Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

AdviserBlast – Quick Tips to Accelerate Your Practice

In this issue: How to make the most of the next 10 weeks so you and your clients can start the New Year in great shape!

Everybody’s busy. And with the holidays fast approaching, people won’t have more free time between now and year-end.

You can make the most of this “time-pressed” mindset during the next 10 weeks to provide your clients with simple, helpful, and time-saving information by initiating a brief “touching-base” phone call.

There are a number of ways you can help your clients tidy up their portfolios, so they can enter 2010 in great shape. You can review their accounts, determine what activities might be helpful and appropriate for them, and then place a quick phone call to touch base and make some recommendations for them to consider.

Make this phone call brief! Remember, people are pressed for time! If your client is interested in your recommendations, you can make an appointment for a purposeful and efficient meeting to go over specific options more fully and implement changes. Ideally these appointments happen face-to-face, but if this is not possible, make a specific time for a phone appointment. DO NOT try to have a long, detailed conversation about these activities during this initial “touching-base” call.

Even if they don’t want to pursue any of these activities now, by making the quick phone call, you begin setting the course for 2010 by letting your clients know that you’re thinking of them now.

Here are a couple of ideas you could use to initiate calls with you clients:

Tax-Loss/Gain Harvesting before Dec. 31
With all that’s happened this year in the equities market, there could be great opportunities to minimize taxes paid on profits by reducing positions in companies which haven’t performed well. This will allow you to better focus portfolios for the New Year.

529 Funding before Dec. 31
Many clients may be concerned about transitioning wealth. There are numerous ways to do this through gifting, such as setting up a 529 Plan. Clients may wish to use proceeds from sales to fund a Plan, which can be a Christmas gift for children or grandchildren. This allows you to show you are able to provide advice which considers larger issues which are important to your clients.

New Year Roth IRA Opportunities
In 2010 the income limit for Roth conversion will be dropped, and anyone can make a conversion. Clients will have two options for paying taxes on the conversions: either to make the payment all in 2010, or to pay over two years (in 2011 and 2012.)  While spreading out taxes may be tempting, 2010 may be a lower ordinary tax rate year, so clients might want to choose to pay taxes then. Also remember that it can be better to pay taxes from outside sources, rather than from the IRA itself.

Quarterly Portfolio & End of Year Review/2010 Planning
Because so much has happened this past year, allocate time to review your clients’ circumstances and see if there are any changes that should be made to their current positions, including tax harvesting, as mentioned above.

Be seen as more than just a salesperson. Ensure you know your clients’ investment objectives and goals, and don’t presume they are the same as they were last year. Let them know if you think changes need to be made, perhaps with portfolio managers, asset classes and allocations, or trust documents.

This end-of-year touching base is also a great time to tell clients that you love working with people like them and to ask if, over the holidays, they hear family and friends mention that they’re unhappy with their advisers, your clients can recommend people contact you.

By thinking about 2010 now, you can help your clients finish this challenging year in great shape! The New Year is only 77 days away!

Don’t wait,
Paul

*The information in this newsletter is not to be considered as tax or investment advice.

Copyright Paul Kingsman 2009

______________________________________________________________________________

Speaker, Executive Coach, and Olympic Medalist Paul Kingsman helps financial services professionals overcome distractions, so they can get the money they need, the clients they want, and the time to do what they love. He is a sought after expert on how to make your split seconds count. Having won an Olympic medal by only four one-hundredths of a second, Paul knows the importance of keeping focused and now teaches people how to overcome distractions and achieve their own success. His experience as an adviser for Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo has given him an insider’s understanding of the unique business challenges faced by financial services professionals and an ability to guide his clients in implementing results oriented solutions.

To find out more about how he can equip you or your team to achieve your own Split Second Success® through his presentations or executive coaching, visit paulkingsman.com/coaching or email him at Paul@PaulKingsman.com

• Post Categories
• AdvisorBlast Newsletters
• Client Servicing