Marketing ideas for Registered Investment Advisers and money managers

Targeting New Assets from Existing Clients

Common marketing advice is that you will be most successful if you target clients similar to those you already service, since this is a group that you clearly work well with and share their values. But another route to growing your business is gathering more assets from those you already serve.

You are probably not your client's only money manager. In addition to the assets you manage, your clients may well have investments managed by other advisors or securities brokers, self-managed investments, retirement accounts invested through their employer, insurance products, and even investment real estate.

If those investments are performing well, they will probably stay where they are. But given recent market conditions, there's a good chance they haven't done as well as might be hoped. And that's an opportunity for you. The catch of course, is that you have to ask your clients for the business. Inertia is an incredibly strong force. You have to provide a motivating force.

The following are some ideas on how you might provide that motivation:

Ask your clients for more business. If your performance results are notable (in comparison to the performance of similar asset classes), send your clients a letter encouraging them to expand the amount of assets you manage pointing out how you out-performed.
Schedule reviews of your client's portfolios and ask clients if they will bring summaries of their other investments for an overall risk assessment. Are 401(k) or other retirement investments wisely allocated? Are performance results adequate? Do clients need to begin planning to minimize capital gains on real estate investments?
If you have clients are nearing retirement age or in a tenuous employment situation, invite them to come in and talk about IRA rollovers and how best to manage retirement assets when employment ends. Consider hosting a seminar or workshop on the topic if several clients may be in a similar situation.
Team up with a tax expert and hold a seminar on cashing out of real estate assets, transferring ownership to children and other family members, and even titling assets properly to minimize taxes. Naturally, a significant part of the program is how to invest the proceeds of a real estate sale.

You have knowledge and expertise that your clients can benefit from. Make certain they know about it. If you need help putting some of these ideas or others that you might have into action, give us a call.