Advice-only financial planners are stealing the show!

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This interview with Cody Garrett, CFP, of Measure Twice Financial was mind-blowing. Itโ€™s so clear to me what the future of financial advice is โ€“ what it should be โ€“ and what it will be. The advice-only movement is a bigger move than a shift in fees โ€“ itโ€™s a transcendence to a higher level of morality, transparency, and service to the consumer. Whatโ€™s up with these โ€œadvice-only financial planners?โ€ Find out by listening to the show.

For those of you who are new to my blog/podcast, my name is Sara. I am a CFAยฎ charterholder and financial advisor marketing consultant. I have a newsletter in which I talk about financial advisor lead generation topics which is best described as โ€œfun and irreverent.โ€ So please subscribe!

What is an advice-only financial planner?

Advice-only financial planning is fee-only comprehensive financial planning without the expectation or even the option to manage any client investments. Financial planning is offered as a stand-alone product; it is the only thing that an advice-only financial planner does. For example, in Codyโ€™s ADV you will see that he has no discretion over any client investments.

Here is the definition of an advice-only financial planner:

An advice-only financial planner is someone who provides only financial planning services. They may provide general guidance on how to manage your investments, such as helping you assess your risk, but they do not implement investment recommendations on the clientโ€™s behalf.

-Anonymous

Many financial advisors will say that they offer advice-only services; but if it is an offering it is not the only thing an advisor does. These are not advice-only financial planners; these are financial advisors who offer financial planning services on a stand-alone basis in addition to other services that they offer.

An advice-only financial planner:

  • Does not manage assets
  • Does not have discretion over client assets
  • Does not manage AUM
  • Does not charge a fee for managing assets
  • Does not implement investment recommendations on the clientโ€™s behalf
  • Provides financial planning services only

The benefits of advice-only financial planners

As those of you who know me are aware, Iโ€™m sick of the compiled, embedded, opaque fees, the BS products clients get sold, like interval funds, private REITs, the crypto crap, the whole life insurance, direct indexing (or personal indexing, custom indexing or whatever other name you want to call it). Unfortunately the list goes on ad nauseum.

There are alot of arrogant financial advisor AUM peacocks strutting around - avoid working for them!

What if, instead of trying to make yourself look as good as possible, you instead asked yourself, โ€œHow can I be as clear and transparent as possible?โ€

What if financial advisors were more preoccupied with service than selling?

What if financial advisors gave generously without expecting anything in return?

What if financial planning wasnโ€™t given away like a pawn just to โ€œclose the deal?โ€

Well, now it is.

A growing number of financial planners are operating their practices from a position that, to a higher extent than ever before, puts the client at the center and not only pushes the products aside but eliminates them from the offering.

Finally,

Advice-only financial planners are officially a โ€œthingโ€

-Sara Grillo, CFA

The movement is in its nascency but itโ€™s growing. Here is a list of advice-only financial planners that Cody put together. And boy oh boy, when this catches on, advice-only financial planners are going to be stealing the show.

Listen to the podcast to find out:

  • What is an advice-only financial planner?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an advice-only financial planner?
  • How do you start an advice-only financial planning firm?
  • How did Cody Garrett become such a successful advice-only financial planner?

Putting need before concept

A lot of entrepreneurs create the concept and then they go find the people to buy it. He did the opposite.

He found the problem, and then found an innovative way to solve it.

He was working at an RIA firm and kept getting these calls from people that went something like this:

โ€œI have interviewed 10 fee-only financial advisors, and nobody wants to provide financial planning to me without an expectation to manage my money. What the heck is going on?

I donโ€™t know when to retire or claim Social Security. They wonโ€™t tell me any of the information thatโ€™s important to me without taking control of my $3MM and charging me $30,000 a year. Why should I have to wait for that information?โ€

He saw the reality of the industry being that many fee-only wealth management firms may offer financial planning, but it was just a loss leader. The industry is typically about the implementation aspect of financial advice not educating and empowering the client. Even investment management is about moving a client into a product. Financial advisors wonโ€™t give you any financial advice without having your money to invest.

He felt, contrary to most, this is where there was potential to change the game.

The spirit of generosity

While he was learning about financial planning, he started writing blogs teaching others the concepts he was learning. Instead of, though, saying, โ€œIf you want to learn more, set up a consultation with meโ€ he said, โ€œIf you want to learn more, just keeping reading.โ€

Amazing act of generosity.

It was that simple.

He gave away generously without expecting anything in return. Truly giving with no hidden agenda other than to educate.

People saw that, and started asking him to work with them. It can just show you how rare it is for someone to be truly transparent and generous in the industry.

How he set his financial planning fees

Most advisors set their fee model and then find someone to serve who will accept that fee model. He feels this is the opposite of what it should be.

Instead, he thinks financial advisors should ask:

  • Who am I going to serve? For him, DIY investors on path to retiring in 5 years
  • How do I want to serve? A prospect-based truly comprehensive financial planning process. He intentionally was looking to serve people who do not need monthly hand holding.
  • How do you charge? The only way that made sense was a flat project fee for financial planning. It completely eliminated AUM fees, because he wasnโ€™t managing their assets on an ongoing basis.

He wanted every household to pay the same fee for the same process. Itโ€™s very simple, and there is little confusion after the intro call. He structures his engagements as a three month project for a $6,400 flat fee. In the third month he teaches clients how to implement the plan on their own.

What an advice-only financial planner does

Cody decided to become an advice-only financial planner, avoiding managing assets for clients and focusing instead just on the service of financial planning because he feels that is where the greatest value of a financial advisor lies. He does not take discretion of client assets. Instead, he provides them with an analysis of their risk tolerance and investment plan, and even specific tickers. He teaches them how to make the trades in the final month of the project.

If someone asks him whether or not they should work with a financial advisor to manage their money, he asks them if they have the bandwidth, mindset, and skill to do so. If they donโ€™t, he refers them to a flat fee advisor.

The advice-only financial planning movement

There are a handful of advice-only financial planners. Itโ€™s a growing movement as the younger generations who are more financial literate and capable of handling their own investments shift the demand to wanting financial planning instead of money management.

I would encourage all financial advisors starting out who are looking to become wealth managers to think about becoming an advice-only financial planner. You donโ€™t have to go sell insurance policies or work at a wirehouse under a quota. You can go the path Cody and others have gone and do it on your own terms with dignity, offering a higher level of service than the traditional model allows.

It is my hope that more advisors will follow the advice-only financial planning model. If it is not possible to do so, I hope that more advisors will at least be inspired by the spirit of innovation and higher service to the client that the advice-only financial planning movement brings.

List of Advice-Only Planners

Drumrollโ€ฆ

Here my list of Advice Only Planners.

A few caveats.

Please understand that this is not an endorsement of any particular company. Please conduct your own due diligence and come to your own decision. Also, I am under no obligation to update this list and the conditions of service offered by these firms may change over time without being reflected here. Although nobody paid me to be on this list, from time to time I may have a business relationship involving the sale of goods and services with the firms on this list.

I canโ€™t say it enough โ€“ you have to do your own research. This is not an endorsement of anyone mentioned here, and situations could change and not be reflected here in this blog. Also, there is selection bias inherent in this list. I did not interview all the hundreds of thousands of advisors out there, I conducted research using Google, consulted with my network, and posted on social media. So this is limited to what I had access to given my resources. Again, conduct your own research; this list of low fee advisors is intended to be a starting point but by no means is it exhaustive or conclusive.

Sara's Upshot

Whatโ€™d ya think of my blog on advice-only financial planners? Was this helpful?

If yes here are some resources you may benefit from.

Join the Transparency Advisor Movement.

The Transparent Advisor Movementโ€™s mission is to promote ideals of clarity, modesty, integrity, dignity, and client advocacy in all aspects of financial advice, with a special focus on Advice Only, Flat Fee, and Hourly service models. There is a special emphasis on clear disclosure of services and their related fees.

The Transparency Movement is the future of the industry โ€“ we welcome anyone who believes in our values to join us.

 

 

 

 

Join our next Transparent Advisor virtual meetup.

 

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Even if you can not make the meetup, or even attend in its entirety, please register for the replay and to be notified of the next one.

Or if you are looking to market yourself betterโ€ฆ

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  • People hire me as a ghostwriter to write content for a project fee
  • I have a social media training program
  • I have a book about what to say on LinkedIn messenger

Just letting ya know, in case you need me at some point.

