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Commonwealth 2022 National Conference Highlights Commonwealth Sets $1T Growth Goal As It Leans Into RIA Market

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Contents

WealthManagement.com Commonwealth Sets $1T Growth Goal As It Leans Into RIA Market

WealthManagement.com Financial Advisors, What’s Your First Impression Like?

Kenton Shirk, Commonwealth Financial Network Building Enduring Advisory Businesses

Nancy DiBattista, Commonwealth Financial Network Making Transitions Successful

WealthManagement.com One Activity Every Advisor Should Track

Peter Essele, Commonwealth Financial Network Inflation and Fixed Income Investments

Matt Chisholm, Commonwealth Financial Network How Outsourcing Can Work for You

WealthManagement.com Get Serious with Newsletters

Justin Duft, Commonwealth Financial Network A Consultative Approach to Client Service

Kol Chu Birke, Commonwealth Financial Network Choosing Technology that Works for You

Commonwealth Financial Network Recruit the Right Advisor for Your Firm in 5 Steps

Commonwealth Financial Network 5 Benefits of a Giving-Back Strategy and How to Get Started

Heather Zack, Commonwealth Financial Network The Power of Charitable Planning

Brad McMillan, Commonwealth Financial Network Communication Strategies for Uncertain Times

Commonwealth: A Better Path to Success 26

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Commonwealth.com

Welcome

Whether you’re exploring a new opportunity or are currently an independent financial advisor it’s vitally important to have a competitive advantage. In this eMag we’ve curated insights and strategies around various topics, including practice management, client relations, technology, marketing, prospecting and more. This eMag also brings together insights from Commonwealth Financial Network’s national conference and the Commonwealth leadership team on how firms can strengthen their practices and produce optimal outcomes for their clients.

Intro Video https://youtu.be/lPJ9TN46fVU

WealthManagement.com

Commonwealth Sets $1T Growth Goal As It Leans Into RIA Market

By Diana Britton Managing Editor WealthManagement.com

At its National 2022 conference held in San Diego this week, Waltham, Mass.-based Commonwealth Financial Network executives announced a new goal: To grow from some $250 billion in assets across about 2,000 advisors to $1 trillion, and do so largely by continuing its transformation into what executives say is really a national RIA. “While $1 trillion is a pretty meaningful number, it’s only about four times bigger than we are today,” CEO Wayne Bloom said. “And it equates to approximately a 14% compound annual growth rate,” less than 0.5% more than what Commonwealth has achieved over the last few years. “Most importantly, it’s growth that will be well-managed and done in sync with our mission, vision and values.” There are a number of projects and initiatives that cascade backwards from the goal, Commonwealth executives said, and leaning further into the RIA market will be key. Already, some 80% of the firm’s assets are in fee-based accounts, as well as 90% of the flow. So far, nearly 300 Commonwealth advisors have fully dropped

their Series 7 FINRA license, with the vast majority opting to operate under Commonwealth’s corporate Form ADV. About a dozen advisors have chosen to register their own RIA, using the Commonwealth suite of services to support the business. “We’re more a national RIA than we are a b/d,” Bloom said, in an interview with WealthManagement.com. The difference is a fully integrated package of services still privately owned and a scale that can deliver those services for low fees. “When you look at where the support (for the RIA channel) is coming from, it’s typically been custodians, and then disaggregated third party tech. Now you have the private equity-backed roll-ups coming in. No one has really put together,” a fully integrated suite of support services for RIAs, including brokerage, custodial, and technology, said Trap Kloman, president and chief operating officer. As for competitors, like Charles Schwab, offering a plug and play package of tech and services to RIAs for free? “Do you really believe it’s free?” said Bloom, referencing the money Schwab makes on order flow and cash sweeps.

