News You Can Use
This issue's article is by Lisa Gray of graymatter STRATEGIES LLC, a financial journalism and marketing consulting firm based in Memphis, TN

"It's A Family Affiar" By Lisa Gray In the advisory business, it's easy to view our clients as individuals. After all, we specialize in offering customized financial advice based on individuals' unique investment parameters and financial needs. We design our programs around the answers we've gathered through questionnaires and conversations, get the client to sign off on an investment policy statement that we, along with our partners, have spent hours preparing, implement the investments according to those guidelines, and monitor the results.   Bingo. We've done a great job for the client. Or have we? This is not an article about building your business through multiple generations. This article is about the influences family matters have on individual investment decisions. And, believe me, what better way to get subsequent generations' assets than to consider their influence on the existing client's investment plan? With an expected minimum wealth transfer of $41 trillion over the next few decades[1] and over $5 trillion by 2017[2], the assets of your current individual client will, more than likely, become the assets of the future generations. So, in a sense, you're already working with their assets. When that realization hits home, it becomes a no-brainer to consider how the decisions made today may affect them tomorrow.   The Family-centered Approach   Granted, today, the assets still belong to Mom and Dad. But if you think the kids and even the grandkids don't have influence on how Mom and Dad set things up, you're operating in a vacuum. It's a thing called 'family dynamics.' Let's say that Mom and Dad started a business years ago and it's become quite successful. One or more of the siblings may already be a mail runner at age 6. Or perhaps, if the business has been tremendously successful for a period of years, junior participation on the board of the family foundation is occurring at age 8 or 10. These kids are being brought up in the business. They're learning to handle money. Their opinions are already being collected by the family. Why aren't you asking if their opinions should be collected by you?   This may seem the exception to the rule, but in wealthy families, the children are offered the opportunity to be involved. By the time they reach their 20s, they certainly feel their opinions should be considered in decisions involving the family-especially in the financial arena. Approaching wealthy clients from a mindset that considers the kids' viewpoints puts you on the same wavelength as your clients. How better to secure your current client's assets and ensure that money will stay with you through the generations to come?   [1] "Wealth Transfer Report," Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, http://www.bc.edu/research/swri/features/wealth, January 6, 2003. [2] "Advisors Face Obstacles Communicating with Boomers," by Thomas Coyle, Family Wealth Report, www.familywealthreport.com April 5, 2005.   Lisa Gray is president/CEO of graymatter STRATEGIES LLC, a financial journalism and marketing consulting firm based in Memphis, TN. She has 15 years' experience in wealth management and is the author of "The New Family Office: Innovative Strategies for Consulting to the Affluent," http://www.euromoneybooks.com/default.asp?page=4&productID=3178    Here Are A Few of the Benefits of "Going Independent": ·         Payouts on all your business, including fee based accounts of 90% plus. ·         The opportunity for you, not someone at the home office, to control your bottom line and the profitability of your practice. ·         The opportunity to build related businesses such as insurance, qualified plans, or trust companies, and keep those revenues. ·         The opportunity to eliminate your clients' perceptions of conflicts of interest with research departments and corporate finance groups - TRUE OBJECTIVITY. ·         The opportunity to charge and keep substantial fee income for planning, analysis and other services to your clients. ·         The availability of technology that is as good or better than anything you have now. The list goes on... This month's Registered Representative Opportunity: This Broker-dealer helps financial professionals become more profitable and run a more efficient and satisfying business through proven practice management tools, integrated easy-to-use technology and the absolute best client acquisition and retention tools available. They are among the nation's top ten largest independent broker dealers according to Financial Planning Magazine July 2004 and home to many of the brightest financial professionals nationwide who are responsible for the supervision and administration of their clients $25 billion in assets. HR support, client satisfaction surveys, professional marketing tools, technology integration, training, onsite consulting, professional development, and so much more... all available to you to help you run your business effectively, maximize your profits and gain margin to spend more time doing the things that are important to you. If you are looking for a broker dealer that works as hard for you as you work for your clients then youve come to the right place. If you know someone who might be ready to go Independent, please have them visit www.goingindependent.com (go to our Opportunities section and click on Hotjobs) or contact Jason Burke directly at 727-725-8876.

Here's some additional information from Turning Point, Inc...

Hiring Increases in Financial Services!
"Employment in financial activities rose by 2,000 from February. Credit intermediation and related activities added 6,100 jobs. Year-over-year, employment in financial activities increased by 158,000, with most of the growth occurring during the last six months."
Staffing Industry Employment Bulletin, April 1, 2005 

TURNING POINT in the MEDIA!
Mitch Vigeveno of Turning Point, Inc has been quoted in several articles in 2005 (including Investment News and Horsesmouth.com).  Please visit our Media page to read what Mitch had to say!

TURNING POINT PARTNERS:
Are you getting the most out of your business?  Are you operating at peak efficiency?  How about your marketing, your compliance,  or your HR?  We have some friends who can help you out.  Just visit our Partners section in our website for links to a variety of services that are helpful to building your business!

Quote of the day:
"Every day you may make progress.  Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.  You know you will never get to the end of the journey.  But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb."
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)