As a new financial advisor, here is your challenge. You want to attract new clients and build deeper relationships with existing clients, and you want referrals, more client trust, bigger investment portfolios and more satisfied clientele. One way to achieve this end is to create a Client Advisory Board. You can either comprise your board of strategic partners like accountants, insurance specialists and attorneys; you may choose a professional service company of experienced marketing gurus; or you can ask 8-10 of your best clients to serve on the board, offering them the chance to issue their feedback (and even receive a reduced rate for your services). You’ll be surprised at how far a few quarterly board meetings can take you!

Client Advisory Boards can take a look at marketing strategies to see where updates or improvements can be made. For instance, some of the most successful personal financial advisors are using Web 2.0 tools like social media sites and blogs. They also use online meeting software, provide webinars for their clients to learn financial terms and techniques, send personalized emails and provide online vaults. The board may recommend marketing techniques like brochures, seminars, webinars and newsletters. A good financial advisor will need to become increasingly more competitive in the years to come, considering the market for this profession is growing substantially, sending more and more advisors into the field.

A Client Advisory Board can provide damage control on a number of key issues that a personal financial advisor may not have ever realized. Bruce Peters of PeerHQ, a Pittsford NY advisory business consultant, said that one advisor he worked with had planned to spend the entire board meeting talking about his strategic plan for the year, but ten minutes into the meeting, he realized “they had one concern and one concern only: the advisor was switching broker-dealers and his clients were concerned that they would not get the same level of service after the switch.” These clients had many ideas about how their advisor could make a smooth transition to the new firm in a client-centric way. Peters says that, without the meeting, “Clients might have simply left the advisor and he might never have known why.”

Your Client Advisory Board will hold many advantages for your clients as well. Many independent financial advisors share referrals with legal, accounting and property professionals, which gives clients access to this elite network of financial planners. Additionally, some advisors offer board members a discounted fee rate on their services in exchange for their insights. They will enjoy having a say on issues that improve the level of service they receive, as well as the access to stocks. The CAB will, in turn, also have access to privileged information, social events, seminars, webinars and industry conferences.

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