Last Updated on July 20, 2020 by John Prendergast
A typical Thursday morning.
It’s a typical Thursday morning in New York City as one experienced financial advisor begins his day.
He logged into Blueleaf and notices one of his clients’ accounts had doubled.
The Advisor sends a quick email to Blueleaf’s service team.
“Double-counting of account today… Can you look into it?”
He’s left the office hoping they fix their numbers before the client notices the mistake in his online portal.
But the double value wasn’t ever fixed. And that’s the best part.
The bigger issue.
Many financial advisors are investment managers. They manage investments accounts but nothing more.
The reason for this is that it used to be hard to get a complete picture of the clients’ finances. 401ks, held-away accounts, insurance and other asset categories were too hard to track.
A lot has changed.
Blueleaf now makes it easy to see all assets and liabilities for a client. Custodial, held-away, offline assets and liabilities all in one place so you can monitor, report and make decisions in context.
Back to the story.
Let’s go back to Thursday morning in NYC.
Turns out, the doubled account wasn’t ever fixed because it wasn’t wrong. It was simply an increase in AUM.
How can unexpected AUM growth happen?
5 words: Account aggregation plus client portal.
Here’s what happened.
The client logged into his Blueleaf portal and added an additional $1.5 million to the platform. He did it without instruction and without being asked.
The client wanted to see a complete picture of his finances. So one Thursday morning, he added more accounts to his portal. It’s easy for him to do. He doesn’t need the advisor involved.
Welcome to a new concept for financial advisors. Organic AUM growth through client self-service.
One quick piece of advice.
Do Asset Discovery early.
The fastest growing advisors on Blueleaf using the platform as a prospecting tool. They get a full picture of the prospects assets and liabilities.
The first meeting becomes a discussion about how to solve the client’s challenges, not discovery. Moving fast to value add advice can result in very high closing rates.
Understanding your client’s full financial picture allows you to be a better advisor. It also means no surprise account additions.
Not a Blueleaf user?
Sign up for a trial and test the platform with a couple of clients.
Your clients’ will thank you for their weekly emails updates and their easy-to-use client portal.
Prospects will be impressed with your insight and strategies based on their unique situation.
You’ll get a much more complete view of each clients’ financial situation.
For your free trial of Blueleaf, sign up here.