Throughout the conference, Commonwealth executives outlined the path toward the ambitious goal, including a lowering of platform fees, offering to take a minority equity stake in the advisor shops affiliated with Commonwealth, buying out a rep’s commission-based trailing revenue to let them to drop their FINRA license and clean their books of the legacy assets, and expanding its suite of business solutions and ancillary services for the advisors, including lending, para-planning and business consulting. “Commonwealth feels more like the RIA channel,” said Kenton Shirk, a former wealth management analyst with Cerulli who heads up a 20-person practice management consultancy team inside Commonwealth. “It’s a heavily fee-based business, and 60% of the practices are ensembles, or enterprise practices,” as opposed During his keynote address, Kloman announced that the firm will reduce the pricing tiers on its platform by about 60%, effective Jan. 1. Commonwealth launched the platform fee four years ago, wrapping a single fee for trades in all securities for taxable accounts and IRAs. The old platform fee ranged from as low as 1 basis point for larger accounts to 12 basis points for smaller accounts. The new platform fee structure has fewer tiers, and fees range from 5 basis points to 1 basis point, depending on account sizes. “As we scale, we have a history of sharing economics back with our advisors,” Kloman said. In June, the firm launched its Entrepreneurial Capital program , which includes expanded loan options for advisors, as well as an equity offer. Commonwealth will take up to a 40% stake in an advisor’s practice, which can be used for succession planning, expanding operations by buying another firm, implementing marketing and technology programs, or even for personal liquidity, Bloom said. to solo shops or teams of advisors each running their own books of business. Commonwealth CEO, Wayne Bloom Photo Credit: Erin Feinblatt “

“Collectively, you have the best practices in the country, and we want to help you drive them to be even better. We believe so strongly in this, we’re putting our money on the table by expanding the availability of debt, and deepening our partnership by offering to become minority equity owners in your firms,” Bloom said, during his opening keynote. “Nobody ever has to leave Commonwealth to access capital for almost any reason.” Commonwealth executives said its strategy behind the minority investments is different from some of the private equity-backed rollups; they see it as a way to satisfy capital needs of advisors, not as a way to create a new revenue stream for Commonwealth. “I think other firms, frankly most that are going about this,

they’re doing this for their own purposes. It’s another way to generate revenue. It’s a way to get their claws and control something, and advisors lose that choice,” Kloman said. “We’re not trying to roll this up, and we’re not going to flip it and try to arbitrage,” Bloom added. If an advisor leaves, Commonwealth agrees to sell the the equity back to the firm at the current valuation. Part of the firm’s path going forward includes helping advisors transition their practices away from a legacy brokerage business to the RIA platform. For instance, if an advisor has a little bit of legacy

Most importantly, it’s growth that will be well-managed and done in sync with our mission, vision and values.

commission business, say $50,000 in trails, those become house accounts, and Commonwealth would make an adjustment to that advisor’s platform pricing in consideration. But if an advisor has a lot of trails, the firm will help move those to house accounts where clients can sign additional documentation so the advisor could still bill clients for monitoring and advising on them.

Continued

WealthManagement.com

Commonwealth is also bulking up its business suite to be attractive to fee-based advisors and RIAs. “RIAs are really looking for more suite of services and business solutions that help them organically grow with their existing clients, but also how to help attract new advisors to their business,” Kloman said. “That’s dramatically being under-served in the RIA space.”

if an advisor asks. But the firm currently does not have a way to make other custody platforms integrate with its advisor desktop, powered by its homegrown technology platform Advisor360, now a standalone company. The firm is starting to look at other software providers that will complement its native relationship with A360. “The reason firms like multi-custody is basically the ease of

being able to acquire something else, and not have to do a ton of paperwork to move from one platform to another. It’s a one-time friction,” Kloman said, but the benefits of keeping the accounts with one custodian, in terms of data flow and ease of trading and performance reporting, can often outweigh the one-

The suite includes operations consulting, outsourcing services and the capital program. Advisors can outsource human resource services and record-keeping and reporting functions to third parties on the platform. Commonwealth-provided services include marketing, investment management, virtual paraplanning, a virtual administrator, risk and compliance functions and other technology. In 2021, the firm brought on Alexander Hansen as a senior vice president of RIA compliance. His team is dedicated to shoring up compliance support for fee- only advisors, especially those

“

At Commonwealth, the real value is us being a business partner for you...

time effort to transfer the assets. Matt Chisholm, senior vice president of RIA services and practice management, said that long-term the firm will likely

who are looking to start their own RIA, whose team of compliance staff could be on the ground in an advisor’s office “within hours” of an SEC audit or inspection, if need be, Bloom said. While many of the custodians don’t charge a fee to RIAs to use their platform, Commonwealth executives said it’s the services and support—the middle-office function— that differentiates it from other custodians and validates its pricing model. Trades may be free at Schwab, but that’s only for ETFs, equities and options, not mutual funds. “Nothing’s free in this world. There’s no trading fairy out there that Schwab has,” Bloom said. “At Commonwealth, the real value is us being a business partner for you,” Kloman said. “So I don’t necessarily feel us competing head to head with Schwab. I think it’s two different business models that can coexist just fine in the industry. Ultimately I feel much better about the long- term viability of our P&L, our balance sheet, because we’re being paid for the value we’re creating.” Commonwealth primarily custodies with National Financial Services, but it will accommodate outside custodians,

move to provide that multi-custodial experience, as Commonwealth continues to help firms start their own RIAs. “That’s where we look at potentially more technology flexibility, which then is a gateway to potentially multi- custodial experiences or just preferences. Someone wants to use a specific tool or technology that’s not part of the integrated experience—accommodating those through API technology and integration certainly starts to make our technology and operating experience on par with a custodial-driven solution.”

