Managing wealth has often been compared to managing health. For physical health, blood tests, BMI, heart rate all help tell a story about your wellness. With each test, your doctor notes what numbers are outside of the accepted range. You have an honest conversation about priorities, share personal information, and come up with a course of action to reach your health goals. It all starts with numbers … as does diagnosing a client’s financial health.
On this Elementality, Abby welcomes Billy Zerillo, of TerraWealth, who explains how Elements lets him see finances more like a doctor who is trying to discover what is needed to solve a health problem. Find out how Elements can help you as a diagnostics and monitoring tool for checking financial wellness.
Podcast Transcript
Billy Zerillo:
You know, as well as I do. Being in this industry, there’s a lot [laughter], lot of jargon, right?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
And there’s a lot of information that can be housed inside a financial plan. And a lot of that information from what… When I was talking to clients, either they really probably didn’t really care [laughter] about the information I was going over.
Abby Morton:
Totally.
Billy Zerillo:
Like, in detail, They’re like, “Oh am I?” Like it was really came down to the question like, Am I okay? And what that’s one of the questions that Elements helps us answer.
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 the elementality podcast today everyone I’m your host, Abby Morton here with Billy Zerillo from TerraWealth. Welcome, Billy.
Billy Zerillo:
Hey, thanks for having me.
Abby Morton:
I’m so excited to have you on today. Billy is one of our probably newer customers. He’s been around I’d say I guess for six months now is that right, Billy?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, I would say yes. About a good six months now.
Abby Morton:
A good six months. So Billy I would like to just start with all of our guests with having everyone tell us a little bit about you and your firm and tell us, get us familiar with who you are.
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah so like you said my name is Billy Zerillo I’m based out of Pennsylvania. So Lancaster Pennsylvania if anybody knows where Lancaster is, it’s in the middle of Amish country, so a lot of buggies and horses and all that good stuff. So good times but yeah, I’m with a firm called TerraWealth and I’ve been with them for about going on about a year and a half so some change there. And a little bit about our firm to kind of give you a context is we’re a hybrid firm right? So we have both the broker dealer and the RIA side of things. But what I’m really excited about our firm in particular is it gives the advisor really a lot of freedom to work with the clients that we want to and that’s what really got me interested in working with them but also it led me to Elements and working with Elements to service those clients. And so but yeah I absolutely love what I do I’ve been doing it in totality probably about five years now. And I always just wanted to work in an industry where I can make an impact on people. And coming from the world of hospitality is, that’s where I came from. You know, I didn’t have a background necessarily in finance but I always loved helping people, talking to people learning about their stories and financial advising is a lot of that. And so…
Abby Morton:
Definitely.
Billy Zerillo:
It’s learning a lot about people and what they want. And so I kinda fell into the world of finance and like I said I’ve been doing it five years and loved every second of it so far.
Abby Morton:
That’s awesome. So tell me, right now at TerraWealth and like you said one of the things that drew you there is you can kind of serve anyone that you want. What are you most excited about? And coming into working and being somewhat new still with TerraWealth what most excites you right now with what you’re doing?
Billy Zerillo:
I think especially, I think what excites me is that they really allow us to be us and inside brand ourselves within a company rather than just being like, Hey I work for this company and I have to follow all their marketing and stuff like that. Like it’s less about the advisor and it needs to be more about the advisor because ultimately it doesn’t matter what company you work with people want to work with people that they know they can trust. And so the ability to have that or to really to have that ability to really kind of build something of my own and have people see me it was really something that excited me.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Okay. And how have you been able to do that? It sounds like you’re under the TerraWealth kind of umbrella but you’re still able to be unique to you. It sounds like you can build something unique to you but another TerraWealth Advisor is building something unique to him is that accurate there?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, so like going like down to like niche markets like really specializing in an area where instead of just being like a generalist right? Like Hey I just work with anybody that wants financial advising. Like really being able to be like Hey, I work with this set of group of people because I’m passionate about that set of group of people that’s one of the ways that they help us be our own self if that’s the right way to say it.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Very interesting. So what are maybe some challenges or something that’s concerning you about right now that you’re working on in your practice?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, so one of the big things in a lot of, there’s a group of us within Terra that kinda think this way. And it’s not something that’s a Terra problem or anything like that but it’s just like an industry problem that I’ve seen and so much of the industry of what I see it’s really product driven. And maybe it’s not so much getting to understand what the actual client is needing and actually just listening, right? For me, like when I sit down with a client, like my goal is to do like 10% of the talking, right? Like, I don’t, I want them to talk the majority of the time. And from what I’ve seen and what I’ve interacted with clients that have had advisors before me, it just seems like, hey, it was just like another meeting. Here’s another product for you hopefully this helps. And I’ll see you in three months, six months, a year or whatever, whatever the breakdown would be. But so that was one of the things that concerned me and really, like going into Terra and using Elements has really shifted that mentality for me.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Yeah, tell me more about that.
