You want clients to bridge the gap between where they are now and where they want to end up—to gain greater clarity about their current financial situation so what needs to be done to reach their future goals makes sense. A One-Page Plan serves as a roadmap for getting clients from here to there while allowing you to answer their core questions: “How am I doing?” and “What should I do next?”
On this Elementality, Abby welcomes David Hughes who explains how he uses the Elements One-Page Plan. For David, the One-Page Plan helps prospective clients visualize where they stand, and then allows him to illustrate what steps that client needs to take to stay on the path that leads to their future financial goals.
Podcast Transcript
David Hughes:
The high net worth individual, the 2.5 million that I was talking about, I mean he liked the wealth management proposal and the retirement income plan and all that, but he kept going back to the scorecard and talking about that in being able to monitor everything on a quarterly basis and having everything in one central hub for he and his family. I know I got that client because of Elements.
Jordan Haines:
Welcome to Elementality. Each episode, we will explore the challenges and the opportunities faced by financial advisors and how advisors can use Elements to grow their business and serve their clients better. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Abby Morton:
Welcome to Elementality, everyone. I’m your host today, Abby Morton, here with David Hughes out of Atlanta. Hi, David. How are you today?
David Hughes:
Hey, Abby, I’m great. Thanks for asking. How are you?
Abby Morton:
I’m doing great. I’m so excited to have you on the podcast today. David, actually, and I met when he came out to our last customer workshop back in June here in Salt Lake City, and we had a great time meeting together, getting to know each other. And I just love talking to David about how he’s using Elements and how he’s incorporating everything that he’s doing. So definitely wanted to bring him on to talk a little bit more about that. But let’s start high level, David, help our listeners know a little bit more about you. How’d you get into the industry? What’s been your journey like?
David Hughes:
I’ve been in the industry since 2007, so going on almost 20 years. It’s crazy to think. The first few years out of college, I was an employee benefit rep, and I just got tired of starting over every year, so I wanted to build something. And so in 2007, I made the jump. So currently, I’m with an RIA aggregator. A few years ago, we sold to Resurgent Advisors and it took the running of the business off of my plate. I don’t have to pay for paperclips and my assistant and all that good stuff, so it’s worked out really well. I get to be an advisor every day, I get to talk to prospects and clients, so it’s been good.
Abby Morton:
So that sounds like that’s what you’re doing then. Is Resurgent Advisors a larger firm? How many advisors are there?
David Hughes:
Yeah, so there’s a handful of firms. We’ve got some in North Carolina, Kentucky, us in Atlanta. And they’re in growth mode, so they’re out there looking for other RIAs that might wanna join a bigger organization.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Awesome. Well, that’s great. I like to ask all of our listeners… Or sorry, all of our guests, What are you most excited about right now in your business, building it out? Like what’s on top of mind for you?
David Hughes:
Well, with all the recent volatility in the market, talking to folks, they seem to be more open to getting a second opinion, of sharing their portfolios, for maybe a second pair of eyes, which I’m in the business of getting new clients, so that’s been a good positive over the last few months.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Well, great. And tell me, maybe on the opposite, what are you most concerned about right now?
David Hughes:
Oh, geez, good question. Well, are we gonna go into some big, massive recession and have to work with our clients on keeping them invested and not panicking and hitting the sell button? You gotta be right twice when you do that. You got to know when to get out and you got to know when to get back in. And I would like to avoid that situation if we could. And I would like to avoid that situation if we could.
Abby Morton:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So it sounds like a lot of maybe even new people that are coming to you, it’s really like investment-focused, stock market-focused. The volatility is like just really worrying everyone. And so it sounds like with your clients, that’s really where you’re focusing a lot of your time right now then?
David Hughes:
Yeah, I’m getting a lot of new people that are two to five years away from retirement. We gotta build a portfolio appropriately but knowing we’ve gotta turn income on for them in retirement and create a paycheck. So those are the… Been the two big drivers.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Awesome. And tell me a little bit about who you serve and how many clients are you working with?
David Hughes:
Sure. I’m right at about 50 clients. I’ve got a couple ultra high net worth, 10 million north, but not all my clients are like that. I wish they were. But I would say the average is late 50s, early 60s, with 1 to 3 million of investable assets.
Abby Morton:
Okay. And age ranges, you’d put them where?
David Hughes:
Yeah. Late. Like I said, late 50s, early 60s.
Abby Morton:
Okay, great.
David Hughes:
They know they’ve got retirement coming down the track. And so they’re wanting to position themselves in the best way possible to be able to retire…
Abby Morton:
Okay. Perfect.
David Hughes:
And turn on that income. They’re not gonna have paychecks, so they’re very interested in how they’re gonna replace their paycheck.