Diana Britton is the Managing Editor of WealthManagement.com, covering asset management and independent Diana Britton Managing Editor, WealthManagement.com

broker/dealers from all angles. She’s also the host of The Healthy Advisor, a podcast focused on advisor health and wellbeing. A native of Los Angeles, she now lives on Long Island.

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Kenton Shirk, vice president of practice management at Commonwealth, understands that many practices are adopting enterprise and ensemble models to drive value and build enduring businesses. Here, he describes the power of leaders with diverse strengths and skills. He also outlines five critical factors for making ensemble and enterprise practices succeed. Kenton Shirk Building Enduring Advisory Businesses

Kenton Shirk https://youtu.be/lq8Nrp1EMAU

Click here for more information!

WealthManagement.com

One Activity Every Advisor Should Track

How many times did you proactively ask a social contact to have a business conversation with you?

By Kevin A. Nichols Director of Coaching The Oechsli Institute

If you want to improve almost any aspect of your life, you track it. Want to improve your physical health? Track your exercise. Want to improve your nutrition? Track your diet. Want to improve your mindset? Track your meditations. You get the idea. Intentional tracking leads to behavior change and results. Some of our most frequent questions from financial advisors come in the form of activity recommendations. Advisors want to grow and want to know which activities they should perform, and how often they should perform them. In theory, it should be pretty simple. We as a company could produce one simple tracking sheet that, if followed, would lead any advisor to client acquisition success. The reality is it’s more nuanced than that. We all have unique strengths, weaknesses and opportunities that should be considered.

There are countless excuses for not executing this metric. Here are three I hear on repeat:

“People know what I do for a living. If they need me, they’ll ask.” Well, probably not as often as you’d like. “I don’t want to be perceived as a pushy salesperson.” Our affluent research reveals that the main reasons someone comes across as salesy is “not taking no for an answer” and “aggressive follow-up.” Be willing to accept a “no” and change the conversation. “I don’t want to ruin a friendship.” If offering to discuss business with a friend loses a friendship, were they truly friends?

That said, we have found one activity that pretty much every advisor should track: How many times did you ask for the business? More specifically, how many times did you proactively ask a social contact to have a business conversation with you? Here’s why we feel so strongly about this activity: It largely determines your success in social prospecting. It forces you to be active in the community. It forces you to develop relationships with affluent people. It lets prospective clients know you are open for business. It takes you from being reactive to being proactive. It’s All in Your Head Are affluent investors open to working with someone they know socially? Let’s look at some of our latest research on 1,004 affluent investors with $500,000 or more in investable assets. Only 12% of investors say they are unwilling to work with a financial advisor they know socially.

2. 3.

Refine Your Request Now that we’ve addressed some common mental hurdles, let’s discuss your approach. What does a good business request look like? Top advisors work up the courage to say things like, “You and I have never had a chance to visit about what I do professionally. Are you open to lunch next week?” It works … and they aren’t seen as social pariahs. That said, don’t soften your request too much or it will become ineffective. For example, don’t say “If you ever want me to take a look at your financial situation, let me know.” While that may feel more comfortable, prospects typically respond with “sounds good” and the relationship doesn’t progress. Be a little more assertive and reap the benefits.

Kevin A. Nichols Director of Coaching, The Oechsli Institute

Kevin Nichols is the author of The Indispensable LinkedIn Sales Guide for Financial Advisors

and the Director of Coaching for The Oechsli Institute. He is a leading expert on Social Media marketing and delivers speeches and conducts workshops throughout the country. He has coached hundreds of financial advisors and numerous wealth management teams. He is also the co-author of the FastTrack for Growth newsletter for wealthmanagement.com .

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Matt Chisholm How Outsourcing Can Work for You

Matt Chisholm, senior vice president for RIA services and practice management at Commonwealth, understands that advisors often need help to become as efficient and effective as possible. Here, he describes how outsourcing can provide advisory practices with subject matter expertise, streamlined workflows and relief from mundane tasks that distract them from higher-value services.

