If you had spent eight years telling your cousin in the banking industry that she’d make a great advisor, what would you do when she finally followed your recommendation?

“We spoke the same financial language,” said Amy L. Wakem, a nine-year MDRT member from New Brighton, Minnesota, USA. “Through my encouragement and our phone case consultations, not only was I reminded of what I should be doing to continue to be successful — sometimes we stop doing the things which are most successful and only realize it through teaching others — but I was able to help her achieve MDRT status in her third year as an advisor.”

This mutual mentoring between Wakem and her cousin, Nancy M. Franzen, AFIS, a two-year MDRT member from West Union, Iowa, USA, yielded several tips that everyone can use, whether they’ve qualified twice or 20 times.

Some context

Franzen had reached a plateau in her banking career where she was working as a real-estate loan officer and a compliance officer. She wanted career growth and the type of personal satisfaction she saw in Wakem. Conversely, Wakem believed Franzen’s ethics, motivation and desire to take care of people made her a great candidate to become an advisor. Wakem works in a large metropolitan area, but after many conversations, she was able to reassure Franzen that she could succeed in a rural farming community. 

Wakem works in a large metropolitan area, but after many conversations, she was able to reassure Franzen that she could succeed in a rural farming community.

Applicable experience

Along with working at the bank, Franzen and her husband also operated a family farm, and she was able to learn about financing opportunities for family farmers and other programs available through the bank’s local USDA Farm Service Agency. She attended succession planning meetings and guided farming families to plan for the future and worked with other loan officers to review cash flows and income statements. These skills, of course, have been used extensively in her new role. 

“It is so important that I convey to them that their livelihoods are important to me because I understand how hard they work to grow their portfolios and the need to protect them for their future goals,” Franzen said. “I also feel that I became a better boss by working for someone else for many years. It gave me a chance to step back and analyze that the expectations often put on employees aren’t always appreciated in a manner that causes employees to feel valued. Happy employees will give back to your business every day if they feel appreciated.”

Overcoming challenges

Many of Franzen’s rural farm clients typically work with male feed and seed salesmen, male veterinarians, male doctors and male financial planners. As a result, being a female financial advisor has been met with resistance and made the first appointment feel very much like a job interview. “I need to assure them of my knowledge of their business and develop trust before they are willing to share their financial information,” she said. “But as it becomes more common for women to service clients like this, likewise I think woman like myself and my counterparts will more commonly become industry leaders.” 

Takeaways

During a recent phone consultation with Wakem, Franzen described a client who was considering rolling over their old 401(k) retirement account into a new 401(k) and wanted to use some retirement savings to fund a kitchen remodeling project. Franzen informed the client that rolling the old 401(k) into a new 401(k) as opposed to an IRA (as long as he was older than 591/2) could prevent him from taking the withdrawal. “I had never thought about the need for some retirement funds to be used while a person was still working although over 591/2 — what a great way to illustrate the additional flexibility of an IRA,” Wakem said.

Franzen also utilized information presented by Jason L Smith, a 18-year MDRT member from Westlake, Ohio, USA, at the 2022 MDRT EDGE, for a client deciding what to do with the more than $1 million they’d be receiving from a family farm sale. After Franzen presented Smith’s recommended time segments for investing based on the purposes for the money (now, soon and later), the client said, “Now we understand it. Can we take your illustrations home with us?” Franzen recalled. “‘We trust 100% what you are doing for us and have no plans to visit with any other financial planners in the area.’ Having that kind of trust placed in me was the biggest compliment I could have ever received. It led to the closing of one of my largest funded accounts in a single day in my career thus far.”

Consulting with Franzen reminded Wakem that, due to staff turnover, her office had ceased doing annual life reviews at the beginning of the year to confirm beneficiaries, ask about major life events and address needs for any policy changes. Only 15 days after resuming these sessions, Wakem’s office had helped more than 10 families increase their coverage.

In addition, Wakem used to spend time with team members individually and in groups to work on communication techniques, product knowledge, success stories and objections. Talking with Franzen motivated her to resume these meetings, which help educate her staff to more efficiently uncover client needs and grow her clientele.

When Franzen began her career as an advisor, Wakem gifted her a portfolio of advice, and every year Franzen opens it to remind herself of these points. This includes anchor high (always ask for the bigger face amount that fits the client’s needs, such as $1 million death benefit instead of $500,000); ask grandparents to consider the gift of life with life insurance or 529 plans instead of toys; and no doesn’t mean no forever. 

Additional success-driving ideas from Franzen

• Take the staff out for a meal every December, followed by a team goal-setting meeting.
• Empower staff to create client packets and educate clients about what meetings with Franzen will look like, saving time and increasing credibility for the office experience.
• Follow a fellow advisor’s recommendation to call each week “anyone you may know, may have run into, or maybe a friend of a friend until you have made three new appointments on the calendar.”
• Keeping a “found money” list in the office as a reminder to check in with clients about an approaching retirement, inheritance or otherwise.