Truce!
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You would be correct on the assistant thing. I think she just doesn't have a full understanding of what we (as whole) are here for. I'm not sure she's even remotely interested in this field. I have an eval coming up for her along with 2008 business/marketing plan discussions. This will be the time to have frank discussions on her performance and what is lacking in the office to get her moving forward and to be an asset, not liability.
I've thought many times on the minimum and think once I hit a level were I can bring another partner or employee on board to handle the load, we can move those lower assets to them. An answer to your last sentence, its part of my process I talked about earlier. If a prospect comes to see me, then they're not happy with their current advisor. I make it clear, I have to work with all the assets. Before they balk, I have bullet points on why this is to their benefit and mine. It usually takes the wife to nudge the husband and they agree. People in general want 1. Direction 2. mutual trust 3. simplicity I show them how all these can be had. Some do, some don't. I only want the do's here. I'm firm in my conviction and they can sense this. Even the old clients who call from my old office about moving, I say, "John lets sit down together and discuss the changes I've made in the way I handle accts. It might or might not fit your needs. " I let my CPA and attorneys know this also. My literature mentions the complete wealth advisement.Spears - I’m going through the same process with my assistant. What I have found to work is:
1 - For her to have several client follow-ups she has to make on a daily basis. This is either for trades done recently, to confirm and make sure that people are bringing in paperwork requested for meetings, or to make an introduction to client and let them know that she’s available for service issues.
2 - She’s got a lot of structure on the marketing efforts & training efforts(as I work in a bank) that we’re pursuing.
3 - There’s always an hour or so of paperwork/filing that must be done.
I have my assistant for 2 1/2 days / week. I’ve found there’s either 100% rigor or 0% rigor & nothing in between. Right now my assistant is not able to roam on her own without wasting an entire day. My pre-planning for her takes about an hour of my week(putting together to do lists & reading her follow-ups), but my activity on the phone has increased dramatically, and the organization of the office in general has improved.
Let me know what you decide to do & how well it’s working for you.
Thanks!
Here today is another example of my frustration. I was out getting paperwork signed. Returned back at the office with a client waiting and another wanting me to callback. The one waiting wanted some money sent to her and the callback was the same. When I asked her why she had the client waiting when she could have issued the check and the same on the callback, “Well I thought they wanted to tell you” ???wtf. IT IS TIME TO HAVE A SIT DOWN…
Yes it is time. It may eventually be where you were the only one who out grew the Jones model while she didn’t. It also sounds as if she may need more training too, not just from you but also from the b/d side or other professional development level training can be had.
When I left Jones, I brought my BOA but she lasted all of about 6 months or so. Since my assitant is tied into the results of this firm as if she was - get this; a limited partner, of sorts. She is rewarded greatly depending on the success of my year which is measured in several different ways. This didn't happen overnight, there was a lot of training and educating that took place at various levels. I also utilized coaching programs to help determine and outline roles and responsibilities and being accountable to them. I mentioned this book on another thread and would suggest it to anybody trying to build an independent practice: "How to build a 21st century financial practice" by Matt Oeschli. Very top notch book on this and working with HNW clients. Spears - if she's beyond reeducating, start looking for somebody new or you will end up eating labor hours dealing with her and getting zero results in the end.