Matt Chisholm https://youtu.be/axf_gizMF3U

Click here for more information!

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Taking time to understand client goals and helping them develop plans is crucial to client retention, say Justin Duft , JD, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, CLTC®, MSFS®, vice president of advanced planning at Commonwealth. Here, he explains how a holistic approach enables clients to express their dreams and wishes, establishing deeper, more profitable, longer-lasting advisor-client relationships. Justin Duft Consultative Approach to Client Service

Justin Duft https://youtu.be/kvN1rT3vC8g

Click here for more information!

Commonwealth Financial Network

Recruit the Right Advisor for Your Firm in 5 Steps

By Kristen Terpstra Senior Practice Management Consultant Commonwealth Financial Network

Recruiting the right advisor to strengthen your firm or drive growth has never been easy. For the past year (and counting), the “Great Resignation” has significantly complicated the advisor talent shortage in our industry. But there’s good news! It’s possible to address today’s challenges by reimagining your hiring practices with these 5 steps: Consider alternatives before you hire

3. 2. 4. 1.

Use a targeted screening profile

Be savvy about your search tactics

Focus the interview on “what” and “why”

Steer clear of common hiring pitfalls

1. Consider Alternatives Before You Hire The wrong hiring decision can be costly, so before recruiting an advisor, consider your assumptions and whether the following alternatives would make sense.

“I want to hire a potential successor.” Alternative: Establish a continuity plan with another advisor in your firm while you search for an ideal successor.

“I want to share ideas with another advisor.” Alternative: Look for other ways to connect with advisors, such as networking and business events or LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

“I want to share overhead costs.” Alternative: If your firm’s compliance rules allow, rent part of your space to a CPA or an attorney—who could also be a referral source.

“I want to hand off service to C and D clients.” Alternative: Prune your C and D clients or move them to a lower service tier.

2. Use a Targeted Screening Profile

Industry-specific directories and job boards. If you need a CFP® practitioner, the CFP Board Career Center offers a recruiting search tool. The Financial Planning Association Job Board, National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, and eFinancialCareers are also helpful sites for finding qualified candidates. Non-industry job boards. Job sites like Indeed. com are still common places to post your ad. The job search board for a local chamber of commerce could also be a good source of leads. Universities offering CFP® courses or finance degrees. Check out university job boards in any locale and consider reaching out to their alumni groups. LinkedIn. Post a status update announcing your job search to your feed or upload a free listing using LinkedIn Jobs. Google. Google’s powerful algorithms will enable your advisor talent search in any ZIP code. Even if the advisors you contact don’t want to make a move, they may know a candidate who’s interested. 4. Focus the Interview on “What” and “Why” After you’ve identified some leads, a good first step is to review their work history on FINRA BrokerCheck. Next, you’ll want to meet your ideal candidates and sell your story. To determine who’s a true match, focus on questions like “What’s in it for the candidate?” and “Why does this advisor want to make a change?” What’s in it for the candidate? Think from the advisor’s point of view—how will this individual benefit from affiliating with your firm? What’s your firm’s value proposition, and why is your practice the right place for this advisor to land? Be ready to talk about: • Your service model • Access to a client niche • Opportunities to shift to a fee-based or financial planning approach • Use of technology and systems • Systematized client processes or systems within your firm Continued

If you’ve decided to hire an advisor, determine the relationship you want to have with this individual. Are you looking to hire an associate advisor to work behind the scenes or directly with clients? Do you want to hire this person as an employee, share clients with them, or simply share space with another producing advisor? Once you’ve clarified the advisor’s role, make a list of what you’re looking for, such as: • Years of experience or point in career • Production and business mix • Knowledge, skills, and designations • Client service standards and service model • Investment philosophy • Growth trajectory and business goals • Client niche • Personality and personal values Once you’ve compiled your list, use it to create the job advertisement you’ll share with your network, job boards, and candidates. 3. Be Savvy About Your Search Tactics

Since 2020, many businesses successfully shifted to virtual interviewing and remote working. This change means geography doesn’t have to limit your talent search. Use the following resources to either focus or expand your recruiting efforts in any location. Referrals. Tapping into your professional network is still the gold standard. Alert trusted professionals, including other advisors and centers of influence (such as CPAs, bankers, attorneys, and wholesalers), that you’re recruiting.