-Sara G

 

Learn what to say to prospects on social media messenger apps without sounding like a washing machine salesperson. This e-book contains 47 financial advisor LinkedIn messages, sequences, and scripts, and they are all two sentences or less.

This is a book about financial advisor LinkedIn messages which contains scripts you can use to get new prospects.

 

You could also consider my financial advisor social media membership which teaches financial advisors how to get new clients and leads from LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading. If none of this appeals, I hope youโ€™ll at least join my weekly newsletter about financial advisor lead generation.

See you in the next one!

-Sara G

 

Podcast transcript

0:00:00.0 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Hey, whatโ€™s up financial advisors, itโ€™s me Sara G with the smack, and I am back. And today we have code Garrett here. He is a CFP and financial advisor, founder or measure twice Financial. He is one of the leaders of the advice only movement. So if youโ€™re sitting, youโ€™re saying, What the heck is that? Weโ€™re about to tell you about how people like Cody and many others are revolutionizing financial advice. Cody, thank you for being

0:00:35.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Aโ€ฆ Absolutely, thanks so much for inviting me, Sarah.

0:00:39.3 SARA GRILLO, CFA: At one of the most interesting things about you, and there are so many things, but what I really intrigued by is I saw that you are a worship keyboardist and pianist for about a decade. Thatโ€™s right, thatโ€™s aโ€ฆ Anything like this, e the profession, and then you even graduated from University of Houston with a degree of music dairy way. Bosse, me about that.

0:01:05.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, itโ€™s funnily say, I moved from recording musical records to analyzing financial records, thatโ€™s my movement through the industries thatโ€ฆ I started playing piano when I was six. And when thatโ€™s your primary hobby and what you enjoy for a decadeโ€ฆ So by the time I got to end of high school, theyโ€™re like, What are you gonna do for college? Iโ€™m like, Well, the only thing I know Iโ€™m good at is Music, so I decided to get degrees in music. I consider myself a left brain creative, which means him a very analytical, data-driven thinker, but Iโ€™ve always happened to work in creative fields, so even in music, we consider music and very creative field, liberal arts, but at the same time, I got my degree of Music Theory, which is like the science and the data of music, so I understand the analysis of how to make music, how to compose and arrange music in a way to make people feel certain ways, so thereโ€™s a lot of analysis and data-driven stuff in music, but ultimately it translates to create emotion. And itโ€™s actually very similar to financial planning in a way that I reallyโ€ฆ

0:02:17.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: I take the input of what the other band members were giving me, or the composers giving me are the audiences, their feedback, and Iโ€™m only creating output in response to their input. So a lot of the soft skills, even some of the hard skills that the technical skills that came from my music background translated pretty easily in the musicโ€ฆ Sorry, into financial planning.

0:02:40.9 SARA GRILLO, CFA: The coding. Why did you choose to work in a religious institution?

0:02:48.2 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So my first experience playing music with other people was in middle school, so I wasโ€ฆ I played piala and I grew up in a Lutheran church. Iโ€™ve also gone Baptist church, Catholic churches, I played for Jewish synagogues. Iโ€™ve played in all the different denominations of all the different religions, but my first experience playing music with others was in middle school, so at the church, the youth leader just said, Hey, weโ€™re putting a contemporary band together, weโ€™re actually gonna start a contemporary worship service. He says, Does anybody here play a musical instrument if I actuallyโ€ฆ I raised my hand and said, I actually played drums, โ€™cause I was actuallyโ€ฆ At that point, I had started playing percussion in middle school, that was my instrument of choice, but they said, Well, I already played drums, so do you play anything else? So there was competition for the drums and nobody said they played piano, and I was like, Well, I play piano, I guess Iโ€™ll do that, so I really started in the church naturally because that was my first opportunity to play music with other people.

0:03:57.4 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Was there some kind of a societal mission or a community mission that went along with that?

0:04:03.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Certainly, I really believed in the power of community and the church, the congregation, and it was another wayโ€ฆ Again, it was a way to give back. I think Iโ€™ve alwaysโ€ฆ I think just deep down, I really am eager to give to others more than Iโ€™ve been given in terms of generosity and being a way to give back to a congregation community through the music performance. It was one of those things where Iโ€™m like, Okay, I donโ€™t have the gift of speaking, I donโ€™t have the gift of preaching, I donโ€™t have all theseโ€ฆ I donโ€™t have any Bible verses memorized, but I found that that was one of the waysโ€ฆ Again, one of the gifts that I did have, one of the talents I did have, so it was just an opportunity to give back generously in some ways.

0:04:48.9 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Alright, so youโ€™re aโ€ฆ What movesโ€ฆ You then move to financial advice, so

0:04:55.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: I had about a nine-10 year career in music and professional music, and the big transition for me was one, getting married. So I got married in 2015. My wife and I were both working 80 to 5 full-time jobs plus. So I was working at 80 to 50, and then I was kinda working on five to eight, because as a musician, you have to wear many hats, so I had my full-time job as a professional musician during the week, working in a church, you kinda work Tuesday through Sunday, rather than Monday through Friday. But I had that regular full-time job, but I was also arranging, I was a music director for is actually one of the best wedding bands in the nation, I music-directed and performed with them, so when my weekends were filled with the wedding gigs, there wasโ€ฆ My best example of this about the hustle of being a musician as I worked my 40 hour a week job at the church, but then in one month, I played over 30 shows, 30 Broadway shows. So every evening, every weekday evening, I played a Broadway show on Saturdays and Sundays, I played two shows.

0:06:00.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So that was on top of working a 40-hour a week job, so I decided, You know what, it would be really nice if I could eat dinner with my wife every night of the week, that would be a great kind of a metric of professional success, and to make that happen, I determine, Hey, well, I need to find not just a career thatโ€™s stable, but I want a career that I can climb because in terms of professional music as a church music director, itโ€™s not like thereโ€™s a next level or a next level ofโ€ฆ Itโ€™s not just financially, but I always want to be challenged and driven and have that intention to feel better myself, and I was kind ofโ€ฆ Not in a cocky way, but I was kinda like at the topโ€ฆ At the top ofโ€ฆ Professionalism and expertise in that field, and I just wanted to continue to grow. So it really came down toโ€ฆ First of all, Dave Ramseyโ€™s Financial Peace University. I went through theโ€ฆ Thatโ€™s a program typically in churches for financial literacy, we got out of debt, got out of student loan debt, and I was like, Okay, weโ€™re ready to invest, and Iโ€™m the type of person, if I wanna learn something about a new subject, I get every book from the library, I listen to all the podcasts.

0:07:10.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Two times speed, so I did that for about a year. Just learning as much as possible, a personal finance, and that led to a natural conversation with a family friend who said, If you really wanna learn about personal finance, you should enroll in the CFP education program. So he said, Okay, well, even if you donโ€™t become a financial planner, I think itโ€™ll just help you really clarify your own financial goals and teach you how to invest and things like that, and youโ€™ve claimed you wanna doโ€ฆ So he happened to be a CFP for the last 20 years, he owned an RIA, a fee only at a um-based Raa. And he said, Go ahead and just drink out of the fire hose and let me know what you think, and within three months of enrolling in the CP education program, Iโ€™m like, This is what I wanna do. I want to help families align their money with whatโ€™s important to them, with comprehensive financial planning.

0:08:01.8 SARA GRILLO, CFA: So you get a job working for somebody and know what happens.

0:08:08.7 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So yeah, I got a job actually working for the same person who encouraged me to join, to go in the CFP, โ€™cause heโ€™s like, Well, if youโ€™re gonnaโ€ฆ If youโ€™re gonna keep doing the CFP, you take the exam, you might just wanna get the designation, which requires a few years of experience, so he hired me is just likeโ€ฆ What is that like? A customer service rep, like a CSR, answering the phone. Thank you for calling Legacy Asset Management. This is cornering the phones, learning how to use the binding machine for financial plans, learning how to use E-Money, the financial planning software. Heโ€ฆ Thankfully, I wasnโ€™t just a fly on the wall, like learning about how the business worked, I was actually in all the meetings I go to, even from day one, I was in the client meetings, learning about the true process of not just investment management. So I learned certainly how to manage investments and run the portfolios and move money around, but more importantly, I embraced the the true value of conversation and the collaborative education that comes with doing real financial planning.