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah. Yeah. So like for me sitting down with a client like the, like, I want to understand what’s important to them and really dive into that because I think of, especially like when I’m using Elements, like my wife is a nurse, and so I think very… There’s a lot of medical stuff that I know, unfortunately, just from being with her for so long now.
[laughter]
Abby Morton:
Unfortunately, or fortunately.
Billy Zerillo:
There’s certain things that you’re just like, Ah, probably don’t wanna know about that certain procedure or something like that. Right?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
You just learn because she is learning about a new procedure or something along those lines, right?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
And so, like, for me, like, I always felt it just weird to be like, Hey, like walking into a meeting, this is what you need, right? I’m gonna put in place and then I’ll see you later. Like for me, like it’s about like, like a doctor, right? Like walking into a doctor’s office, the first question, the first thing they don’t say is like, Hey, you need to go get a CAT scan. Right? Like, they didn’t even talk to you yet. Right?
Abby Morton:
Right.
Billy Zerillo:
And so for me, like shifting my mindset from, Hey, what could, what does this, like what do I think this person needs versus what does this person actually need? Because I think we all go into those meetings where like, oh, you know, this person’s this age, they probably need X, Y, Z, right? I’m, this is how I’m gonna do all this stuff. Instead of just saying, Hey, like, what does this client actually need? And I can give you an example if you want.
Abby Morton:
No. I was just gonna say like, tell, like, help explain that. Let’s, if you can talk me through an example, I think it will help demonstrate your point a little further.
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah. So for instance, I sat down with a person, right? And one of the things that they were stressing to me was like, you know, I asked ’em, I said, what is important to you to accomplish in the next three years? And they said, I wanna be out of the student loan debt. Right? That was their… That was the thing that kept them up at night. That, and she, that’s what she specifically said. She said, Hey, this thing keeps me up at night, right? Just thinking about it, it’s a big monkey on my back, right? I just need to get this off. And like, they had an advisor and she told that to the advisor that she was working with, and they ended up selling them a product that they really didn’t need that was super expensive. And I was like.
Abby Morton:
And that product was supposed to help them. Did that product supposedly help them get rid of that student loan debt?
Billy Zerillo:
Not, not, no, not at all.
Abby Morton:
It wasn’t even doing that. It wasn’t accomplishing what she wanted to get done.
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah. So she kept questioning, why is she in this? Why is she in this? And finally with meeting with me, it’s like, hey, we could, you know, cancel this product and we can put that savings or that, that reoccurring bill towards your debt. Adding an extra $350 a month towards your debt is gonna help you knock that debt down a lot sooner.
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
And once I said that to her, it was just kind of a sigh of relief. Like, hey, someone actually listened to what I was saying.
Abby Morton:
Right.
Billy Zerillo:
What was important to me. And so for me that’s kind of what I was alluding to.
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
Like actually sitting down and listening to somebody.
Abby Morton:
I like that. I wanna draw back to something you said earlier. You said another reason you came to TerraWealth and something you said as well as like you’re liking Elements is like you’re serving people that you’ve wanted to serve. How do you, how, like what does that mean? And how are you doing that today? And you said you’ve been in the industry for five years and you were not able to previously. Can you further talk about that?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, for me, that’s a really great, great question. And for me, I wanted to help people beyond just investments.
Abby Morton:
Okay.
Billy Zerillo:
Like, I didn’t wanna just be another account manager. Like, Hey, you have a bunch of accounts with me. We talk about those quarterly, And maybe I give you some advice on them and stuff like that. But where my mind has shifted and where Elements has really helped in that aspect is being able to talk about like financial health. Like it’s great that yeah, you have these accounts and you’re growing for the future, but what about like the three feet in front of your face. Like the real issues that you have now, like the debt. And, you know, do you feel like you’re living paycheck to paycheck. Those types of things are the questions that people have financially speaking like that are important to them right now.
