I wouldn’t consider myself a vet but I have had a similar situation. The best thing you can do is service the crap out of his best friend and make him an advocate for you. Larger accounts like that are hard to move especially if he has a long relationship with his advisor which it sounds like he does if he followed the guy 5 times. Keep in touch but don’t push too hard, there is a fine line between building relationship with a prospect and coming across as a pushy sales guy. It worked in my situation. Good luck.

Also, as long as this guy is referring you Clients.  Sounds like eventually he will move as well.  Keep servicing his friends as you have, and every so often when he calls with a referral, ask him why he doesn't take his own advice?  Sounds like it's inevitable that he will move!

[quote=Hey Kool-Aid]

Also, as long as this guy is referring you Clients no need to push too hard.  Sounds like eventually he will move as well.  Keep servicing his friends as you have, and every so often when he calls with a referral, ask him why he doesn't take his own advice?  Sounds like it's inevitable that he will move!

Wind,

I would ask him why he feels comfortable referring friends of his to you but doesn’t feel the need to move his own account to you. 

Wind - Is the advisor a friend of the prospect?



I have friends who wouldn’t leave me if I lost all of their money.



And if the guy has a 2mil portfolio and is comfortable over with that advisor (and who would be if the reviews you have done showed such a crappy job the other guy was doing), I’m not sure he’s going to leave.



Best bet, stay in touch and keep dripping.



But I wouldn’t focus too much energy on it.

I know you can’t do this at Jones, but I’ve picked up accounts in this kind of situation by explaining a covered call strategy to the client/prospect, and watching their eyes light up once they get it.  I’ll never understand why you guys can’t do covered calls.

I'd stay close with this guy, but probably wouldn't bring up becoming a client for a good while.  Enjoy the referrals that are coming in, and like Bank o'Merrill said, have them become advocates.  Chances are the advisor is a good friend of the client, which almost makes him untouchable (until YOU become a good friend as well).  Chances are also, which I've seen firsthand, that if you ever did get the account, actually changing strategies and funds/products would take about as long and require as much explanation/disclosure as it took to get the account in the 1st place. 

Another strategy, if you know what he has in the account, would be to actually give him a prediction as to what may do well out of what he has.  This is kinda hack, but may work.  For example, "Ahh, I see you have only about 10% of your account in Muni's.  I've actually been loading many of my clients up in those, to the 25-30% range for some of them.  I'd keep an eye on those if I were you."  Then in 2, 3 months or however long it would take for muni's or whatever to make a good run, go to him with some stats and say "Remember when I was telling you about munis?  Look at their last month.  A 4% rise, bet you wish you'd had some more of that action, huh?"  If your bet is wrong, just don't bring it up and hope he forgets.  Like I said, its kinda hackish but if you're right it'll definitely make him wonder.

Ask the guy next time you talk to him what his dream portfolio would look like. Then ask if that’s what he has now.

.

You need to find out why he “just doesn’t wanna touch it”.  Also, Mr. Prospect, you mentioned high fees, do you know what the impact of those fees to your portfolio are over time?  That’s something I’d definitely ask him and then show him. 

Ask him how long he’s been w/the guy, and how their relationship came to fruition.  This will be a not-too-intrusive way of finding out if the advisor is a friend or not.

.

[quote=Gaddock]Ask the guy next time you talk to him what his dream portfolio would look like. Then ask if that’s what he has now.

Wind - you’re golden.  It’s only a matter of time then.  Just keep doing what you’re doing.  Don’t bash the guy.  Take him to dinner with the friend, just for “fun”.  Don’t talk business unless they bring it up.

Why should he move? Aren’t you using the same stock market that his current guy is using? Sell him an index annuity. 

Why should he move? Aren’t you using the same stock market that his current guy is using? Sell him an index annuity.