0:09:14.1 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Well, I love that story because you donโ€™t really hear about people coming up in the business that way, a lot of times, and I am against this, I speak out against this so much they get a shuttled up into these brokerage programs for the people that are listening to this across the world, please understand that you donโ€™t need to be in some quota-driven factory to start your career, that there are opportunities out there like code, if you have the ability to connect with people that have the same values as you. Which I think is kind of what happened here based on how open this person was with you, so I likeโ€ฆ I love that story, Cody, just to begin with, how you started your career, I think was a very good foundation and conducive to doing the right thing for clients, etcetera. Okay, so youโ€™re working along in one day, you kinda say, I wanna strike out on my ownโ€ฆ Okay, so letโ€™s talk about Measure twice, Financial. Sorry everybody, I donโ€™t have my baby home, as you all know, I have four children under eight years old, Iโ€ฆ And then the covid, the daycare is closed today, orโ€ฆ

0:10:18.8 SARA GRILLO, CFA: For whatever reason, I donโ€™t know, itโ€™s all out of a blur, to be honest with you, butโ€ฆ Okay, so you might be hearing little three-year-old voices in the background, but donโ€™t worry.

0:10:27.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Probably from my side to you and I donโ€™t have kids, soโ€ฆ Okay.

0:10:31.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Alright, cool, so letโ€™s talk about Measure twice financial, because now I saw on Twitter that if you had your one year anniversary of founding the company, letโ€™s talk about the concept. Alright, when youโ€™re sitting there saying, I wanna do something, of course, consistent with my values and my beliefs, my generosity, my desire to truly serve other people, what was your thought process when you were coming up with the concept forโ€ฆ Measure twice.

0:10:59.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, the conceptโ€ฆ And itโ€™s funny, a lot of is a lot of small business owners create a product and then they go find people to buy it. Right. What I found is the opposite. As I found a problem and I was like, How do I solve this problem? And the way that workedโ€ฆ So at that firm I was working at that A-U-M-R-A, I received a phone call from a gentleman who said, Iโ€™ve interviewed 10, the only CFP financial planners, and none of them will provide financial planning to me without an expectation to manage my money. What the heck is going on? Heโ€™s like, I have millions of dollars, but they wonโ€™t give me any financial advice on like, when do I climb Social Security? Do I have enough to retire? Which account am I gonna take money from? In what order? Itโ€™s like they wonโ€™t tell me any of this information thatโ€™s important to me without taking control of my 3 million in tagging me 30000 a year before they can even provide any advice to begin with. So he was frustrated, and I heard that actually at over a dozen times within one month, and I was like, Okay, this is realโ€ฆ

0:12:04.2 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: People are searching and people donโ€™t even know what to look for, thereโ€™s no advice, only Google search, people are just typing in find a financial planner and all of the find an advisor tools online. First of all, say, type in your zip code, which isnโ€™t really relevant because people wanna work with the best person for them nationally, not really the guy down the street on the corner, whoeverโ€™s closest, but also when you type inโ€ฆ Find a financial advisor, or being a financial planner. Again, thereโ€™s a lot of labels that are confusing in the industry, they immediatelyโ€ฆ Again, where the money is and also where the traffic goes is to the AUM firms that lead withโ€ฆ They might offer financial planning, but itโ€™s truly just a lost leader, itโ€™s just the natural gateway to becoming what I call charging rent on peopleโ€™s money, I know thatโ€™s not theโ€ฆ Theyโ€™re not just charging rent on peopleโ€™s money, there is some implementation involved, but thatโ€™s not the true value of working with a financial planner, itโ€™s the planning, not the implementation, itโ€™s the service, not the salesโ€ฆ

0:13:13.3 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Okay, so youโ€™re listening and you hear the voice of the consumer, I wanna be served differently, what happens next?

0:13:23.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So that actually came out of creating educational content. So at this firm, I was so excited. I do believe that the best way to learn is to teach. And as I was learning, you can imagine how much Impostor Syndrome I had in terms of being new to this industry, like literally managing, moving around millions of dollars a day, and again, this was less than six months after not knowing what the IRA was, and now Iโ€™m moving money from Ira to hire. And so Iโ€™m doing this, I have this level of impostors, I have no idea what Iโ€™m doing, in reality, I didโ€ฆ Itโ€™s just impotent me, shows up when you become a humble expert, and those two things are actuallyโ€ฆ Have to be there, they really truly have impostor syndrome, which is you have to be humble, meaning, you have to realize you donโ€™t know what you donโ€™t know, and you have to have that level of humility to not have the ego, but you also do have to somewhat be an expert because I wouldnโ€™t have beenโ€ฆ My boss would have not put me on that position to be managing peopleโ€™s money if I didnโ€™t have that level of expertise, so to fight this imposter syndrome, I decided, Hey, I believe that the best way to learn is to teach, so Iโ€™m going to create educational content, through a blog called Measure twice money, so this was outside of my firm, not related, should get a separate LLC completely, and it never tied to me as an advisor, I just wanted a way, How can I educate consumers who arenโ€™t being served by financial planners, but never having a sales pitch.

0:14:48.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So when I create educational content, itโ€™s not like, hereโ€™s a little bit of educational content, if you wanna learn more or if you wanna learn the rest, youโ€™ll set up a free consultation with an advisor instead of that, I just said, If you wanna learn more, just keep reading, because thereโ€™s neverโ€ฆ I never have the sales pitch, so I gave away just generously without expecting anything in return, and this led toโ€ฆ By the beginning of last year, in 2021, I received about fortify perspective clients who wanted to work with me one-on-one. Just doing financial planning. But that was while I was at my last firm. So all that to say, Oh.

0:15:24.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Youโ€™re not even pitching anything, no instinct as no pitch, no marketing funnel, no email newsletter, no nothing, youโ€™re just talking and giving generously, truly giving. Awesome, I love that. And

0:15:40.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: What happens there is, thereโ€™s a quote that I love, that the best way to market is to be remarkable, and whatโ€™s remarkable ran the time weโ€™re living right now, whatโ€™s remarkable is transparency and generosity, and thatโ€™s something thatโ€ฆ Itโ€™s not very common just in real life at all, but itโ€™s also very uncommon within the industry, first of all, the transparency, not just in the fees, but the transparency in what we do and how we provide value to people, and then the generosity certainly, I would say most in any industry, not just advisors, when they create educational content, it ultimately used as a marketing tool to say, Hey, Iโ€™m gonna spend a little bit of work like creating some educational stuff a lotโ€ฆ To me, a lot of advisors, you can purchase this educational stuff fromโ€ฆ Everybodyโ€™s posting the same link along the way, but consumers are notโ€ฆ Theyโ€™re not stupid, theyโ€™re not silly, they can seeโ€ฆ We all get the spam emails every day, weโ€™ve been taught how to see through the fluff and to know when something spam and when something is valuable, so I decided I just truly want to educate people as my core values of generosity and transparency, which are missing, especially in the Industry, and Consumer is justโ€ฆ

0:16:57.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: They would receive this information and consume it and prove provided value sometimes for like six months, and then they think to themselves like, Whoโ€™s this guy and why is he giving so much away? And consumers are smart, they can do their research before they buy a refrigerator, they go online to do research before, so they easily just typed inโ€ฆ Whoโ€™s this code Garrett guy? They went down their own rabbit hole of discoverโ€ฆ I was a financial advisor, a financial planner, soโ€ฆ No, itโ€™s funny is all of the prospective clients that reach out to me actually all through Facebook DMs, I didnโ€™t know they existed until I reached out. Which is kind of the opposite of how a traditional advisor marketing works.

0:17:39.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Okay, so they reaching out through Facebook, meaning theyโ€™ve read measure twice money, theyโ€™ve read a blog, theyโ€™ve been reading for six months, and then theyโ€™re like, Whoโ€™s this guy code? Iโ€™m gonna go find them on Facebookโ€ฆ You werenโ€™t on LinkedIn.

0:17:52.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Right, so yeah, my audience for LinkedIn has always been other financial advisors, financial planners. Iโ€™ve never used LinkedIn as a marketing tool. Well, first of all, I have neverโ€ฆ Your social media really as a marketing tool, as you kind of notice, but my audience on Facebook is DIY investors on the path to early retirement. On LinkedIn, my audience is financial planners, and then Twitter is funny, Twitter started with an audience of other financial planners within their first five years within the industry, and that switch, itโ€™s about half and half II investors and half advisors at this point, so my audience has changed along the way, but it actuallyโ€ฆ All of those DMs came from Facebook because I was providing education through a lot of the personal finance Facebook groups, but again, not ever saying, and if you want, send me a DM for more information in lead generation.