Commonwealth Financial Network

5. Steer Clear of Common Hiring Pitfalls

• Peace of mind with succession or continuity • Collaboration and camaraderie • Your office location • Use of professional staff • Career development opportunities • A potential path to partnership (if appropriate) To bring top talent into your firm and recruit the right advisor, you need to create a compelling story that explains the role’s benefits and addresses the candidate’s goals. Why does this advisor want to make a change? And why now? People are motivated to find a new situation for many reasons, and it’s important to know what these reasons are. Ask questions such as: • Why are you looking to make a change? • What are your goals for this role? • How could this position fit into your long-term goals? • How do you acquire clients? • What service model do you prefer? If you’re hiring to drive your firm’s growth, you’ll want to learn about this advisor’s achievements and prospecting experience.

Beware of forcing a round peg into a square hole. Hiring mistakes can usually be traced back to an initial misalignment of goals or expectations. Successful advisors are skilled at persuasion and selling themselves, so stick to your goals and don’t let yourself be charmed by an individual who isn’t a good match. Avoid making concessions or believing someone will change to meet your vision. Focus on what the advisor brings to the relationship in their current state—not what you see as potential. Patience Goes a Long Way Last but not least, take your time with this decision. The hiring process can be long, especially given the advisor talent shortage resulting from the current low unemployment market and post-pandemic environment. Stick to your profile of the ideal advisor and continue looking for alternate solutions until you find the perfect candidate. Trust in the process and keep working toward your firm’s future growth. These tools/hyperlinks are being provided as a courtesy and are for informational purposes only. We make no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these websites. Please consult your member firm’s policies and obtain prior approval for any sales ideas or applications you would like to use.

Kristen Terpstra Senior Practice Management Consultant Commonwealth Financial Network

Kristen Terpstra is a senior practice management consultant at Commonwealth. With the firm since 2005, she consults with advisors on business issues, including human resources, marketing, succession and continuity planning, operational efficiency, and business planning. Kristen completed her master’s degree in communication management at Emerson College.

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Heather Zack The Power of Charitable Planning

Charitable planning is a unique opportunity to grow an advisor’s business, says Heather Zack, JD, LLM, MSFP, CAP®, manager of advanced planning at Commonwealth. Here, she explains how supporting the things people feel passionate about can help advisors can deepen their relationships, with clients, centers of influence and communities, leading to more referrals and an expanded pool of prospects.

Heather Zack https://youtu.be/0gTdTTRjnt4

Click here for more information!

This material is intended for informational/educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or investment product. Please consult your firm’s compliance policies prior to moving forward with a new designation/certification program.

WealthManagement.com

Financial Advisors, What’s Your First Impression Like? By Mike Schaffman Vice President of Sales & Marketing Lone Beacon

Use all five of your senses when analyzing what you’re putting out there for potential clients to see for the first time.

In psychology, a first impression occurs when someone establishes a mental image of a person that they meet for the first time. There are countless ways to create a first impression across a customer’s journey, but one thing is for certain, very few people have ever purchased a product or service after having a bad first impression. Let’s start by getting a little nostalgic. Can you think back to a moment when you had a good or bad first impression? Perhaps you met your in-laws for the first time at Thanksgiving where you oversaw the turkey and dropped it along with their heirloom serving plate. Now, you’re forever known as Butter Fingers Bob. Whatever it may be, I’m guessing you’ve made a judgment or a decision at some point in your life based on a first impression. So, why would your prospective clients in the financial advisory world be any different? Because there are so many types of first impressions, we’re going to simplify things a bit by looking at five categories: Touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell are the five basic human senses that relay input to the brain to help observe and understand the world around us. Touch(points) You’ve probably heard it before, but marketing and advertising are all about reach, frequency and of course, impressions. There are too many impressions to pick from, making that first reach out to a prospect who took an action based on something they saw or heard of

your brand and business a critical part of your process. Will they be met by a friendly voice over the phone with whom they can feel comfortable and identify with? Is there going to be a personalized email follow-up attached to the phone call or voicemail? Do you have a welcome email automation sequence designed to immerse the new prospect into your brand? Are there corresponding text messages to reach the consumer on their favorite handy device? How will you continue to nurture that prospect across digital advertising, marketing, remarketing and email? The customer journey and associated sales process are riddled with touchpoints that you, the advisor, can be in full control of. Taste The medium-rare steak that you’re serving at your dinner event won’t be the reason someone doesn’t want to set an appointment with you. It will be the figurative “bad taste left in their mouth” after they see you pop out of nowhere and jump up on stage acting like a want-to-be A-list celebrity. Making matters worse, if you’re not meeting and greeting your attendees like it’s a dinner party at your own home, not doing the small talk, then you might be making a bad first impression on your prospects. It’s your dinner event, you’re the host, so put on a smile and ask and answer questions that make these prospects feel a part of your company “family.” If you can be relatable and transparent with them, they’ll be a lot more likely to sit down and meet

