If you’re like most financial advisors, your biggest pain point is not understanding financial planning issues, explaining them clearly to prospects and clients, or even running a business. In my experience, the biggest pain point advisors face is meeting with enough qualified prospects so that they can achieve the business and financial goals they dream about. If you make Tax Planning Sexy, you can change all this.
That’s part of the reason why at The Walters Institute, we partner with financial planning firms to help them deliver tax planning solutions for their clients and prospects. Taxes are a hot-button issue for most people, especially high-net-worth individuals. Offering tax planning services allows advisors to stand out in their marketing while increasing the size of their new clients’ investable assets, delivering even more value.
But you don’t just have to take our word for it. In this article, I’m going to share how we helped one financial advisor deliver more in-depth tax planning advice, conduct smoother sales meetings, work with higher-net-worth clients, and dramatically increase his firm’s profitability.
Financial Planning Marketing Shifts to Tax Planning Marketing
Steve1 started his career as a financial advisor with a big, household-name firm for a few years before working under a firm that offered a little more leeway with marketing. Steve began utilizing seminars mainly focused on Trust, Medicare, and general financial planning issues. With his consistency, he was able to add $5M-$7M in assets per year.
While Steve had a marketing plan that consistently brought in new clients, with his topics, he was unable to increase the average account size of his clients, thus limiting his growth. He wanted to work with higher-net-worth clients and decided to add tax planning as a part of his marketing—specifically his seminars.
After a few mailers describing his new topics, Steve’s seminars began filling up much more quickly with wealthier clients. In just one year focused on tax planning, he was able to add $12M in new assets, and almost doubled his new clients’ average asset size.
More In-Depth Tax Planning
Once Steve noticed the success of his marketing on tax planning issues, he doubled down on those efforts by strengthening his tax planning knowledge. Specifically, he added more intricate topics to his marketing and client work. His new marketing and client service work included:
Passive 1031 exchanges
Opportunity zone investing (active and passive)
Deferred sales trusts
Solar tax credits
Smoother Sales Meetings
Impressed by Steve’s expertise and elevated services, his prospects were much more engaged and less skeptical about meeting with him. They were more willing to share their account statements than previously, and more eager to know Steve and his firm, which changed the feeling of those meetings from “salesy” to collaborative, where everyone was focused on making tax-smart decisions.
Higher-Net-Worth Prospects and Clients
After only two years of marketing on tax planning issues and developing his expertise with his clients, Steve will bring in $35M of new assets in 2022, and consistently has events in his community with high-net-worth individuals that highlight his unique marketing strategy.
Since he started working with The Walters Institute and focused his firm’s marketing and services on tax planning, Steve’s annual production increased by 500%, his average account size more than doubled, and his business is much more profitable. In his words, “Tax planning has changed the way I will forever do business!”
About Heath
Heath Walters is a strategic tax planning specialist who partners with financial planners to provide behind-the-scenes tax planning expertise for the high-net-worth clients of financial planning firms. With over 20 years of experience as a CPA and Certified Tax Coach, Heath helps financial planning firms set themselves apart to ideal clients through coaching and specialized services that complement traditional wealth management solutions. Heath’s proven process for client acquisition has led to many advisors doubling their book of business in as little as 24 months. Heath has both a bachelor’s degree in accounting and Master of Science in Accounting from Appalachian State University. When he’s not helping financial planners reach their firm’s goals, you can find him spending time with his wife, Nancy, and their three children, Allie, Brianna, and Cooper, or fishing, grilling, and tackling home remodeling projects. He’s an avid Roll Tide fan as well. To learn more about Heath, connect with him on LinkedIn.
1 We changed our client’s name to protect his confidentiality.
