Contributed by: Josh Bitel, CFP®
Financial planning practices come in all shapes and sizes, but perhaps the two most common arrangements are solo practices and ensemble practices. Solo practices are normally led by a single advisor who calls the shots, while ensemble practices are team-oriented firms, all working toward a common goal. The Center identifies with the latter.
An ensemble practice is structured with multiple advisors under the same roof. This allows for constant sharing of ideas, best practices, strategies, and even sharing of resources. The Center has a 2 hour meeting every Monday for just this purpose. Our planners at The Center, all with unique expertise, get together to eat lunch and share client cases, tough questions, interesting reading pieces, and maybe a few jokes here and there. This is all possible because we are all working collaboratively toward a shared vision, as outlined in the Vision 2030 document our entire team had a hand in creating.
The Center, as with many ensemble practices, leverages the power of teams. We have team members who are specialists in such areas as insurance, divorce planning, tax planning, retirement planning, and many more. So if an advisor is met with a tough client case involving long-term care, for example, he or she can seek out help from a team member with expertise in this area instantly.
An often overlooked advantage for clients choosing to work with an ensemble practice such as The Center is the foundation for internal succession planning. It is often said that as an advisor ages, so do their clients. This begs the questions who will take care of me when my advisor retires? And from the advisors end, who will take care of my legacy once I’ve moved on? With a practice like ours, there is an internal succession plan in place for many years before a planner decides to retire. Often, clients are transitioned to an advisor who has been working under the tutelage of the retiring advisor.
As with anything, you must weigh the pros and cons of working with an advisor under their practice’s arrangement. In the end, it is all about finding the right person to help you reach your goals and feel comfortable along the way. At The Center, we have found that working in a team-based environment toward a shared vision helps us serve our clients the best way we can.