0:18:44.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: How did you come up with the business modelโ€ฆ First of all, just say, what is the business model for a measure twice. Financial and how did you come up with it?

0:18:54.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, so I would describe Service in the model of a business being service, process on fee, so the service is comprehensive financial planning, and thatโ€™s it, right? So the service I sell as the clarity and competence to help individuals and families make their own well-informed financial decisions without implementing just planning. So the serviceโ€ฆ

0:19:15.7 SARA GRILLO, CFA: But this is what you call advice only.

0:19:18.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Right, so the way to find advice only is itโ€™s the only comprehensive financial planning without the expectation obligation or even the option to manage any client investments, so not only am I offering just planning as a stand-alone product or service, but thatโ€™s the only thing I do so in my form, ADV, I donโ€™t have any discretion over any client investments, which is kind ofโ€ฆ There are a lot of advisors that Iโ€™ll say, Well, I offer advice only, I offer flat fee financial planning, but if itโ€™s an offering, itโ€™s therefore not the only thing you do, so the service is really comprehensive financial planning, which really, if you do go down deeper into that itโ€™s reallyโ€ฆ The service I provide is personalized financial education, people can get their general financial education by Googling or going into reading blog as weโ€™re listening to Dave brands, youโ€™re Suzie Orman, but personalized education is whatโ€™s missing and is also really the value of what I provide, so thatโ€™s the service, the process is, I have a three-month, three meeting process, which rate three meetings are intro call just to really define mutual expectations for what theyโ€™re looking for in a financial planning engagement on what I can provide.

0:20:40.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: The second meeting is the data gathering meeting, which is after Iโ€™ve reviewed typically 40 to 50 documents, I found opportunities to have deeper conversations quantitatively and qualitatively, and then the third meeting is the plan presentation where thatโ€™s where I present really in an educational format. Typically 25 financial planning topic areas with investment management only being a very, very small piece, or choosing investments on being a small piece of that education, so a service process and fee. So itโ€™s funny, most advisors, they kind of set their fee model and then they go, Who am I gonna serve? And how am I gonna provide value? I think thatโ€™s the opposite of what should happen when youโ€™re launching a firm, you should say, Who am I gonna serve? So I wanna serve DII investors on the path, early retirement within five years. How do I wanna serve? I wanna serve with a project-based truly comprehensive financial planning process, and then really that also defines who you serve in a way thatโ€ฆ I wanna serve people that donโ€™t need a monthly retainer, they donโ€™t need monthly hand-holding, again, we donโ€™t make financial decisions on a monthly basis, at least, I donโ€™t look at my counts, but twice a year, and thatโ€™s just a rebalance if needed.

0:21:59.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So I wanted to work with families, you had really the time, the temperament and the talent to implement their own recommendations for the upcoming year, but they donโ€™t need more than three months. I would say most advisors actually probably donโ€™t see their clients more thanโ€ฆ I spent about 15 hours developing a plan in five hours of the client in those three months, so service process and the fee kind of solved itself, right. So now that I know who Iโ€™m gonna serve and how Iโ€™m gonna serve, the only fee model that made sense was project-based, flat fee, comprehensive financial planning without managing their money, which completelyโ€ฆ That immediately eliminated a um, it eliminated any investment management, it didnโ€™t really make sense to calculate their fee based on asset level or income, and also kind of like Andy Paco, weโ€™ve talked to that the simplicity is key. What I decided is, I want every household to pay the same fee for the same service on the same process, so Iโ€™ve completely eliminated the conversation of service process and fee from my conversations with clients. The follow-through from the intrust becoming a formal client has been about 100, and I think a big part of that is they understand the service process and fee before they ever reach out, all of that, again, transparently.

0:23:30.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Itโ€™s all on my website. Very, itโ€™s not hidden in the bottom, footnotes are in the AP, itโ€™s all straight up service, processed fee, and if they wanna work with me, theyโ€™ve made the decision to work with me by the time they reach outโ€ฆ

0:23:49.7 SARA GRILLO, CFA: What you say? If they say, But what about my investments inโ€ฆ

0:23:59.4 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: If somebody asked me, Should I work with a financial advisor to manage my moneyโ€ฆ Manage my investments for me. I always ask, Do you have the time, the temperament and the talent to do it yourself, and thereโ€™s a big misconception about DIY investors is that doing it themselves doesnโ€™t necessarily mean learning it themselves or planning forโ€ฆ Planning it themselves. So I just quickly going through those time, temperament and talent, so first of all, itโ€™s kind of a misconception is that timeโ€ฆ It takes time to do financial planning, it takes time to figure out how to invest, but it doesnโ€™t take very long to actually invest, like to push the buttons on fidelity and one finance job, Vanguard, wherever your custodian is, it takes less than a minute to actually implement your investments, I probably spend 30 minutes a year at the most, looking at my own money, so it doesnโ€™t take very much time, a lot of consumers, they assume it takes a lot of talent to implement and manage their investments, and thatโ€™s actually one of limited belief or almost like a lie that the industry has told the consumer that I think Rick verily has the complexity equals job security as an industry, weโ€™ve tried to convince consumers that itโ€™s way too difficult for you to do this yourself, you need my help, and the way I illustrate this is the traditional industry has kind ofโ€ฆ

0:25:28.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Theyโ€™ve thrown a client down a hole, they throw over a rope and say, Iโ€™m the only person who can save you, and I think thatโ€™s kind of a lie the industry is told consumers is you cannot possibly successfully implement and manage your own investments, which is false, ways

0:25:43.9 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Just to elaborate, an example would be putting the client into a direct indexing program, where now instead of FITS they own a couple hundred stocks, now someone has to watch all those stocks, now theyโ€™re locked in, there are attacks implications, there are investment, there are gains, losses, etcetera, right. So yeah, it has a lot to do with the products, the products, with the way that financial advice has typically been rendered, then the tools that are used to do that, so can you tell me whatโ€ฆ You create a financial plan, but do you discuss at all their investments as partโ€ฆ Absolutely. Right, yeah. Investment recommendations as part of that, right.

0:26:36.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, thatโ€™s a great question and a big misconception about what I do is just because I donโ€™t implement, just because I donโ€™t push the buttons to do the trades, that doesnโ€™t mean I still give them specific tickers, not only that, but this is another thing thatโ€™s fascinating about how you can do advice only planning without having discretion is I teach them what to do, how to do it, why to do it in alignment with their own desired outcomes as a family, but during the third month of my three-month process, I can screen share with them and we can actually implement together, thatโ€™s somethingโ€ฆ Weโ€™re like, Wait, what, whatโ€ฆ You can actually implement with the client thatโ€™s possible, yes, they share their screen, they log into fidelity and they say, Hey, Cody, can you teach me how to do that thing you told me is important to do, and Hey, can youโ€ฆ Letโ€™s say they pull up fidelity, I know Fidelity Vanguard, I know all the platforms at this point, and I can teach them how to review their cost basis information, I can teach them how to implement trades transfers, Roth conversions. Iโ€™m teaching a man to fish.

0:27:48.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Iโ€™m teaching a woman to fish, this is kind of the concept of the actual implementation of managing their investments is very simple, but the value is really the education on what to doโ€ฆ How to do it and why theyโ€™re doing it.

0:28:05.4 SARA GRILLO, CFA: I donโ€™t think you mentioned the numerical fee that you charge.

0:28:11.2 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So I charge 6400 for that three-month process, if you try toโ€ฆ If you analyze that, youโ€™re like, Wow, thatโ€™s pretty expensive, if you were to charge that every three months, but most clients want to do that engagement annually or a little bit less often, like every few years. Another thing is I charge 64100 for the first comprehensive plan, but then I charge 4800 for any future engagements, so I do stand-alone engagementโ€ฆ Sorry, standalone engagements, 64100. But if you think about the fee in terms of fairness and benchmarking, the 6400, itโ€™s kind of the average, if you were to squeeze all the clients Iโ€™ve served all together, it would be about 25 million portfolio, which take in getting the calculator out, youโ€™re probably doing this quick as a CFA, Iโ€™m charging of effectively 26 basis points versus them having their money managed, I would say that mostly these clients would probably pay 20000 a year to work with an advisor who is primary, a primary services managing the investments, whereasโ€ฆ Actually back, one thing that I heard from a client is they actually had an advisor charging them 30000 a year to manage about 35 million dollars for them, and they said, Wait, I just paid you 6400 to do all of the valuable work, and Iโ€™m paying him to check in once a year to tell me how the funds didโ€ฆ

0:29:45.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Heโ€™s like, Thereโ€™s a disconnect between what Iโ€™m paying and where Iโ€™m receiving the value. So this is actually allowed to believe that the future of the profession industry is the separation of financial planning from financial implementation, because I do believe that managing the investment management is a product, is a product just like selling an insurance product or just like an insurance product, or investment product.