Abby Morton:
For sure. For sure. And do you feel like you have a unique value-add or unique way to pull those people in, and that’s why you’re attracting that type of clientele?
David Hughes:
Yeah, I think we have a solution that I use with a lot of my clients. From a wealth management perspective, the money manager we use does a tremendous job at making sure the portfolio is structured in a way that they can still grow over the next couple years, but they’re not gonna lose half of the account balance if we do go into a big market correction. And then we have a retirement income plan that we use with that money manager. And they do a great job. Great job.
Abby Morton:
Well, cool. Awesome. Love to hear that. So transitioning just a little bit, that background I think is just helpful for our listeners to have. Talk to me a little bit about how long you’ve been using Elements?
David Hughes:
How long have I been… A little over a year, I think. And not to be too salesy, but it’s awesome. I just love it. I love the one-page financial plan. I love the ease of getting clients onboarded, and having everything centrally located. It’s been very, very, very helpful.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Cool. I wanna talk to you and dive into that a little deeper, but let’s start back a little bit more at the beginning. Tell me the objective you were trying to solve. When you saw the ads and maybe saw the bright colors, what did you come to Elements hoping that we could do for you?
David Hughes:
Well, I had been getting really tired of trying to create my own one-page financial plan, and so I had implemented that a few years ago and was having to cut and paste. And it just didn’t look all that good. But I’m a big fan of the one-page financial plan. And then so when I saw you guys, it was just a natural fit for me.
Abby Morton:
Okay. All right. And talk to me, sounds then like that was what draw you, was the one-page plan. And so it was pretty easy jumping over in that, you plug your clients in, you can at the click of a button produce a one-page plan for all of them. Talk to me a little bit more about putting that information in and producing that one page. Like how does that go? Talk to me through your process of maybe even building a one-page plan for either a current client or a prospect? Like in what phase of your ongoing process or even onboarding do you start to incorporate that one-page plan?
David Hughes:
So I’ll have them download the Elements app after our first or second meeting, that they’re a good fit for us, I feel like I can help them, we’re still in the proposal stage, but I’ll send out the email link. And the majority of folks have been filling it out themselves, which takes so much off of my plate.
Abby Morton:
So let’s pause there just a little. I’d love to like dive into that a little deeper just to help understanding… You have a prospect then that comes to meet you and it sounds like you have one, maybe two meetings before you talk about Elements. Can you talk to me a little bit about what you’re doing in those first meetings and how you set up Elements? Because I think some people might say like, “I send them the link and they do nothing.” So what are you doing maybe that’s giving you this higher success rate?
David Hughes:
Sure. So in that first meeting, the” introduction meeting,” I call it, I’m trying to just to see if I’m a good fit for them, Are they a good fit for us? And it’s real high level. And I may mention, “Hey, we track your financial health,” but I don’t go into too much detail. And then we’ll schedule the second meeting to go over a wealth management proposal. And there I’ll bring up the Elements one-pager when I’m sharing my screen with folks and I’ll walk them through, “Hey, we’re gonna create your scorecard. We’re gonna be able to track your financial health, and this is gonna be the hub of our relationship.”
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Do you spend time explaining like that scorecard on that very initial meeting?
David Hughes:
It’s probably more the second meeting. In the first meeting, it’s more high level, and then the second meeting when we’re looking at investment proposals, that’s when I’ll bring up the one-page. You guys sent me the PDF that I use, and I just go through it.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Great. It sounds like it’s just like a sample client one-page plan then. So you’re just pulling up that sample one-page plan and like, “This is what I’ll do for you,” and, “Here’s how we’re billed.” Are you using like statement of financial purpose, and do you talk to your clients about that?
David Hughes:
I do. That’s a little bit more down the road, once they become a client. But I’m really trying to use Elements to get them thinking, “Hey, well, I wonder how long I have to make work optional. I wonder what my total term is, I wonder what my score is.” And we’re interested to see where they are.
Abby Morton:
Okay. So it sounds like maybe in that initial meeting, you’re showing them that total term score and what that really means, like this is when they make work optional. And so that’s creating that curiosity probably for the client and like, “Ooh, I wanna see what that is. And what does that really mean for my situation?” So then on the back of that meeting, you’re inviting them into the app. Sounds like they’re putting their information in. Okay, and then where do you… Let’s say like they obviously probably don’t populate everything. Right? I’m sure there are some elements… Do you find there’s often elements that are not populated and you work through that with them? How does that go for your process?
David Hughes:
Yeah. Typically, we’ll have to have a follow-up meeting and just go through their scorecard. And I get real clarification on everything that we’ve put in there and make sure it’s correct and in the right spot. And then once they say, “Hey, I wanna move forward, I’d love the investment proposal, I wanna work with you.” That’s when I’ll build out their one-page financial plan for them.