“

Think about it this way: barbeque chicken and apple cinnamon donuts are both delicious, but if you smelled barbeque chicken when going for the cinnamon donuts, you’re not buying that donut! Focusing on the figurative “scent” of your business refers to putting intention into the construction of a congruent, consistent feeling a customer gets when working with all aspects of your business, whether it’s the design of your office, the type of paper you use, the smile that greats them, the process for onboarding or the tone of language used on your websites and documents. Otherwise, with an incongruent feeling, they may not trust what they see. At the end of the day, it’s important that you ask yourself exactly how your clients and prospects perceive your brand. Try asking some of your longest-standing clients what their first-ever experience was like with you, with a member of your team, or with your brand and company overall. At the same time, consider the latest prospect you met with and think through and observe the customer journey from their perspective to get a sense of how your first impressions are doing. Will Rogers said it best: “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.” At the end of the day, it’s important that you ask yourself exactly how your clients and prospects perceive your brand.

with you after the event to talk about their personal financial future. Sight In the recently published WealthManagement. com article, “Do You Truly Understand Your User?” Kirby Mack, vice president of digital media at Lone Beacon, says that people don’t always read, they skim, only taking 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website,

determining whether they’ll stay or leave. If you haven’t already done one, I’d recommend performing a website audit with this in mind. Make sure you focus on short, eye-catching headlines that highlight your unique value propositions. Also, have a mix of imagery and videos that tap into the emotional side of marketing to help elicit positive first impression consumer responses. Sound Traditionally speaking, audible forms of marketing and advertising in our world are centered around radio and podcasts. But have you ever heard someone use the phrase “falling on deaf ears?” Don’t let your brand messaging fall on those deaf ears. There have been many studies performed indicating people will hear an inner voice when reading something. If you’re posing a call-to-action, then make sure it’s clear and concise, and that the prospect knows exactly what’s in it for them. Smell Consumers can always “smell something fishy.” If something feels off even though you can’t put your finger on it, your prospect will already be out the door. You might find this silly, but something as simple as making sure you’re covering the basics with a candle or plug-in air freshener in your office so prospects can associate pleasantness with your firm when they first walk through your door. But then, think about the different types of messaging and imagery you’re using across your marketing. You need to make it authentic, be true to your brand and highlight your unique value in ways that are congruent with each other.

Mike Schaffman joined Lone Beacon in 2015 where he pioneered their core marketing Mike Schaffman Vice President of Sales & Marketing Lone Beacon

platform, creating content and connecting media and broadcast components with a turnkey digital solution. After strategically extracting, analyzing, and applying first party data across the core marketing platform, Mike helped transform Lone Beacon’s platform into one of the premier financial advisor marketing solutions today. His passion for helping clients across the country grow their business extends throughout the entire industry, as Mike’s been published and referenced in major financial outlets such as WealthManagement.com, FA-Mag.com, Advisor Perspectives, Nasdaq.com and Financial-Planning.com .

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Nancy DiBattista, senior vice president of transition at Commonwealth, says financial advisor transitions today require customization and careful planning for those moving their business. Here, she talks about how technology, organizational complexity and outsourcing are producing new opportunities to make transitions smoother than ever before. Nancy DiBattista Making Transitions Successful

Nancy DiBattista https://youtu.be/4LYyaX2DT_c

Click here for more information!

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Peter Essele, CFA®, CAIA®, CFP®, senior vice president for investment management and research at Commonwealth, says inflation drivers are changing and investors looking at fixed income vehicles need to take notice. Here, he describes how the inflationary pressures that drove consumer-goods prices during the pandemic are moderating, what that means for Federal Reserve policy and why longer-term fixed income investments are becoming more attractive. Peter Essele Inflation and Fixed Income Investments

Peter Essele https://youtu.be/M6Nb9SiD_rY

Click here for more information!

This material is intended for informational/educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or investment product. Certain sections of this commentary contain forward-looking statements that are based on reasonable expectations, estimates, projections, and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Commonwealth Financial Network

Get Serious with Newsletters Steps to create a personal newsletter that people will actually enjoy.