0:30:10.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Tell me more about what you just said, please. The future of the industry isโ€ฆ Go ahead. Tell me more, right.

0:30:16.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: So the future of the industry is separating financial planning from the implementation of financial recommendations, so the industry in terms ofโ€ฆ So you can also break it down to sales, virtual service versus sales. So financial planning is really the true value, thatโ€™s the education, thatโ€™s where you truly understand a families, desired outcomes, their values, and are able to line their sources of capital with what they claim is important to them. The implementation is what this industry has always been about, is like how can we put them into somethingโ€ฆ It used to be, of course, Whole Life and Annuities and some of these insurance products, but now I see investment management is the same thing, itโ€™s like how can we move them to a product as quickly as possible, for example, like the advisors who are saying, I wonโ€™t give you any of the service until weโ€ฆ Literally the words that advisor say is, close the deal, close the sale, close the client, like this transactional language of closing business and having a book of business, thatโ€™s all sales language on the implementation side, whereas the actual value of what we do in our highest and best use in the industry, especially if you have a CFP, is to be an actual financial planner, which is financial planning, financial implementation, there should be separate services and they should charge separately for them, I believe.

0:31:41.2 SARA GRILLO, CFA: So you do the planning, you help them to implement it in the third month, and then theyโ€™re on their own, they can check back with you if they want to do subsequent planning, but what if something comes up likeโ€ฆ They say, Oh, look today, right? You this week, the markets down, Cody helped me. What happens thatโ€ฆ

0:32:08.1 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: But itโ€™s really funny about this question, this question of when people reach out and he got the markets down, Iโ€™m freaking out that actuallyโ€ฆ Thatโ€™s a really great insight about not creating really healthy expectations, so if a client reaches out scared about what the marketโ€™s doing, that probably means that there havenโ€™t been mutually set expectations for what investments areโ€ฆ What we expect them to do, because I only do financial planning, I lead with it since it truly leave with education, so that actually comes down to risk tolerance, and the difference between a risk tolerance and risk capacity, soโ€ฆ This calling and saying, Well, the marketโ€™s down, Iโ€™m freaking out. Should I be worried? What about inflation? What about, I heard this on the news, is that the rightโ€ฆ So theyโ€™re calling to tell you about the risk tolerance, which is their subjective, really emotional behavioral feelings about taking risk, and youโ€™re typically downside, of course, being aggressive or being conservative or being risk-averse or all, those are all just on the sameโ€ฆ Different sides of the same behavioral bias coin, so risk tolerance is the subjective behavior and emotion, the risk capacity as a clientโ€™s objective ability to take riskโ€ฆ

0:33:28.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: To be exposed to risk. So I really believe that the bridge between risk tolerance and risk capacity is financial education, so when a client reaches out and theyโ€™re scared about the market, that doesnโ€™t just mean that theyโ€™re actually has little to do withโ€ฆ The investments are a little to do with the money or a little to do with what the guy on TV side, itโ€™s really showing that thereโ€™s a disconnect between Risk Capacity is tolerance, and that I educate clients that we have to think about money in terms of time, I help them align their investments, risk and return metrics historicalโ€ฆ Again, no guarantee future results and historical metrics of risk and return, and we align that with when theyโ€™re gonna spend the money, so I do really appreciate using some type of mental accounting approach if youโ€™re having your short-term, intermediate term, longer money, if a client were to reach out to me that Iโ€™ve worked with and say, itโ€™s like, Hey, the marketโ€™s down. Iโ€™m freaking out. That means, I really just need to reiterate that education that we had to say, Hey, letโ€™s remember that when we set up the portfolio, we set it up that none of the money youโ€™re gonna spend within the next three years is exposed to the stereo market thatโ€™s going on and again, I use a lot of visuals to showโ€ฆ

0:34:49.2 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: I create my own visuals rather than using these big JP Morgan graphs, theyโ€™re really confusing as I just explained, I just explain to clients like how investors are historically rewarded for staying invested over longer periods of time and money thatโ€™s need to do within the next couple of years is not appropriate to be invested at that level ofโ€ฆ That level of equity exposure.

0:35:12.5 SARA GRILLO, CFA: What if itโ€™s not as conceptual, what if itโ€™s a mechanical thing, they mess up a trade, their 401k or in their Schwab account. So yeah, I think

0:35:28.2 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: They mess up a trade in theirโ€ฆ I guess, I immediately thought of taxes and you said that, which is usually a trade that would happen, letโ€™s say that they balance, they mess up, theyโ€™re rebalancing in the 401K, thankfully, thatโ€™s something that we can then we could come back from without anyโ€ฆ Thereโ€™s no tax consequence to trade in that account, if they made a mistake of realizing a huge capital gain, or, Oh, I accident-ly sold that one where Iโ€™m supposed to sell that one.

0:35:57.4 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Or are theyโ€ฆ Something got sold, I had an ETF that just went out and left me with a 2000 capital gains, which the brokerโ€ฆ Iโ€™m not gonna say what the coโ€ฆ The custodian wasโ€ฆ But the custodian or four phone calls with my CPA, it was a mess โ€™cause they were trying toโ€ฆ They reported a 4200 capital gained the IRS. It was 2000, so whatโ€ฆ In that case, to get involved orโ€ฆ I guess.

0:36:27.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: First of all, itโ€™s kind ofโ€ฆ Actually, if you think about compliance there, again, of course, I havenโ€™t educated them to do those things, but if thatโ€™s happened, first of all, thereโ€™s not aโ€ฆ It actually takes the pressure off. I wasnโ€™t the person to do it because I literallyโ€ฆ Thereโ€™s no way that can happen, is that. โ€™cause Iโ€™ve seen that happen where somebody, a advisor managing money, the last day of the year, they sold hoops, I saw the wrong thing, and thereโ€™s all these capitals and thereโ€™s nothing we can do about it. Itโ€™s the end of the year. But I think that really comes down to, again, you come back to planning and their goals and their objectives as a family is usually those things that you certainlyโ€ฆ Theyโ€™re gonna be related to the tax consequence or something like that. And then again, maybe you can just go into more education and planning, another thing that I do, this is really important in terms of providing value in a reduction of friction, working with clients saysโ€ฆ Letโ€™s say that theyโ€™re having this issue or theyโ€™re having a hard time, they did something with our custodian, and theyโ€™re like, I canโ€™t figure it out, and the custodians using all this technical language, I donโ€™t understand, I will call the custodian like Iโ€™ll call Fidelity, for example, a record keeper.

0:37:34.2 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Once I get them on the line, Iโ€™ll bring in the client on the call and weโ€™ll have a three-way conversation, and again, Iโ€™m still not implementing anything for them, but I can really help guide them to make thoseโ€ฆ To implement those decisions and truly understand, I think when people reach out like that and they just wanna understand, and it comes back to that education of the problem, whatever happened can probably be resolved in some way, they sold too much and gainโ€ฆ Okay, letโ€™s figure out thereโ€™s opportunities for tax loss harvesting or things like that, but most of the time when somebody is worried about something happening, that comes down to a fear of uncertainty, which really can be offset hedged by having a really truly educational and personalized conversation with somebody that actually goes deeper than the money, because thatโ€™s where, you know, find itโ€ฆ If I were to launch my firm again, it would be called by the way money instead of measure, lie financial, because I believe that financial planning, very little of what we do in terms of value, it has to do with the money. The Bonny, it just happens to be one of the problems that are helping people solveโ€ฆ

0:38:44.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: The advice

0:38:45.4 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Only movement were in term come fromโ€ฆ First of all, do that. Yeah, itโ€™s funny.

