Million-Dollar Advice: Know What You Can't Control

Bank Investment Consultant is reaching out to the million-dollar producers from our most recent BIC Top 50 and Next 50 lists to solicit their advice on how they achieved their success.

Each month we will showcase a few of the responses, first online and then in print. This time we asked two questions: 1) Tell us the biggest challenge you’ve faced in recent years and how you met that challenge; and 2) Tell us one of the mistakes you made as a younger advisor, and what advice you would give young advisors today to avoid such a mistake.

We will publish the first three answers in the next print issue. But first, we are unveiling them online.

Brett Everhart (Addison Avenue Investments/Raymond James)

Biggest challenge you’ve faced in recent years and how you met that challenge: Many aspects of our business we have no control over, such as market volatility. Always being there for your clients during challenging times and offering defensive strategies shows a sign of a courageous leader. As one example, assume we are looking at a client’s portfolio at a time when interest rates are showing signs of increasing. We would proactively rebalance the fixed-income portion to short duration, senior floating-rate and high-yield positions, which typically can fare better during a period of rising rates.

Mistake from early days: One mistake was offering just one solution, which creates problems. Although you may be an expert on that strategy it will limit your flexibility. Make an effort to take a broader approach to clients. Say a client has left their job and are nearing retirement. Their risk profile is shifting from moderate to conservative. Consider setting up three different accounts. A conservative allocation may have a guaranteed annuity utilizing a lifetime income rider; another may focus on fixed-income using actively managed mutual funds; and another may have a balanced equity exposure using funds and ETFs. Be open-minded to a variety of different investment solutions and obtain a respected designation like the CFP.

Read more: Million-Dollar Advice From the BIC Top 50