all about specializing in the journey with every particular person you serve. With a view to develop a top quality apply, you must make every consumer really feel particular. Which will sound elementary, but it surely’s vital to maintain high of thoughts. As she says, “It’s being there for shoppers by means of 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 considering “merely being a cash supervisor.” This implies setting common evaluations to maintain abreast of adjustments in shoppers’ lives and assembly each two weeks when creating a plan for a brand new consumer.

The consequence? 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 line with Sullivan-Kreiss, “Nearly all of my agency’s new shoppers come from referrals from present shoppers.”

Spending Extra Time with Purchasers

33 percent data point

As you’ll be able to see, Sullivan-Kreiss’s enterprise mannequin is immediately tied to her spending as a lot time as doable with shoppers. Notably, like lots of her Commonwealth friends, Sullivan-Kreiss spends considerably extra time in consumer conferences than different business advisors. That’s in line with a 2020–2021 examine carried out by Commonwealth in partnership with Cerulli Associates, which discovered that, on common, Commonwealth advisors spend 33 % extra time in consumer conferences than different advisors from each wirehouse and impartial corporations.

In actual fact, based mostly on additional evaluation of the info, Commonwealth’s Follow Administration group decided that Sullivan-Kreiss ranked within the high decile of productiveness amongst Commonwealth advisors, based mostly on gross income, development 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 in a position to spend a lot time with shoppers? There are inherent difficulties in scaling a concierge mannequin. Nonetheless, as she labored by means of fixing them, Sullivan-Kreiss realized that having the appropriate employees and agency accomplice will help facilitate enterprise scale and effectivity.

The ability of your individuals. Sullivan-Kreiss delegates administrative, operational, and sure planning duties so she will concentrate on client-facing work. With three full-time employees members (a director of consumer relations, a monetary analyst, and an operations supervisor), she is evident on their significance to her enterprise mannequin: “My group is phenomenal. What they do behind the scenes permits me to be good at my job and spend as a lot time as I can with my shoppers. Their strengths enable the agency to ship top-tier concierge-level assist—the personal touch we dedicate to each consumer.”

In response to Sullivan-Kreiss, her regular development has been pushed by her group’s stability of competencies. And that development has introduced the agency to an inflection level, the place further employees is critical. To deal with the amount of labor and maintain her productiveness excessive, Sullivan-Kreiss plans so as to add an funding supervisor and a further advisor to the group.

When requested about recommendation for advisors seeking to develop, she states, “One of the vital productive issues you are able to do is empower your individuals and provides them room to develop. It’s completely key to have the appropriate individuals on employees, significantly those that have complementary expertise units to yours.”

The affect of your agency accomplice. Sullivan-Kreiss remembers her agency’s early years flying by in a blur, however she has at all times acknowledged the significance of a supportive agency accomplice. She explains, “Along with actually busting your derriere . . . you must domesticate the appropriate relationships with the appropriate individuals. It is advisable to have a accomplice behind you that’s proactive and responsive.”

Like different impartial advisors, Sullivan-Kreiss seems 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, reminiscent of Commonwealth’s Superior Planning group, available to speak by means of a fancy planning or retirement downside.

As for funding administration, Sullivan-Kreiss acknowledges that this function is an ongoing problem for any impartial agency. She prefers customized portfolio administration and, with the help of her monetary analyst, does quite a lot of her personal funding analysis. Nonetheless, if a consumer 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 group.

Finally, Sullivan-Kreiss says that your agency accomplice should be capable to present a “phenomenal stage of assist” that’s tailor-made to your wants.

Cementing the Cornerstones of Success

Being an impartial advisor has allowed Sullivan-Kreiss to utterly align her agency together with her values and shoppers’ greatest pursuits. She’s been in a position to construct the agency she’s at all times dreamed
of, one based mostly on placing her shoppers’ wants first and powered by environment friendly time administration. Proper now, she’s centered on the thrill of the current and accelerating much more development sooner or later. Something is feasible together with her imaginative and prescient, a robust group, and Commonwealth’s partnership at her again.

In the event you’re an advisor desirous to go impartial, Sullivan-Kreiss’s recommendation is to do it as quickly as you’ll be able to. 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, at all times needless to say you need to go the place you’ll be able to develop, even when it’s one step at a time.

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