To build scale and efficiency, it helps to have people and resources who can help put hours back into your busy day

Registered investment advisors live a double life: In one, you are a financial professional, serving clients’ wealth management needs and helping them plan for their most important goals.

In the other, you’re a business owner — making strategic planning and hiring decisions, worrying about office equipment, technology, marketing and every other large and small aspect of being an entrepreneur.

This can often be a rewarding, even exciting, way to work. And yet, meeting the operational burdens of your business while also addressing the ongoing needs of your clients requires support from a strategic provider who not only is responsive, but understands the unique demands of your profession. 

Scale you need.

As a business owner, you may often feel like you need to be everywhere at once — but you simply cannot be. So, you need a strategic solution provider that can offer you scale by acting as an extension of your own team. 

Whether that means offering assistance with account opening, streamlining administrative tasks, providing support with vendor selection or consulting on operational efficiency, you need people who care just as much about your clients and your business as you do. And that support needs to be built to the contours and specifications of you and your team. 

• Ask yourself: Do I have a strategic provider I can rely on to help me focus the majority of my attention and energy on serving clients’ needs, rather than on worrying about every detail in the day-to-day operation of my business?

Support your business requires.

Another prevailing sentiment among business owners — besides feeling like they need to be everywhere at once — is the sense that they need to be everything to all people. As an RIA, you likely know this feeling. But you also realize it’s an unrealistic expectation.  

To be successful, you need to feel comfortable delegating critical tasks to people you trust. Whether it’s executing trades, constructing portfolios or supporting your custodial relationships, to do this confidently you need knowledgeable experts who know you and understand your business.

• Ask yourself: Does my strategic provider offer a dedicated team with personalized support from people who know me, my clients and my business? 

Experts on efficiency.

Consumed with the daily responsibilities of serving clients and running your business, you may be challenged to find even one extra hour to think about efficiency. Is your team operating at full capacity? Are they currently spending precious time on activities that could be automated or outsourced? Are you positioned for the kind of growth you want to achieve?

Getting answers to questions like these requires expert insights from consultants and practice management professionals. This may mean conducting a full strategic evaluation of which clients and activities are most (and least) profitable for you and your team. It can also mean overhauling your client service model to focus more time and attention on the highest-value activities.

• Ask yourself: Do I have access to the right experts and professionals who can help me streamline my operations, serve clients more efficiently and build the business I envision?

Whether you’re just starting out as an independent advisor or you’ve been running your own RIA business for years, you need dedicated support from a team that can help you gain scale and efficiency.

Operations Checklist

Questions to ask when evaluating strategic providers

• Do you offer dedicated support to help me make the transition to your platform — then ongoing support for my business?
• Can you provide metrics on the timing and accuracy of your transaction processing?
• Do you have service-level commitments that determine how quickly you respond to requests and inquiries?
• Can you offer consulting or support to help me increase my team’s efficiency and effectiveness?

Service and operations are the #1 reason advisors recommend AssetMark. Find out how we can help you build efficiency and scale. Schedule your consultation.