Billy Zerillo:
And previous, I wasn’t able to really help with that, especially really quickly, especially like with Elements. Like I could assess somebody’s financial situation in five minutes. Like I could be able to break it down, give you some advice that you could take action on today that is unrelated to like a projection of 30 years down the road, right?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
It’s especially my target market who are millennials like 30, 35 years down the road, like, that’s great to plan for, but like, what am I doing for my one year plan? What am I doing for my three year plan? Those are the things I think I heard somebody say one time like, you know, nobody wakes up wanting a 60 page financial plan. They have a financial question that they wake up with that they need a financial answer to.
Abby Morton:
Yeah, totally. I mean, that’s something we’ve been preaching over and over again. Like, people don’t wake up with wanting Monte Carlo projections and a financial plan. You know, they want an answer to a financial question. They wanna know if they should pay off their student loan debt or finance their car or refinance their mortgage. And it sounds like that’s exactly what you’re helping your clients do today, those millennials. You’re helping them know can I take a sabbatical for three months and go travel Europe or what should I… How should I make these decisions that are affecting me today? So I think that’s awesome to hear that you are being able to live the life that you want to live and be the financial planner that you want to live and help the clients live also the lives that they wanna live. And I think that’s really awesome to hear that like, not only are you living your best life, but you’re helping your clients live your best life.
Billy Zerillo:
100%
Abby Morton:
I think that’s awesome. So we invited Billy on today to talk about Elements and how it’s really helping him and this is a different episode than we’ve had other people on because we’re hearing from so many advisors saying, we don’t understand how people are using Elements and we don’t understand like how it’s working and how are people using it with other tools.
Abby Morton:
And so we’re starting to invite customers on to talk about that. And Billy’s one of the first that we’re having on, and so I just wanted to put a little plug, that’s why Billy is here, is to talk about like how he’s using it and how it’s working. So he’s not here to like come and have his sales pitch, but it’s to provide an insight into what people are doing with Elements, how they’re using it, how it’s resonating, and to ask those types of questions. So moving on to maybe a more targeted question for you Billy, describe some of the objectives that you were trying to solve when you became an Elements customer and how has Elements helped you meet those objectives?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, that’s a really awesome question, and one of the main things I can think about is it just makes… When I first saw Elements it was just easy to understand, It was instantaneous. I knew what debt rate was, I knew what savings rate was. Like you just know, and you know that those numbers need to be in a certain area to be healthy. And being able to articulate that to a client or even a potential client was really profound for me because we… You know, as well as I do. Being in this industry, there’s a lot [laughter], lot of jargon, right?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
And there’s a lot of information that can be housed inside a financial plan. And a lot of that information from what… When I was talking to clients, either they really probably didn’t really care [laughter] about the information I was going over.
Abby Morton:
Totally.
Billy Zerillo:
Like, in detail, They’re like, “Oh am I?” Like it was really came down to the question like, Am I okay? And what that’s one of the questions that Elements helps us answer, but getting back to it, being able to sit down with a client and articulate where they’re at and what we need to do to correct those numbers. They instantly get it. They’re like, I’m like, Hey, your savings rate is at 10%. I’d really like to see by the end of the year to get us to get to 15%. Because healthy is probably 20, but I don’t expect you to jump all the way to 20% tomorrow, but like 5% we can definitely do. And so being able to articulate that to a client, they instantly understand, Hey, I need to get to 5% by the end of the year. That’s a good obtainable goal. But if I’m like sitting there saying, “Hey, you need to save like X amount of dollars for this amount of years,” they’re probably gonna tune that out. They’re gonna be like that. “That seems like a lot.” So…
Abby Morton:
Have you seen that with your clients, like having these numbers now compared to before when you’re like, “Oh, you just save forever and ever and ever.” Like has it, has that message with them resonated? Do you have an example of that?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, so it has, like for instance I had a client who’s probably saving like, probably like 7% of their income, It was like a little bit into emergency fund, right? A little bit into their 401k. And you know, I said, Hey, you know, and their, their budget’s a little bit tight. And we knew because some of the… Especially how wisely we spend our income the Elements that make up that we know their income should equal up to 100%. And it was a little bit below that and I said, “Hey, we both can agree that probably some of your income is not going the place where you want to, so why don’t we increase your savings rate?” And you know, like 3%, like, let’s just get it to 10, right? And they were like, “Hey, I can make that happen.” And it was really interesting ’cause we just had quarterly reviews come out through Elements. Or midyear reviews. And so they were so excited because they’re like, Hey, I’ve been saving 10% of my income. Like I think we can move up, Like they said…
Abby Morton:
Oh, wow.