0:38:51.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Personal isโ€ฆ Itโ€™s been around a few years. It really spiked in 2018-2019. Thereโ€™s a advice only network that was created a few years ago to help people find advice only financial planners, and it was a few resources, I think there was maybe like a Wall Street Journal, New York Times article, of course, which makes that spike for a moment. But again, it was so difficult, it really educated a few consumers, I had a handful of consumers relatively, that advice only even exist, I would say the majority of consumers have no idea that this is an option, Wait, I can get financial planning without the managing my money or what is financial planning to begin with. So advice only has been around for a couple of years at least. Actually, whatโ€™s really interesting to me is that advice only is actually huge in Canada, at huge, relatively to how it is here as thereโ€™s Alโ€ฆ A Canadian advice-only network. There are, since being on the Michael kits, this podcast, really putting out the definition of advice only, I receive messages, there are advice only financial planners in Australia, South Africa. Actually, multiple parts of Africa.

0:40:06.6 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Thereโ€™s advice only firm starting up in Great Britain, thereโ€™s a lot of Canadian adviceโ€ฆ Only planners, as I mentioned. So the US is kind of late to the game, not in terms of theโ€ฆ Not in terms of the label advice only, but weโ€™re late to the game in terms of respecting the profitability of sustainability of the model entirely.

0:40:33.7 SARA GRILLO, CFA: What would you say areโ€ฆ Weโ€™ve gone over what the advantages are, what would you say are the disadvantages of this business model?

0:40:41.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, so I said before, their time, time and talent, two of the three Ts is something that can certainly be managed and thereโ€™s misconceptions around, but temperament is the number one reason to have an advisor help manage your money in terms of discretion is itโ€™s not just the client reaching out, and itโ€™s not just the client selling when things are down again, yes, thatโ€™s a commonโ€ฆ Thatโ€™s a common mistake that investors make, but itโ€™s really that advice-only planning is justโ€ฆ Serves DIY investors. So if you think about a spectrum of DIY on the left side and delegate on the right side, the industry is solely focused on the delegate, โ€™cause thatโ€™s where the recurringโ€ฆ The sustainability of the scalability of that model is โ€™cause itโ€™s a sales model, but on the flip side, so thereโ€™s a whole spectrum of DIY versus delegate, so if somebody is less DEI or they donโ€™t haveโ€ฆ Not just that they donโ€™t have the time, but they donโ€™t want to spend their time and implementing investments, they donโ€™t even really wanna learn how to use their custodian to manage their money that they donโ€™t

0:41:53.8 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Heretofore be able toโ€ฆ They may have dementia, they may be into declineโ€ฆ

0:42:00.7 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Well, whatโ€™s fascinating about that is Iโ€™ve worked with a lot of clients who hired me specifically, so your husband and wife, they reached out, the husband said, I really want to do a conference, a financial plan. Yes, itโ€™s gonna be great to have the recommendations and the analysis that you do and really help us define our values and goals, but he said I see advice only financial planning as an insurance policy, if something happens to me or something happens to my spouse, or if we get to a place of cognitive mental decline, thatโ€™s the time when we really want somebody in our corner that we can reach out to who can help us through that transition, whether I continue to serve them or not, I can also be the trusted refer to another advisor who can help them manage their money, but somebody who I believe can actually work in their best interest, what ends up happening is when, especially older clients like that, when they go into cognitive decline or when thereโ€™s a surviving spouse, thereโ€™s a surviving widow or widower thatโ€™s the time when people get taken advantage of by the industry, they go, a surviving spouse, just like they just got this windfall, maybe insurance or just they gotโ€ฆ

0:43:15.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Now, all the money is in their name and theyโ€™re like, I donโ€™t know what to do, my spouse managed all the finances, like the first person they reach out to is probably not gonna be the right person for them. So advice only financial planning is a great place to start to determine, Hey, so I can actually help a family determine if they have the time, temperament to the talent to do it themselves, if they donโ€™t, then I can be the trusted resource to help them find somebody else, so I refer people all the time. I only refer to other flat fee, I either refer to other advice only without investment management advisors, planners, or I refer to flat fee with investment management. So at this point, I do not refer clients to a advisors, not because theyโ€™re bad advisors, but I do believe that thereโ€™s a more kind of aligning the value with the service, I think flat fee with investment management is the way I would refer.

0:44:14.8 SARA GRILLO, CFA: What about scalability? This is an objection that Iโ€™ve heard other people in the industry say. Theyโ€™ve called advisors like youโ€ฆ Advisors with baby practices for Diana, which is ridiculous.

0:44:34.7 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, I think a big part of it is that we all re-each defined our Homeric of success. I think that the traditional industry, thereโ€™s a million dollar round table, thereโ€™s thisโ€ฆ The majority of the industry still is, Iโ€™ll kinda do the least amount of work for the most amount of money, and again, thatโ€™s a sales approach when we talk about service, thatโ€™s not about doing the least amount of work for the most amount of money, itโ€™s about doing the right, the right work for the right amount of money. So just quickly, in terms of scalability, there is some truth that while financial planning, real financial planning is not scalable because it actually requires your time, that managing investment management is extremely scalable because of the tech we have, the tech we have in financial planning is likeโ€ฆ Itโ€™s decades. At least to me, itโ€™sโ€ฆ I donโ€™t believe theyโ€™ll ever truly get there because I believe that there needs to be a human being reviewing those financial documents to see past the numbers. Well, when you have technology reviewing financial statements, itโ€™s probably looking at the numbers, itโ€™s not looking at the variation of the numbers and the patterns on the numbers of, Oh, hey, that year, that year that David had no earnings for Socialโ€ฆ

0:45:53.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Social Security, Oh, that happens to be the same year that his child had adopted their child, I wouldnโ€™t have had that conversation with a client of saying, Oh wow, itโ€™s incredible that you were able to take a year off from work when your child was born, that technology does notโ€ฆ At least I donโ€™t see it happening where it truly does financial planning in terms of the real, the emotional, the behavioral, the trueโ€ฆ The collaborative conversations that financial planning is so scared ofโ€ฆ Scalability, yes, financial planning in terms of collaborative relationships are not scalable, but that doesnโ€™t stop a only financial planners from building enterprise practices. So Eric Simonson, but I know youโ€™re going to be interviewing in a future webinar, is heโ€™s scaling an enterprise advice only financial planning practice, he wants to serve 20000 families, and his whole kind of thing is, I want financial planning to be for everyone. Hey, you donโ€™t make very much money, you have negative net worth, we will provide financial planning for you, weโ€™re going to teach you how to manage your money successfully. That does not exist in the industry, and a lot of people will tell me, this has been around for a long time, but the consumerโ€ฆ

0:47:07.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: If Iโ€™m having a hard time finding advisors that do I imagine how hard it is for consumers?

0:47:13.0 SARA GRILLO, CFA: And another thing is in terms of the scale. Now, they donโ€™t mean that. What they mean is the insurance industry will provide you with a free financial plan if you donโ€™t have very much money, but then you have to buy the term life policy costing you 50 a month, but you did get some financial planning at the time you bought the policy, right?

0:47:37.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Thatโ€ฆ Yeah, I call that the product leading the plant again, if sales preceded serviceโ€ฆ Thatโ€™s red flag. Service always has to proceed salesโ€ฆ

0:47:52.9 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Well, there wasnโ€™t there thatโ€ฆ Learn vest a while ago.

0:47:58.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Iโ€™m not familiar with that one. Is that like, Iโ€™m more of an educational platformโ€ฆ

0:48:06.2 SARA GRILLO, CFA: I think it was bought by Northwestern Mutual, but I wasโ€ฆ I think it was more of like an app though, butโ€ฆ No, I think there wereโ€ฆ So they were hiring CFS at one point, but he got bought, so maybe that is what people are referring to learn, but that was how long agoโ€ฆ That must have been 10 years ago. Okay.

0:48:27.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Well, I think that all of those solutions. Most financial planning, again, I say most, and I sound like ignorant, โ€™cause Iโ€™ve only been in the industry for a little while, but my limited experience in the industry, I see that financial planning is still, for the most part, used asโ€ฆ Itโ€™s a bait and switch. Itโ€™s, Hey, we offer financial planning, and then you do just enough financial planning to gain that little ounce of trust to keep them in the door, to ultimately sell them a product, including Investment Management. So

 

 

0:48:59.5 SARA GRILLO, CFA: It wasโ€ฆ The business isnโ€™t scalable. Right.

 

 

0:49:04.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Hereโ€™s the issue that I see is that when people talk about scalability, theyโ€™re talking about the scalability of revenue, I care about the sustainability of collaborative relationships, so again, scalability is when people are talking about How can I grow revenue, on How can I provide more value to the families I serve. So itโ€™s a completely different mindset of generosity than what weโ€™ve been taught in the industry.

