Next Generation Planner: December 2020
Justin Castelli, CFP®
Founder and Financial Adviser, RLS Wealth Management
Co-Founder, the AGC™
www.linkedin.com/in/justincastelli
While no two days are the same, each day starts out the same: I record my daily flash briefing, get in my morning workout, help get the boys ready for school and, finally, head to my office.
The morning routine continues as I start my time in the office by checking and responding to client emails, recording happy birthday videos for the day, briefly checking social media platforms and engaging, when necessary and, finally, getting all client meeting materials ready for the day’s appointments.
Then the routine ends.
Focusing on the Review Time Frames
Some days are filled with client meetings. I’ve structured my reviews to occur within a specific time frame. For example, reviews with young professionals in my WealthFusion™ subscription model are held January and February. Reviews with clients in my Wealth Management model are held March through the beginning of June and then again in September through the beginning of December. I’ve separated the review times to help with efficiency; the two relationships have some similarities but are different enough that I’ve found it easier to focus on one relationship model at a time.
Relationships with clients in the WealthFusion™ and Wealth Management models are both ongoing financial planning and investment management relationships, except they have different service models.
The WealthFusion™ relationship is an annual review relationship with recommendations given for the calendar year in January or February. WealthFusion™ clients—who are mostly young professionals—have access to me throughout the year via email, phone and Zoom for questions and needs pertaining to their financial plan. The financial plan for WealthFusion™ is goals-based and includes model exchange-traded funds (ETF) portfolios as a part of the monthly subscription.
The Wealth Management relationship is your standard semi-annual review relationship which includes a cash-flow based financial plan, along with asset management billed via an assets under management (AUM) fee. The typical Wealth Management client is a pre-retiree/retiree. The fundamentals of the two relationships are the same—they are just executed through different service models.
Unique Tasks
Other days are filled with important tasks that won’t apply to many financial advisers—the joys and responsibilities of being a business owner: payroll, compliance obligations, technology research, placing trades and updating the firm’s books are just a few examples. Despite the lack of excitement associated with these days, I wouldn’t trade them for anything—I love and take pride in owning my own company.
Regardless of the day’s agenda, there will inevitably be unexpected client phone calls and emails that will require immediate attention and push less urgent tasks further down the day’s agenda.
On the day of this writing, prior to COVID-19, there is a little bit of everything I’ve described above. And while this is not a “normal” day, it is a full day and one that tends to happen more often than you’d expect.
The post-routine part of the day starts with a client review meeting. Given the time of the year, what has been going on in the markets and the fact these clients have been retired for a number of years now, this meeting is about 70 percent social and 30 percent business. We touch base on what has been going on in their life since we’ve last spoken, discuss any questions or concerns they have, revisit their plan and goals, touch on their portfolio and share pictures of kids and grandkids. This all takes place in about 75 minutes.
Immediately after they leave, it’s time to return a few phone calls before hopping on a Zoom meeting with my business partner and co-founder of the Advisor Growth Community™, Taylor Schulte, CFP®. We have a weekly meeting to discuss the community and plans for upcoming webinars, the new enrollment period and making sure the community continues to grow in the right direction.
The Advisor Growth Community™ is a private community for financial advisers looking to grow professionally and personally through collaboration with other like-minded advisers. Earlier this year, we launched our beta group of 50 financial advisers and have had great collaboration within the online community, weekly webinars discussing topics such as “Where To Host Your Blog,” and guest speakers like Khe Hy, Annie Duke and Rory Sutherland.
Once the AGC™ Zoom meeting is over, it’s time to grab a quick bite to eat and check on the social media feeds to see what my network is discussing and to respond to any messages or comments. Managing various social media accounts takes time, but it can be done efficiently with a good game plan.
After lunch and my social media check, I have another client meeting. This time, the meeting is virtual with a client out of state. This meeting has a very similar agenda to the previous meeting, but only lasts about 50 minutes; virtual meetings tend to be a little shorter than in-person, but they don’t seem to lack the intimacy that builds strong relationships with our clients.
There are two more tasks on the agenda for the day.
First is to place some trades in client accounts. On this particular day, I have monthly contributions that have come into client accounts that need to be invested. Thankfully, my custodian provides a phenomenal platform that will place all of the trades and distribute any block trades—I just have to review and approve. This is a fairly quick task to complete.
The final hour of my day in the office is spent working on a blog post; I don’t get the post finished, but I get a great start and will finish it up later that evening. That’s right, the day doesn’t end when I leave the office—it’s just on pause.
Once I get home, it’s family time, which includes basketball or soccer practice, playing outside, dinner, bedtime rituals and then picking up the house for a little bit.
After the boys are asleep and the house is in good order, it’s back to work for a little longer. My evening work typically tends to include writing blog posts, editing videos, planning for upcoming projects, spending time in the Advisor Growth Community™ or finishing tasks from the day that were delayed due to unexpected client needs. Most of the time this work occurs sitting on the couch next to my wife as she works on her business. Our evening time together may not be what you’d find in a Marriage 101 book, but it works for us.
Ideally, I’m getting ready for bed around 10:30 to be able to do it all over again!