Billy Zerillo:
That to me before I could even… Like I was gonna tell them, “Hey, you know, we’ve been saving 10 let’s go ahead and move.” They’re like “Hey, I think I give you 12 or 13 Now”
Abby Morton:
They’re like motivated. They’re like…
Billy Zerillo:
Yes.
Abby Morton:
They’re proud. They moved up to 10 and it was like working and they even wanted to go up more. Like.
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah. So it makes it, you know, seeing those numbers go up for them in real time. I think that’s really important to see that, those, and how those numbers change, I don’t wanna call it like a game, but it almost gamifies it. Like of saying like, “Hey I have a high score of 10, I need to get to 13” [laughter] And so they get excited about it and then I get excited and then they’re more in, more in tune I guess to really go to the next level.
Abby Morton:
No, that’s awesome. I love that example. I think this is a question that all advisors want to know. So what other tools do you feel like you need to use in conjunction with Elements? What tools do you use together with it?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, that’s a really good question. I wanna say this especially about Elements is it’s not for me like a a planning tool. ‘Cause there’s definite things that we need to plan out. That maybe more robust planning needs for me, like Elements is really that like a diagnostic tool and monitoring tool that tells me whether or not I need deeper testing. Just like if you went to your doctor. Like if your heart rate’s outta whack, the doctor’s gonna send you to a cardiologist, and they’re gonna do even more in depth testing. So it really opens that up. So if I see like that they need more testing and I need to take them to the planning software, like the more in depth Monte Carlo simulations. So we use Orion for our planning. I’ll take ’em to that step, but I don’t want to…
Abby Morton:
So that’s what Elements really helped me fill is that I was just taking everybody to the planning step. Right.
Billy Zerillo:
Okay.
Abby Morton:
Because that’s just natural. That’s the only thing that we had. Right. And maybe there’s some people that, that step’s not really needed right now. Right.
Abby Morton:
Okay.
Billy Zerillo:
Than more in-depth stuff.
Abby Morton:
So can you say 100% of your clients are on Elements? And what percentage of your clients do you feel like you need to take over to Orion?
Billy Zerillo:
100%. Every client that comes through the door in, you know, goes through the Elements process.
Abby Morton:
Okay.
Billy Zerillo:
Now whether they are an active, like, you know, they’re checking as well as I’m checking, like, you know, not everybody’s super, super active in their checking, but this is how I tell them, Hey, this is how I’m gonna see what’s going on underneath the hood, right?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
This is how we’re gonna get a baseline health score for you. And then the, probably the percentage. So if I have 100% going through, I would say probably like 50% make it to the actual planning software where their situation’s complicated enough where we need to involve some of that, some of that stuff.
Abby Morton:
Okay. And how do you feel like the process is moving people? ’cause there’s really no integrations yet. Unfortunately, Elements is still in its early stages. We’re working on integrations and we love to have that one day. The more advisors that ask for integrations, the more, you know, we can work on that. But talk me through the process of moving data or how do you, maybe that’s a better questions. How do you move data and information from the Elements to Orion? Are clients entering data in both softwares? You know, how do you handle that?
Billy Zerillo:
So mainly I use Elements as that data gathering, right? And so I, or you know, some, you know, somebody in the office, you know, an admin or something like that will enter in data, move data over into Orion. But right now that’s how I’m doing it. I’m using, especially because I’m using Elements as, you know, not only, diagnosis and a monitoring tool, but it’s also a marketing tool as well in my eyes, to get people, new people in.
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
But essentially they, you know, somebody comes in, we have a meeting, they enter in all their information into, into Elements, helps us get it all organized, and then I move…
Abby Morton:
Yeah. So from Prospect.
Billy Zerillo:
Yes.
Abby Morton:
From Prospect they’re starting with Elements from the very beginning stages. They do everything in Elements. Okay. Have a meeting with you, come on board. Okay.
Billy Zerillo:
And then based off their situation, if they need that more robust planning, I move that data over into Orion, which doesn’t take a lot of time honestly to do that. But, but like I said, you know, it just depends on that, that certain client and what type of planning they need.