 

 

0:49:36.2 SARA GRILLO, CFA: How many advice only financial advisors are there codeโ€ฆ

 

 

0:49:42.6 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: If youโ€™re hearing this, reach out, โ€™cause I only know between 15 and 20 and the entire nation at this point, and Iโ€™ve been cheerleading advice only for about two years now. I think there are more in Canada and that network that Iโ€™ve met in the United States.

 

 

0:50:09.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: What advice would you give to somebody who wants to start a practice as an advice on the advisor?

 

 

0:50:16.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, so coming back to those questionsโ€ฆ The first question you have to ask yourself is, who am I gonna serve? And you really imagine yourself, you just launch a practice day one, somebody walks through the door, somebody shows up on your zoom video call, if your ideal client shows up on day one, who are theyโ€ฆ Describe them in as much detail as possible. Create that perfectโ€ฆ Kind of that perfect avatar again, when youโ€™re dreaming, negotiate top down, not bottom up, create the ideal client in your mind, who do you wanna serve even not just like How much money do they have, or are they single or married, but also what emotions are they bringing in the door, are there kids wrapped around their legs or hiding behind their legs and they come through the door. Did they bring their kids with them? As a superstar. Exactly. So you have to say, Who do I wanna serve? And then you say, Okay, well, how do I provide value to that person, and then only then will you determine if you really want an advice-only practice, because again, itโ€™s kind of like putting the coin in the slot, they just jump on goes, Oh, youโ€™re likeโ€ฆ

 

 

0:51:26.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Itโ€™s like, Oh, itโ€™s too big to be a dime, itโ€™s gonna go into this, youโ€™re just defining filters for yourself to determine truly, you donโ€™t decide you wanna be an advice only firm owner, and then go, Whoโ€ฆ And how am I gonna serve? You say, Who do I wanna serve? Just try to remove as much knowledge about a few models as you know, if thatโ€™s possible, so yeah.

 

 

0:51:48.2 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Howโ€ฆ Itโ€™s always taught, thatโ€™s how the people are brought into the industry, thatโ€™s how you gotta make a living and figure out how to do that.

 

 

0:51:56.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah.

 

 

0:51:59.8 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Itโ€™s like an entirely different paradigm, right.

 

 

0:52:03.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: And I say all the time, You have to flip the switch, you give away without expecting anything in return, thatโ€™s not normal, you create content without telling somebody youโ€™re an advisor or trying to flip a saleโ€ฆ Thatโ€™s not normal.

 

 

0:52:17.9 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Okay, no, but itโ€™s the wayโ€ฆ Let me tell you when I first started what Iโ€™m doing now, I had two children under two years old, I had a baby, that wasโ€ฆ Cause for those of you, condom story, I had a baby about every year and a half, I started having kids later in life, Antonio and I have been together a while, and my first baby, and then all of a suddenโ€ฆ โ€™cause I never thought I was gonna have kids ever, I was always a career woman entrepreneur, and then I haveโ€ฆ My first was, Tonio was like, I wanna have kids. And I was like, Okay, Iโ€™ll have one main. Right, and so weโ€ฆ Westland. God laughs, right, right, right. Okay, I have what I remember, I was holding her and I was on my maternity leave and I was holding her and I was like, I wanna have six more of these, but I ended up only having three more, but anyway, so I had a baby every year and a halfโ€ฆ And him too, come was the weirdest thing was like we both fell so in love with our first baby that just we wanted to have a million kids anyway, so Iโ€™m sitting there, I had my second child.

 

 

0:53:16.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: I was a financial advisor at one of these insurance program brokerage, wire house broke, whatever it wasnโ€™t even remember, but it was awful. So I quit, and I remember sitting there on my couch and my kids were so young and I was like, Well, what do I do? And so I started making YouTube videos, and I made this YouTube video about like, donโ€™t be discouraged if youโ€ฆ About fasting the CFA exam. And I just was talking and talking about how when I was taking the CFA exam, everybody told me I couldnโ€™t do it. Everything said, youโ€™re a marketing girl. And this is for finance people, like this was totally discouraged by everybody, but I ended up passing it and it was this whole really gutsy, truthful, blank story, and the video ended up getting like 20000 years, which for me was viral, โ€™cause I had not reallyโ€ฆ Only a couple thousand followers on LinkedIn at that point, he did not have a large following at all, and then I started making more videos โ€™cause it was like when my kids were seeking a start, nothing coding, no call to action. No business plan, no. Nothing, literally nothing.

 

 

0:54:18.4 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Just transparency. Yeah, okay. Just, I was justโ€ฆ It was almost like I wanted to talk to somebody. I wanted to be at a sense ofโ€ฆ I say

 

 

0:54:28.3 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Itโ€™s a sense of urgency to shareโ€ฆ I think also just content creation is youโ€™re sharing your conversations with other people, or even even the thought, even the conversations youโ€™re having with yourself, youโ€™re just sharing the otherโ€ฆ

 

 

0:54:40.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: It was almost like I just needed something adult to do because I was running around with kids and everything, and I needed to feel like I was still this business woman, and I would put on my suit when my kids had gonna happen stuff and then open video tape is Yoichi. Literally nothing awful. I didnโ€™t even have a microphone, just some beat up web cam, and then after a while, after a few months, I start getting these emails and theyโ€™re like, You know Sarah, I was watching your videos. And it wasnโ€™t even like financial advisor stuff, it was like, I donโ€™t know what to do, I took the CFA exam, but I failed and I had this awful job andโ€ฆ Can you look at my resume? I start working to peopleโ€™s resumes, and then it becomesโ€ฆ Well, you know, the firm I work for has a website. It stinks. Can you look at the website and then I move into what Iโ€™m doing now. But it was just entirely bad, and then I wasโ€ฆ โ€™cause what happened was, either way, it was almost like I didnโ€™t set out with, hereโ€™s my business plan, and hereโ€™s my intention wasโ€ฆ

 

 

0:55:43.3 SARA GRILLO, CFA: It was almost like I had no intention toโ€ฆ It was almost like I was calledโ€ฆ

 

 

0:55:46.7 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: That youโ€™re pulled, itโ€™s almost like others and just like, I donโ€™t know whatโ€ฆ Be able to call it like the universe or God, you just get like pull and youโ€™re just like, Okay, Iโ€™ll just join the ride.

 

 

0:55:58.5 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Right, like this guy, one day in July, this person, the person who founded one day in July, Dan Cunningham, I talked to him a Arlen, he told me that he had been an entrepreneur of other businesses, and in those other businesses, heโ€™s ways like, Oh, the protea has to be thisโ€ฆ โ€™cause he was in software and technology, and he was like, The Profit we as this and this nakanishi one day in July. Thatโ€™s why theโ€ฆ From his name one day in July, because winding in July, he sat down and he just was like, Iโ€™m sick of the fact that all theโ€ฆ He figured out that all the teachers in America donโ€™t make as much as the top 30 hedge fund managers put together or something like that, some ridiculous statistic, and he was like, Itโ€™s just not say, or that people arenโ€™t given access to low-cost financial advice. And so he went in and he originally started the form thinking, how was the lowest I could possibly charge insteadโ€ฆ Goebel.

 

 

0:56:51.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Beans rice.

 

 

0:56:52.4 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Yeah. Okay, so he starts at like 30 basis points, and then he finds out, I canโ€™t really hire the caliber of person I want, Iโ€™m getting a ton of clients, but I justโ€ฆ The practice isnโ€™t right, so we had to raise it wound up at 50 basis points, which is still way lower than everybody else, and very few advisors are actually doing that, but itโ€™s that same thing where he was called to the knee, just like I was called to the need for, I canโ€™t find anybody who has creative skills who can communicate engaging-ly, but who also is a CFA and has worked on Wall Street and knows the intents of the industry, and itโ€™s so nice when it happens that way, and I wish more people take more time to kind of figure outโ€ฆ To talk to people and figure out what do people really need, because a lot of times what weโ€™re taught that they need has a commercial motive behind it, and itโ€™s at the office, it is like, fine if what people need and then make it work for any taught

 

 

0:57:54.5 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: What youโ€™re taught, what youโ€™re taught what you want them to need.

 

 

0:58:00.0 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Then thereโ€™s all this like, you know the rejection and itโ€™s so tough on this and that if itโ€™s like, itโ€™s not that tough. If you look at what people are really demanding and then say to yourself, Iโ€™m like, Youโ€™ve doneโ€ฆ Like Dan did there, I believe Eric is doing right now. Iโ€™m gonna use my creativity and come up with new ways to do things to make it profitable.