As you become more consistent and more voluminous with content, then it might be time to increase your email frequency.

By Stephen Boswell President/CEO, The Oechsli Institute

Your Design Matters

From a marketing perspective, it’s hard to beat a good email newsletter. It’s impactful, inexpensive and completely within your control. With social networks, you’re at the mercy of algorithms. With newsletters, you decide the recipients, the frequency and the rules of engagement. As your email list grows, your impact grows. It’s our perspective that more financial advisors would benefit from getting into newsletters, but not the boilerplate, all-financial type. If you’re going to do it, create a more personal newsletter that people will actually enjoy. If you’re looking to start a newsletter or perhaps revamp an existing newsletter, here are a few things to keep in mind: Double Down on Hand-Crafted Content People can tell when the content is yours. Your articles, podcasts and videos are the stars of your newsletter. Everything else is complimentary. Why? Ideal clients aren’t making time to read boilerplate financial newsletters. But if they know you and like you, they’ll make time for content that you had a hand in creating. The more upmarket you focus, the more this holds true.

The layout, fonts and graphics used all create a perception. The perception you want is current, professional and in no way “behind the times.” Also, if your subscribers are like ours, they’ll often read your newsletter on a mobile device, so be sure to test your newsletter on desktop and mobile before launch.

Your Subject Line Is Very Important

Most people get dozens, if not hundreds, of emails a day and make snap decisions on which they’ll open. Your subject line plays a big role in this. If your email provider has it, use AB testing for the best results. This enables you to test two subject lines on two small subsets of your audience. The subject line receiving the highest open rate then gets distributed to the rest of your list.

Become Obsessed with Gaining Subscribers

You probably already have an email list. Crank it up a notch. Encourage your clients, prospects and COIs to sign up. Have a prominent newsletter signup on your website. Promote your newsletter on your social channels. Run ads to gain subscribers. Create a video telling people why they should sign up (view example here). One subscriber at a time, it adds up! We’re passionate about financial advisor newsletters and hope you are too. Let this year be the year you fully embrace it. We’re confident that as your audience grows, you’ll become more and more excited about what you’ve built.

Highlight the People Closest to Your Brand

The easiest way to personalize is to include photos and mentions of the people closest to your brand. Are you appearing on video or in portraits? Is there a team member you could highlight? Could you showcase a COI or client who is a business owner? Maybe you could snap some photos of a holiday charitable effort. Every little bit of personalization helps. Send it Once a Month Especially at first, I think it’s better to send one newsletter a month that’s filled with great content than two newsletters a month that are mediocre. The quality of each newsletter plays a role in whether the next newsletter gets opened.

President/CEO, The Oechsli Institute Stephen Boswell

Stephen Boswell is a partner with The Oechsli Institute, a firm that specializes in research and

training for the financial services industry.

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Kol Chu Birke Choosing Technology that Works for You

Kol Chu Birke, CFP®, managing principal for community and technology engagement at Commonwealth, argues that the best technology for improving efficiency is the technology you actually use—a nugget of common sense that some practices fail to keep in mind when making investments. Here, he provides tips on how to adopt the right technology to solve your biggest problems, increase efficiency and improve client relationships.

Kol Chu Birke https://youtu.be/ENX03h1viIA

Click here for more information!

Commonwealth Financial Network

5 Benefits of a Giving-Back Strategy and How to Get Started

By Joni Youngwirth Executive Director Commonwealth Cares

If you’ve participated in a charity event or donated to a cause you care about, you know that giving back is its own reward. But do you know it can also be good for your financial advisory business? At Commonwealth, our nonprofit organization, Commonwealth Cares, evolved from a long history of giving back. While helping others is its main objective, and it’s made a big impact, it has also helped the firm, our staff, and the advisors we affiliate with in countless ways. So, how can you harness these powers in your practice and community? In honor of Giving Tuesday, we’re sharing five benefits of developing a giving-back strategy and how to put a plan into action.

