Brian Powell: Hi, I’m Brian Powell. I’m the Executive Director of Practice Management here at Janus Henderson Investors. With me, I have Jeff Brooks, my colleague, who’s actually the Executive Director of our Wealth Strategy department.

What we want to do is provide this series from all our decades of experience working with top advisory teams all across the nation, whether they’re in large wirehouses, RIAs, independents, and bringing that to you, some of their insights, some of their success stories, and avoiding some of their failures that they’ve had when they’re trying to attract their ideal client.

Today, what we wanted to focus on is inheritors. So, when you start thinking about either that second generation of wealth that’s going to inherit those funds that maybe they don’t have the education, they don’t have the knowledge or the resources, maybe to take care and understand how to grow and how to protect that wealth going forward for their family legacy. We’re going to talk a little bit about how to do that from a practice management standpoint, as well as a wealth strategy standpoint.

I want to turn it over to my colleague Jeff here. First, when we start thinking about these teams that are trying to really make sure they either retain that second generation of wealth inheritors or bring those prospects in, they’re actually going through that windfall. What are some of the topics that they really need to be focused on that will resonate with that audience?

Jeff Brooks: Well, I’m glad you asked, because I’ll tell you something: It’s important, number one, for clients to make sure that they understand their financial advisor has experience working with clients like them. If you come to a relationship and you’re cutting your teeth on that particular individual, they’re going to be somewhat concerned about it. But if you can express that experience, that knowledge you have, you’re in good shape on that.

Secondly, developing a program of financial education is essential. Some clients want to know what time it is; other clients want to know how the clock is built. That doesn’t make one client better than another, but it’s important for you to be able to address the needs of each of those types of clients. And that applies to financial education as well – why you make the investment [recommendations] you do, how the decision-making process advances. It’s important, it’s absolutely important for you to make sure clients understand that you understand what that process is.

Finally, focusing on a legacy. They’ve inherited this money. They realize how fortunate they are to be an inheritor. They wanted generally to provide for their children as well, or for their loved ones, whoever they might be. And the key is to make sure that you understand what their true goal is, whether it’s to enjoy their lives and use up the money, or to provide something for the next generation.

Powell: When I think about that from a practice management standpoint, all these teams that I work with, we start to think about, there’s different dynamics when handling those inheritors.

Number one, think about education. You might have somebody coming in that had this windfall that really doesn’t know how to protect their wealth, how to grow their wealth, what that looks like in the future to take care of their family going forward.

Secondly, we really start to think about, how do I make sure that I feel confident in the investments that you’re putting in front of me? How do I feel confident in all the other aspects, whether it’s trust services, things that can help me with my insurance side, all those things that come to an inheritor that they might not be knowledgeable about at that point.

And the last thing I’ll leave you with is really thinking about your client service model. How do you quantify the time needed? Because it’s probably going to be extra time when you start thinking about all those touchpoints that you need to make sure that those clients start to feel confident.

Brooks: I think it’s important to build a team. You don’t have to know everything. This sounds like so much information, so many things you have to have available. But really what you need is a resource, the ability to know who to go to when those questions come up. Because every family is unique.

Powell: Yeah, that resonates. I see a lot of the successful teams where we have different team members who actually have different expertise and different specialties that they can bring to the table. So that, to your point, you don’t have to try to be everything to everyone. That’s where I see the team succeed. We understand who we are. We understand how we can communicate that. And more importantly, we know how to make sure that those clients feel confident and knowledgeable about what we’re trying to deliver for them as well.

So, we hope you enjoyed this part of the series. As always, please reach out to your National Director or ourselves here. We’re always here to support and help. We’re always coaching and consulting teams across the nation. We can either share our experience or help you build out what this looks like for your team, so you can make sure that you can be successful in attracting inheritors to your practice.