 

 

0:58:24.8 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: I would stay there though, it is very important, again, you talk about the value of financial planning, it would have been very difficult to do what Iโ€™m doing right now. Had I not had some level of financial independents, so I had to have the discipline to invest, we had about a 35% savings, even as a household, we were making a 600000 a year, but we were still saving 35% of our income, low cost of living being super frugal, but in alignment with our values, I wouldnโ€™t have been able to just launch my own firm if I were starting from likeโ€ฆ If I were working paycheck to paycheck, I couldnโ€™t have done that. So itโ€™s so important that anybody listening, you have to build that level of discipline and financial independence to be able to make these big jumps, itโ€™s very difficult to negotiate and to say no to all of the mutual of the world when youโ€™re starting in the industry when you donโ€™t have anyโ€ฆ You donโ€™t have any cushion or runway financially.

 

 

0:59:28.5 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Or when thereโ€™s financial pressureโ€ฆ

 

 

0:59:31.0 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Right, well, and again, a lot of thatโ€™s out of our control, certainโ€ฆ Consider myself lucky privilege, whichever word you choose, whichever synonymous with that. But again, you have to have not just discipline, but build, build a level of intentionality toward what you want, and I think a lot of people, because theyโ€™re coming from these environments where youโ€™re always starting at the bottom of the ladder, we even talk about that, like youโ€™re Oh, youโ€™re a base level employee, youโ€™re always trying to negotiate upward, whereas in reality, especially if you have an entrepreneurial spirit and drive, you shouldโ€ฆ When youโ€™re dreaming, when youโ€™re thinking about what you wanna do, always negotiate top-down, not bottom up, and thatโ€™s the problem is weโ€™re taught from a very young age to only say, Can I please do this? Weโ€™re always trying to ask permission, and the whole as permission versus ask for forgiveness, weโ€™re always trying to say, Can I just do this one little extra step, can I climb a little bit faster rather than just saying, again, while youโ€™re dreaming, just dream. Itโ€™s not just dreaming big, but dream top down, say, if weโ€™re at exactly what I wanted, what would it look like? And then go, Okay, well, that partโ€™s a little tricky, so Iโ€™ll have to kinda negotiate down from there, but itโ€™s so much more productive than negotiating bottom up, especially if youโ€™re going toโ€ฆ

 

 

1:00:52.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: At some point, if youโ€™re built to be an entrepreneur, youโ€™re gonna end up there where you somehow youโ€™re gonna end up there. So itโ€™s justโ€ฆ Do you want it to end up there more on your own terms or on your subconscious or what youโ€™ve been taught growing up.

 

 

1:01:08.9 SARA GRILLO, CFA: What do you tell someone that wants to do this?

 

 

1:01:13.7 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Well, the first sentence, I would say it would end in a question mark, I justโ€ฆ I would wanna know really whatโ€™s behind it, what a big question that I learned from business coaches, any time you decide to do somethingโ€ฆ Whatโ€™s the end in mind? So with me too, when Iโ€™m building a practice, I could say, Okay, well, whatโ€™s the end of mine with Measure twice Financial, do I wanna be solo boutique enterprise, do I wanna deliberately limit my capacity or do I wanna try to scaleโ€ฆ Itโ€™s really important to think end in mind when youโ€™re starting something is, itโ€™s very similar to how I talk about investing with clients, I say, before you invest your money, we have to understand when weโ€™re gonna need this money again to cover our lifestyle expenses. So if you have a dream about doing something differently or building a business, think end in mind, dream big read books. I spoke with, I had Zoom calls with 125 other financial planners one-on-one within the last 12 months, like you need to show that level of drive and intention to learn from others, and thereโ€™s a quote I learned when I was a professional musician, which is nobody is going to call you if they donโ€™t have your number, so a lot of financial advisors, financial planners just in any business world, weโ€™re kind of waiting for a phone call from somebody who doesnโ€™t know we exist, so I would ultimately tell them you need a mentor in every part of your life, physical, mental, spiritual, relational, financialโ€ฆ

 

 

1:02:43.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: And that meansโ€ฆ We always talk about, we donโ€™t have time to do this, you have to prioritize your time to really become the person you actually wanna become, and itโ€™s not do the least amount of work for the most amount of money, letโ€™s do the right work and figure outโ€ฆ And again, and the last part of that equation isโ€ฆ Okay, and by the way, how do I get paid?

 

 

1:03:09.6 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Well, I think it looks here one year, business founding anniversary, believe yesterday. Well, congratulations, thank you. Thank you so contribution. It is my hope that more advisors will follow this model, and if for some reason it is prohibitive, that advisors will at least be inspired by the spirit of the innovation that youโ€™re bringing to the profession faster.

 

 

1:03:40.9 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Thatโ€™s a great segue into this concept of fulfillment or your purpose is not what you do, but how you do it. So how Iโ€™m doing what Iโ€™m doing in my business, I can translate that into any other industry, I have no doubt that every three years I could go into a different industry and do exactly what Iโ€™ve done with this one, because again, the drive intentionality and the purpose is how I do it, not what I do, and how I do it is with generosity, transparency and intentionality. Defining those core values. So I would encourage anybody listening that you truly have to understand yourself like that deeply, again, reach out to me, coder ACH, out to Sarah, like weโ€™ve got a lot of resources that we were justโ€ฆ We had the sense of urgency to just tell the world. So if you find value in this like tell the world.

 

 

1:04:36.1 SARA GRILLO, CFA: And especially for some of you, I donโ€™t wanna say younger, but a lot of you are younger who are starting out of the industry, I really want you to hear this message that you can make your own reality, and that you donโ€™t have to do things than be part of the machine. Please understand this. That there are people that can help you. You could join our LinkedIn group. Advice rockers come to connect with me on LinkedIn and just say, Hey, I wanna be in the group, or having periodic webinars, weโ€™re having one on June 7th and fact, thereโ€™s great opportunities in the group to meet others over onโ€ฆ This group has grown so much and I havenโ€™t really even been pushing it, but so many people are hearing about this and just wanna be part of this community, at least just come and be part of the community and sit there and see what other people are talking aboutโ€ฆ So that you could be guided by the ideasโ€ฆ All right, so Iโ€™m gonna wrap here. Thank you so much, Cody, for being here to talk about advice only financial advice. I am having a webinar on June 7th, everybody, itโ€™s a free webinar, and Iโ€™m gonna include the link in the show notes, advice rockers group on linkedin, connect with me.

 

 

1:05:58.2 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Or you could just do a search for it. Itโ€™s a public group. I have an advice only newsletter, if you are interested, just let me know and I can get you subscribe to it. And Iโ€™ll also put that in the show notes. Coda resources. Would you be able to offer up? For folks that wanna learn more.

 

 

1:06:18.6 CODY GARRETT, CFPยฎ: Yeah, so for me, I would go actually, start just going by going to my Twitter, so itโ€™s measure twice, M-N-Y, itโ€™s like measured this money, but I ran out of letters on Twitter, so measure twice and why? Iโ€™m sure are, I can put that in the show notes, but on the top of my Twitter profile, youโ€™ll see this link tree link, and that links to my podcast, all of my educational resources. Iโ€™m gonna be teaching my entire financial planning process to other financial planners and DIY investors starting at the end of this year, so yeah, I have all my resources, my press media, how to contact me, is all there on that link tree. So start at Twitter, even if you donโ€™t have a Twitter login. You can still go to my Twitter profile, just Google measure twice, M-N-Y Twitter, and youโ€™ll get there.

 

 

1:07:03.7 SARA GRILLO, CFA: Great, okay, everybody. Thanks so much for this thing, and we will see you in the next one.

 

 

 

 

Disclaimers

 

 

Podcast transcript may be altered from original recording

 

 

Grillo Investment Management, LLC does not guarantee any specific level of performance, the success of any strategy that Grillo Investment Management, LLC may use or mention in any of its content, or the success of any program it may mention in any of its content. Grillo Investment Management, LLC will strive to maintain current information however it may become out of date. Grillo Investment Management, LLC is under no obligation to advise users of subsequent changes to statements or information contained herein. This information is general in nature; for specific advice applicable to your current situation please contact a consultant or advisor. I want to be clear that nothing in this podcast or blog can be interpreted as an investment recommendation of any type. Also, nothing in this podcast or blog can be interpreted as legal or compliance advice. For advise on such matters, contact a legal or compliance advisor.

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