Abby Morton:
Is that the key thing at the beginning, is you have their information and you have this investment proposal of showing them, “This is how I would maybe change and modify your investments, this is what I would do to help get you ready?”
David Hughes:
Yep, 100%.
Abby Morton:
Okay.
David Hughes:
Yep. And then it’s just like, going back to what we just said, they want to know how many years can they make work optional? What is their total term? What are my numbers?
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Do you have an experience, maybe a specific story of a client that you’ve worked through, where you maybe showed them their Element scores and they’ve either been really happy or maybe a little bit more motivated than you previously have seen them?
David Hughes:
Sure. I’ve been working with a new prospect, kind of more of a high net worth case, about 2.5 million. And he had accounts all over the place. He had some with one advisor, he had some he managed, he had some that were just sitting there doing nothing. And going through the Elements process, he fell in love with having everything in one consolidated spot. And he said the other day on the phone, “God forbid something happened to me, my wife, all she has to do is just pull up the app, and it’s all right there for her.” And he had a great total term score, I mean he’s done well for himself. It gave him that peace of mind that, Yeah, he could probably retire in the next two years if he wanted to. Maybe tweak a few things between now and then, maybe increase their savings rate a little bit to make sure we really get him to the number that he’s most comfortable with. But then I’ve had clients where it shows that they’re not saving hardly anything and they have a low total term. And what are we gonna do to help put them in the best situation to eventually retire? And Elements, it illustrates it, highlights it, Hey, we’ve gotta increase the savings rate, we gotta add to your retirement accounts, maybe a brokerage account. And as we do that, you know that you’re gonna see these numbers going up and it’s gonna look better.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. And I think that’s oftentimes a hard story for an advisor to tell. Right? That you have someone who’s 55, maybe they’re even 60, and they’re coming into you. And when you look at the plan, you’re like, “Ugh.” Right? Like you’re a little worried maybe about like, “How is it really gonna work out?” How do you address that? Do you feel like… And do you feel like Elements has done anything to help you even address that? Maybe we haven’t solved that?
David Hughes:
Yeah, I think it illustrates exactly where they are and what their situation looks like. It’s always a difficult conversation to have, but at least I’m able to tell somebody, “Hey, you’re really not gonna be able to retire in a couple of years if you… ”
Abby Morton:
Have you said that?
David Hughes:
Oh yeah, absolutely. I think they wanna know. I’m not gonna sit there and lie to them to try to get them as a client. I mean I’ll tell them how it is. But then I’ll give them some solutions on what should they be doing to eventually be able to retire. I think people just wanna know.
Abby Morton:
And do you feel like… How do you feel like you’ve been able to do that with Elements, and you weren’t maybe able to do it before?
David Hughes:
Sure. I love the savings rate, it’s such a great element. And if you see people that maybe have a 5% savings rate, they’re just not gonna get where they ultimately want to go. And we’re able to have that conversation, “Hey, if you do wanna retire in X number of years with a X amount of income, we’ve gotta address the savings rate. We’ve got to increase this. Now, we don’t have to do it all in one day, it can be gradual, but this is one thing that we’re really gonna be focusing on.”
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Okay. Great. I love that. That’s really great to hear. Talk to me a little bit about other tools. It sounds like a lot of the people that you’re working with are really close to retirement or moving into retirement. Does it worry you or do you feel like you have clients coming in saying, “Where’s my projections?” And, “How far out can I see my money?” Like I think that’s a big concern for advisors. Right? How do I use Elements when it feels like it’s really built for accumulators? You’re right. There’re on that precipice of people who are ready for retirement, maybe even moving into retirement. Talk to me about how you’ve overcome that maybe objection?
David Hughes:
So one thing that we do in the wealth management proposal is we will show a retirement income plan and show money coming out of that portfolio every year, increasing with inflation. And then we’ll have a projection, Hey, you got $500,000 left when you’re 95 years old. So I really lean on that.
Abby Morton:
And do you do that for everybody then?
David Hughes:
Well, yeah. If they’re getting ready to retire in a couple years, they’re gonna want an idea of how much money they can pull off of their portfolio and not run out of money. We’re using a lot.
Abby Morton:
And what tool are you using to pull that from?
David Hughes:
It’s a money manager. I use Clark Capital out of Philadelphia a lot. And they do a great job for me and my clients.
Abby Morton:
Okay, great.
David Hughes:
But we have the scorecard to look at how long, how many years can they live what they currently have? So that starts the conversation. And then we get more detailed on the backend.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Great. That’s really helpful to hear. Talk to me a little bit more about like the other tools that you’re using. How are you finding these people that you’re bringing in? What are your marketing efforts there?
