Wealth managers often run into problems when they approach 150 clients. Why is that? It can be explained by something called Dunbar’s number.
British anthropologist Robin Dunbar discovered the “magic number” of 150 social attachments any person can maintain. Dunbar became convinced that there was a ratio between brain sizes and group sizes through his studies of non-human primates.
His research bore out that humans prune their relationships to never count much beyond 150.
So, if you’re going to maintain relationships with your close friends and family, it will become difficult for your practice to extend beyond 150 clients without help.
In the early days, this can look like an executive assistant who manages scheduling, documents, and other basic communications.
But eventually, you will need to bring in additional advisors if you want to scale to multiple hundreds of clients and increase your likelihood of accruing one billion dollars of assets under management.
But passing your client base off to a new team member can be fraught with risk.
What if they steal my clients?
Will the client feel brushed aside?
How can I make them feel comfortable in this person’s competence?
It would be unwise to just have your new advisor start doing your client check-ins without any context. Taking a few meetings together is an obvious first step.
Our clients have also found that incorporating video marketing into their communications strategy can go a long way in making the handoff smooth.
Assign your new advisor to record a few videos outlining portfolio strategies, tax planning tactics, and other relevant topics that you plan on communicating to your clientele.
By sending these videos, watermarked with your firm’s logo, to clients, you are turning this new hire into a familiar face and trusted voice.
In time, this will make the hand off to regular communication with your advisor natural and seamless.
A Husband, Father, and Business Owner. He is also a Digital Marketer and Finance Nerd with over a decade of lead generation experience managing a results-driven marketing agency for Wealth Management Companies. Aaron loves studying marketing, markets, video production, and strategy to better serve his clients.
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