The other day I received a call from an advisor who I have worked with over the years...who has become a good friend. He wanted to share a success story with regard to an inherited account.
For financial advisors, inherited accounts can be a boon...or a bane. On the one hand they have a existing relationship with your firm...and a vested interest in speaking with you.On the other hand, inherited accounts often have a "history." Additionally, if the inherited client has a relatively small account with the firm, they are also pre-judged by advisors as "worthy-of-time" or "unworthy-of-time." Pre-judging inherited clients can be a mistake...because it assumes that prior financial advisors were thorough and effective in identifying and garnering the majority of the clients' assets. Here's an instructive tale.
My advisor-friend had inherited an account that most advisors would consider to be minuscule, given that the market value was less than $10,000. Nonetheless, the advisor has a habit of meeting all of his clients face-to-face, inherited or not, minuscule or not. Over a period of many months, the advisor attempted to secure a meeting...to little avail. Each time that the advisor called to suggest a visit, he was met with a gruff, mono-syllabic, "No."
However, this advisor is nothing, if not persistent. Finally, the stars aligned one day, and the advisor was able to secure a meeting. Face-to-face and in his element, the client was much less gruff and considerably more open. During the course of the conversation, the client casually wondered if the advisor had any thoughts on how to maximize the income of a trust account where the client was the sole beneficiary. The client wondered aloud if the $500 per month from this account was the best that could be done.
A question or two from the advisor encouraged the client to reach into his files and pull out the most recent statement for his trust account. It revealed an account with a market value of $2,000,000. Notably, and most glaringly, the fees paid to the trust company exceeded the $6000 annually paid to the client.
This exchange would have never occurred if the advisor had stayed in his office, and not made the effort to drive for an hour to meet this client to chat in the comfort of his own surroundings. Moreover, the advisor had not made assumptions about the client...pre-judging the clients financial wherewithal based upon erroneous information.
Speaking of inherited clients, there is a very good article on this subject in today's Horsesmouth. This is a subscription-only service that serves the financial advisor community. In my view, Horsesmouth is a resource that pays for itself many times over. Here's the link to the article...
Reassure Inherited Clients
http://www.horsesmouth.com/linkpo/66772_18.htm
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