Abby Morton:
Okay. So let me play like devil’s advocate. You know, you’ve kind of added that extra step in there, right? Like you’re now having someone on your team or you yourself is taking the data out of Elements and moving it to Orion. Why, like, why pay for Elements? Like why is it worth that extra added step in there, whereas before you didn’t, right? You probably just had your clients and put everything into Orion.
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah. The reason to pay for Elements in my eyes is because of simplicity. And for me, the simpler, the better for the client, right? Some of those planning software can be very robust and hard for the client to just understand. And I feel like the process of uploading data into Elements is a lot easier, for them. And so, it’s just easier for me to do it that way.
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
So, and like I said, it’s just easier for the client to understand and to do. And anything that’s easy for them makes the process way, way better, in my mind. So I for right now will continue that added extra step as long as the client is entering in their information, which for me, you know, really hasn’t been an issue.
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
So. Yeah.
Abby Morton:
Okay. Awesome. Is there any other like tools or features in Elements that you like or that maybe even your clients like and that you utilize that has made your processes as an advisor easier?
Billy Zerillo:
Oh, 100%. The Progress Reports, is such an amazing tool that I think, I don’t know, you know, you probably know this better than I do, but you know, I think it’s an underutilized tool inside the, so the messaging inside the app has been really, great because instead of downloading a report and sending an email to them of just their progress, especially like on a specific element, you know?
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
Like, has been really awesome because people, you know, will respond back. And that’s really what I want is to let them know, A, that I’m monitoring their situation, but B, that I’m giving them practical steps to take in correcting or monitoring that specific element. So the progress reports have been amazing, just being able to click, you know, the Add progress report or add debt report or whatever it might be, and just send that off to the client, you know, under a couple of minutes.
Abby Morton:
Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
Is really, really awesome tool.
Abby Morton:
Awesome. Well, great. Okay. So last question kind of in closing. How if at all, has your mindset shifted since you started engaging with Elements?
Billy Zerillo:
I’ll give you an example, right. And I might be dating myself here, but, [laughter], but, ’cause I’m 36.
Abby Morton:
You’re a Millennial. I was gonna say, you can’t say you’re dating yourself when you’re 36.
Billy Zerillo:
I can, because now the Gen Z, believe it or not, the Gen Zers and all those younger generations are coming after us. So, but anyways, there was a movie, you probably, you know, this movie, it’s The Matrix, right?
Abby Morton:
Yes, yes.
Billy Zerillo:
And the best way to describe how my mindset has changed since using Elements was like the moment where Neo has to choose between the Red pill and the blue pill [laughter]
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Yeah.
Billy Zerillo:
You Know?
Abby Morton:
Okay.
Billy Zerillo:
And it’s like, because you’ve seen the world in a different view that you can’t go back to the way that you were thinking about what you used to do. And so to elaborate on that, it’s completely changed the way I do what I do financial planning. It really has, just going from the first initial meetings to my vocabulary, how I talk about planning, you know, just out and about like marketing myself, yeah, just going more purpose driven for that client rather than like, Hey, here’s a plan, right? And hopefully it works for you if it doesn’t, you know. Oh, oh well. But, but really it’s changed just the complete dynamic in my head of how I think about helping people.
Abby Morton:
I love that. That’s so great. I’m like, I don’t think we’ve heard Elements yet compared to the Matrix, so this might have to go on record as something [laughter] very, very awesome that we’ve been compared to, so that’s great. Any final words for our listeners? Any last thoughts that you have for them?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, you know, one thing I would, I would say is, you know, if you’re on the fence, not to be a sales pitch, right? But if you’re on the fence about using Elements, try it out. I really truly believe that this is where the industry is going. It’s going this way, this type of advice. It’s not gonna be, you know, the ways of old, people want answers to their financial questions. And being able to do it in a effective way, a fast way an efficient way, I think is, it’s just the way the industry is leading to. So having a tool like that really makes it, easier to do.
Abby Morton:
Awesome. Awesome. Great. Well, if you don’t mind, and if people wanna reach out to you with any questions, where can they find you?
Billy Zerillo:
Yeah, so you can find me at, on Instagram as the Money Talk Advisor. I also have a podcast you can you message us at on Facebook called The Millennial. Again, going off the millennial theme. But then if you wanna email me, you can just email me at billy@terrawealth.com.
Abby Morton:
Awesome. All right, well thank you so much, Billy. Always a joy to talk to you. We appreciate your time with us and, we’ll catch you next time. Thanks everyone for catching us on the Elementality Podcast.
Billy Zerillo:
Thanks guys.