Improving Efficiency By Turning Client Meetings Into Working Sessions So There Is Less Follow-Up To Manage: #FASuccess Ep 453 With Becky Walsh

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 453rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Becky Walsh. Becky is the founder of Oak Maple Finance, an RIA based in Burlington, Vermont, that oversees approximately $80 million in assets under management for 75 client households.

What’s unique about Becky, though, is how she conducts meetings with new clients as “working sessions” where she gathers and analyzes client data in real-time, reducing the amount of time spent on prep and follow-up work before and after each meeting.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Becky organizes her new client onboarding process into a six-month planning “sprint” that includes six meetings (with the first four meetings being “working sessions” requiring little work outside of the meeting itself), how Becky has been able to shorten the time required for remaining between-meeting tasks by leveraging templates and common CRM workflows, and how charging a flat complexity-based fee for this planning process (and the time saved from conducting much of the data-gathering and planning work during meetings) allows her to serve so-called “EWAN” (Earners Wanting Advice Now) clients (who might not have amassed sufficient assets to pay an asset-based fee).

We also talk about how Becky’s “working sessions” also enable her to gain a better understanding of a client’s financial literacy and organizational skills (allowing her to adjust her expectations and communication accordingly), how Becky uses tools from Money Quotient to more efficiently assess her clients’ qualitative relationship with money (including their goals and level of financial satisfaction), and how Becky uses the Elements software program to get a snapshot of each client’s financial picture (and, for relatively less-complex clients, to deliver financial planning recommendations without necessarily having to also use more comprehensive financial planning software).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Becky shares how she’s created different service tiers for clients after they’ve finished their initial planning “sprint” (which allows her to ensure she can earn sufficient revenue from clients requiring different amounts of ongoing planning support), how Becky likens her planning approach to that of a concierge doctor (who can work with many patients effectively and have a more personal standard of care than a general practitioner with a larger patient load), and how Becky has found significant value from participating in a study group with advisors from outside her firm and across the country who are particularly willing to provide encouragement and candid feedback.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about reducing the time spent on between-meeting tasks by conducting “working sessions” with clients, creating service tiers to serve “EWAN” clients, or using software tools to assess clients’ qualitative relationships with money, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Becky Walsh.