Trimming services that don't align with an advisor's interests can make work more enjoyable and profitable.Jurgute/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
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For many advisors, growing a practice means focusing on bringing in more clients or adding services to meet their needs.
But for some, a different approach – paring back to focus on specific services – has proven to be a driver of business growth, with the potential to boost client satisfaction, advisor well-being and the bottom line.
Two years ago, Julie Shipley-Strickland, principal, founder and senior wealth advisor with Julie Shipley-Strickland Wealth & Risk Management at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth Inc. in Calgary, decided to take her former mentor’s saying, “Slow down to speed up,” to heart.
That year, as she formed a new partnership with a colleague, she made changes to her service offering, shifting her focus to working with more business-owner clients and providing superior service.
She also moved away from offering other services that didn’t align with her interests.
For example, her team was previously licensed to provide group benefits. They have since outsourced that work as well as referred out services on the accounting and tax planning side that were previously available in-house.
The idea, she says, is “being aligned with who you want to work with and growing their assets within what you’re managing already.”
“It’s a little bit going against the grain,” she adds.
The move to focus on certain areas and building relationships also involved the difficult decision to pare back her client list by about 20 per cent.
For those clients who didn’t align well with the services offered, communication frequency or fee structure, Ms. Shipley-Strickland suggested they might find a better fit elsewhere, with the option they can always return if their needs match with her practice.
Everyone was happy with the decision, she says. While this type of pivot can be daunting and results don’t happen overnight, Ms. Shipley-Strickland says her business has “absolutely skyrocketed” over the past three to four months.
“I’m starting to see some consistent payoffs from it,” she says, “One of the biggest ones is just being aligned with the clients that are getting referred to me and that I’m working with.”
Tailoring services for organic growth
Many advisors start out offering a wide variety of services, says April-Lynn Levitt, partner and business coach with The Personal Coach in Oakville, Ont. “Then, as your practice grows, at some point it just becomes physically impossible from a capacity point of view to keep delivering on that.”
Choosing which services to focus on will be different for every advisor, but the process often involves tailoring a practice around the values of the ideal client, the advisor’s skills and what they enjoy working on, she says. That can involve anything from the types of services offered in-house to determining whether a client sees merit in quarterly meetings or educational webinars.
When advisors take a tailored approach, Ms. Levitt says she often sees them receive more ideal client referrals and greater organic business growth.
“We typically see the advisors having a better time. They’re enjoying it more because, again, they’re focused on their strengths and what they like – and then the clients are happy too.”
Julia Chung, chief executive officer of Spring Planning Inc. in Vancouver, also recently pared back the services her firm offers to focus on her areas of expertise.
When she co-founded the advice-only firm in 2017, Ms. Chung focused on improving access to comprehensive financial planning for all Canadians – bringing colleagues on board with different specialties such as cash-flow planning, paraplanning and portfolio strategies.
More recently, the team realized through regular check-ins that the business wasn’t structured in a way that enabled all advisors to do their best work with the right clients.
“What we found is, with all of those different pieces under one umbrella, it started to get to the point where the marketing for the service was too fractured,” Ms. Chung says.
Between 2021 and 2023, the team members decided to go their separate ways, although Ms. Chung still refers clients to and collaborates with her former colleagues. Her firm is now focused on complex financial planning, primarily working with entrepreneurs and families with shared multi-generational assets.
Ms. Chung is still committed to her goal of providing all Canadians access to financial planning but does so through her work with the Financial Planning Association of Canada rather than her firm.
While she enjoyed being part of a team of advisors with aligned values, Ms. Chung has also found success with a more focused model.
“Based on all the metrics we track – including client response and revenue, and just enjoyment of the work we’re doing – it’s definitely right,” she says.
Making the cut
To identify the ideal client and what they value, Ms. Levitt recommends meeting with a few clients to ask for feedback on services they do and don’t use.
For areas that are “pain points,” Ms. Shipley-Strickland says advisors need to decide to either implement support and infrastructure or let those services go.
Along with regular internal review and reassessment of what the practice is trying to achieve, data analysis is also for determining where an advisor might want to focus their attention, Ms. Chung says.
“That will help you build a business and a practice that’s successful, based on what you’re capable of doing well.”
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