Creating Your Own Giving-Back Strategy

5 Reasons to Adopt a Giving-Back Strategy

When you’re ready to implement a formal giving- back strategy at your firm, it’s wise to start small. That way, you can ensure a consistent, repeatable process and build on your efforts over time. Next, you’ll want to create a mission statement. This will help you focus your efforts on the causes most important to you and keep you from writing a check every time someone asks for a donation. Your mission statement should answer questions such as:

It helps foster client relationships. Rather than host a client appreciation dinner, wine tasting, or movie night, why not bring clients together to give back? Inviting them to participate in a worthy cause shows them you care about more than just business. It can also help deepen relationships and may even lead to new referrals. It encourages employee engagement. Allowing employees to connect and build bonds creates a great workplace culture. By organizing a team to participate in an event or fundraiser, you’ll bring people together, raise awareness, and help your staff feel good about making a difference in the community. It’s an investment in the community. Giving locally means propping up your own community or hometown. And when you show support for your community, it will want to support your business. No matter the cause, everyone benefits. You can market your efforts. There’s nothing wrong with highlighting your efforts on social media and your website—it’s an excellent way to show clients and prospects what causes are important to you. And depending on your involvement or donation level, you may receive a callout on an organization’s site or in an event program book. There are potential tax savings. The contributions you make should be eligible for a tax deduction. But remember to consult with your tax adviser beforehand, as the structure of the donation and who you’re donating to will determine what you can write off.

• What’s motivating you to give back? • What kind of charitable impact do you want to make? • What’s your geographic scope?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be able to narrow the scope of organizations you want to get involved with and decide how you’re going to make an impact. There are several ways you can do this: 1. Give sustainably over time. Rather than a onetime donation, this is an excellent way to help an organization over the long term. You can give monthly to a specific cause or spread donations across different organizations that serve your mission statement. You can even combine this effort with special occasions: rather than giving gifts to clients or employees, consider making a donation on their behalf. 2. Host an event or join a cause. There are many ways your efforts can go beyond monetary donations. For example, if an organization you admire runs a charity walk, form a team with

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Commonwealth Financial Network

employees and urge clients to participate. Or offer employees a volunteer time off (VTO) day, so you can all roll up your sleeves and pitch in for a good cause. 3. Serve on a charity board. There’s no better way to support a cause you believe in than to become an integral part of the organization. By serving on a board, you can bring the skills, experience, or subject-matter expertise that the organization desperately needs. Donating time or money to a cause over an extended period may lead to a board position. You can also check out BoardStrong.org and search for board openings at organizations that resonate with you. 4. Establish your own vehicle for giving back. If you want more control over how your contributions are used, consider setting up your own fund or organization. There are two ways you can do this: • Create a donor-advised fund (DAF). This option is a relatively simple, flexible, and tax- efficient way to support your favorite charity. You contribute cash, securities, or other assets to an account, invest the funds for tax-free growth, and direct grants to the charity of your choice. Note that you may not solicit client donations to a DAF. • Set up a 501(c)(3) organization. Public charities and private foundations are two tax-exempt organizations established for charitable purposes. While these options may provide a wider range of giving options, they are much more complex. For starters, they are legal entities, so they require extensive paperwork and costs to establish and maintain. In addition, public charities require one-third of funding to come from public donations. But with the right amount of time and effort involved, these options could help achieve sizable fundraising goals for construction projects or funding research.

Helping Others While Helping Yourself Giving Tuesday was created as a way to encourage people to do good. And while your main reason for creating a giving-back strategy should be to help those in need, your practice can also benefit from your generosity. It can improve your brand image, engage clients and staff, and let prospects know you care about more than just your business. If you’re ready to pay it forward by giving back, there’s no better time to start than now. Commonwealth Financial Network® does not provide legal or tax advice. You should consult a legal or tax professional regarding your individual situation. Please consult your member firm’s policies and obtain prior approval for any marketing ideas or other strategies discussed in this post.

J oni Youngwirth is the executive director of Commonwealth Cares, our charitable Joni Youngwirth Executive Director, Commonwealth Cares

foundation. Prior to taking on this role, she spent 22 years leading our Practice Management offering, which has grown to provide increasingly sophisticated services and programs to help advisors adopt best practices as small business owners. During that time, she was a frequent speaker at leading industry conferences and was published in numerous industry trades.

Highlights from the Commonwealth National Conference

Brad McMillan Communication Strategies for Uncertain Times

To maintain client confidence in volatile times, it’s important for advisors to be informed, available and confident, says Brad McMillan, CFA®, CAIA, MAI, managing principal and chief investment officer of Commonwealth. Here, he discusses how remaining responsive to clients and communicating with authority will help keep clients engaged.

Brad McMillan https://youtu.be/mh6wYcLRLWc

Click here for more information!

Welcome to a better path to success.

Welcome to Commonwealth.

Commonwealth Financial Network® | Member FINRA/SIPC

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