David Hughes:
So I started with a marketing firm about a quarter ago. And they’re doing a ton of social media advertising and getting target prospects into their process, answering questionnaires, and then ultimately, Hey, let’s schedule an appointment with David. And a lot of them have been, they’re worried about volatility in the market. They’re worried about consistent retirement income. And so it’s been a good fit. I’ve gotten a lot of potential clients, and hopefully close some of them real soon.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. And do you mind telling us who that is so other advisors can look into them?
David Hughes:
Sure. It’s called Agoura Growth. A-G-O-U-R-A. They got me ’cause they were advertising to financial advisors on Instagram. And I really liked how they did it and I was really impressed. And they’ve done a really good job for us.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Awesome.
David Hughes:
And I use Snappy Kraken for all my current clients. And nurturing the leads that we generate through Agoura. Been very happy with Snappy Kraken.
Abby Morton:
Awesome. Awesome. Well, that’s great. Talk to me a little bit more about your processes before you used Elements and now. You’ve been using Elements for a year. Like talk to me about having to change your processes to make Elements fit. Was that a big hurdle? How did you incorporate it into what you were doing?
David Hughes:
It actually streamlined everything for me because like I said, we were creating our own one-page financial plan, so we were pulling from various different software. And having to put it all together, and it was just time-consuming. And Elements really provided a great solution for us.
Abby Morton:
So it really… It sounds like then you didn’t really change too much. You really just plugged Elements in after the… You’re doing the meetings and everything in advance the same way you were before. It’s just now it’s like, Oh put your data into Elements. And they did. And then you use that to put in the one-page plan, like we talked about earlier. So it sounds like it just fit in, like you didn’t have to change too much?
David Hughes:
Right. It made my process smoother, less cumbersome. And I believe it’s helped me get new clients using the scorecard and monitoring their financial health. And I know it’s helped me get new clients, for sure.
Abby Morton:
Do you have maybe even a more specific experience than that of how you have won a new client?
David Hughes:
Well, like the one, the high net worth individual, the 2.5 million that I was talking about. He liked the wealth management proposal and the retirement income plan and all that, but he kept going back to the scorecard and talking about that and being able to monitor everything on a quarterly basis and having everything in one central hub for he and his family. I know I got that client because of Elements.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Well, and on that point then, it sounds like he went back to the scorecard a lot. I know a lot of people are hesitant with, It’s a new language, it’s all these new principles that I’m gonna have to spend a lot of time teaching my clients. Do you find yourself having to do a lot of education around each of the individual Elements and how they’re made up?
David Hughes:
It’s so intuitive. It’s really not that hard to describe to a new prospect or a new client what each element is and how it fits into their overall plan. It just makes sense. Most people immediately go, “Oh, yeah, okay, I understand that.”
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Well, great. Well, in closing, I’d love to ask everyone. Elements I think is kind of a mindset shift. Right? It’s definitely different than any other traditional planning software that’s out there in the sense that it’s reality based. It’s today. Right? There’s no projections, there’s no much forward-looking information really included into the app. And so I’d love to hear, Do you feel like you’ve had a mindset shift since coming over and engaging with Elements?
David Hughes:
Well, big reason I decided to work with Elements was I was just sick and tired of a 50-page financial plan that nobody ever looked at again and it just got stuck in the corner somewhere. And there wasn’t that day-to-day monitoring of the client’s financial health. It just really filled a void, I think. Because people want to know how they are today but they also are comforted knowing that, “Hey, we’re looking at this tool on a monthly, weekly basis to keep track of your financial health and to make sure you’re moving in the right direction.”
Abby Morton:
Yeah. I love that. Well, great. Any final thoughts for our listeners today?
David Hughes:
No, I just… Thanks for having me on and thank you, guys, for creating Elements, it’s been a huge tool in my practice. And I tell folks, “It’s the financial planning tool that I always wanted that was never out there.” So thank you, guys.
0:23:33.8 AM: Thank you. Thank you so much for your time, I always appreciate having you on. Have a good day.
David Hughes:
Sure. Thanks, Abby.
Abby Morton:
Next time on Elementality…
Jeff Morgan:
The more relevant you are to their life, to their problems and not just really generic… Like this is about specificity. Right? Like the more specific you are to the problem that that individual or that group of people have, the more effective the content will be because they’ll just be like, “Oh my gosh, this is just the thing that I’ve been wondering about.”
Abby Morton:
Right. Well, and anyone can stay high level and really broad and just speak to all Americans that have financial problems. Right? But very few people can speak to the unique challenges of an architect and the problems they’re gonna have in their business, whatever it may be. Which is why I like what you’re saying of like, The more specific you can be, the better.
Abby Morton:
To find out more about Elements, go to getelements.com/demo. Elementality’s executive producers are Reese Harper and Carl Richards. Elementality is produced by Tad Henderson and directed by Abby Morton. Have a good one.