How are advisors using Elements with clients, and to grow their RIA? We decided to find out! Ben Stewart, of Stewart Wealth Management, shares with Abby the specific benefits he has seen from using Elements to grow his firm this past year.
For Ben’s clients, Elements helps them see the big picture of planning more completely. His clients better comprehend how their various assets link together to create net worth. For Ben, Elements gives him a better idea of where his clients put their money, particularly their liquid funds. That allows him to put those funds to work at better rates. Plus using Elements Ben can quickly assess and analyze a prospect’s financial status, allowing him to instantly demonstrate his value. But that’s not all. Hear about all of the benefits Ben has enjoyed on this Elementality.
Podcast Transcript
Ben Stewart:
There’s a lot of success stories where people that were probably updating their network on an annual basis and weren’t super detail-oriented with it really like having that updated sheet. And I think it’s really… A couple of good examples would be we had people doing refinances. And any time you can get a personal financial statement for your client with everything on it and they can hand that to their mortgage broker or financial institution whether we’re doing the refinance it’s just very helpful.
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. Today I’m your host Abby Morin here with Ben Stewart of Stewart Wealth Management. Welcome Ben.
Ben Stewart:
Thank you for having me Abby.
Abby Morton:
I’m so excited to have you on the show. I’ve heard from some coworkers that you’ve been a long-time Elements user and you’ve been happy about it. So I wanted to invite you onto the podcast today because more and more advisors are hearing about Elements and are wanting to know how real people real advisors in the industry today are using Elements. So we are coming to you today with an episode to talk about the nitty-gritty the specifics about Ben and how he is using it in his practice. But Ben before we get into that why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself and about your firm?
Ben Stewart:
Sure so I’m 23 years in the business. From 2000 through 2007 I was at Wachovia Securities. So I think in somewhere mid-April of 2007 I moved to my own firm Stewart Wealth Management with my wife and myself. And then we had someone jump on board that was working at Ameriprise. So it was kind of like two right out of the gates and then three of us. And since 2007 we’ve cleared through Charles Schwab and built an RIA practice with… I think we have about 360 million under management today at Schwab. And then we probably… We do a lot of private equity and private equity real estate. We probably have another 100 million in private deals. And right now we have two financial planners myself and then my wife and then another admin so… There’s five of us total.
Abby Morton:
Awesome. Well very cool. And tell me the clients that you mostly serve in your practice.
Ben Stewart:
Yeah. Interestingly enough if I broke down the demographics of my database I would say primarily over 60 I think when people get to a certain age and they start thinking about retirement they make that move and reach out to an advisor. We do have some that are under 50 years old but predominantly we’re probably… Two-thirds of our client base is over 60. So we serve a lot of baby boomers and then we have some that are not. And yeah and as far as the types of people obviously we really like to have accredited investors because where we differentiate our services I think is that we do offer… Besides our ETF models that we run we do offer… We dabble in equity private debt and private real estate investments for lower volatility and hopefully better returns than the public markets at times. So…
Abby Morton:
Yeah okay very interesting. Tell me about in your business what do you find yourself most excited about right now?
Ben Stewart:
Well if I thought about the opportunities in today’s market I’m excited for the fact that we actually get to have clients earn a decent rate of return for risk-free money. It hasn’t been like that for the last 12 years. And so making over 5% in the treasury bill it’s… A three month maturity is great. And that kind of leads me into my next… In the segment on how we utilize you guys which was we were able to use Elements to uncover big picture planning and realized we had a lot of clients sitting on five to 500,000 or a million bucks in banks. And when we realized that we can reach out to them and offer a yield it’s going to be way more competitive than their banks. It was a win for us and a win for them. So…
Abby Morton:
That’s interesting. Yeah. Can you talk through logistically just for those who are not familiar with Elements and don’t know how you can realize that? Can you explain that a little more tactically how you uncovered that?
Ben Stewart:
Yeah so Elements you can use it as a data aggregation program. And so for the clients that either A are taking the app and using it and they might have a Bank of America account or Wells Fargo account they might have in their checking or in their savings maximizer account whatever making 2% and we can then see and identify okay we can add some value and bring it into our portfolios. We might not make any money now we might just tell them we’re going to do some T-bills but eventually we might do something else. But we were able to use Elements and identify outside assets that were earning less money by using Elements app. So you just have to have the clients essentially load their information on or essentially give you that information that they have a lot of money sitting in banks or their checking account. So we were able to like identify a lot of assets that were held away.
Abby Morton:
So basically just by building out their net worth profile in Elements you were able to kind of understand where those assets were sitting in other places. How were you doing that previously if at all?
Ben Stewart:
A lot of manuals going back and forth with emails. So we have an assistant that sends out of all things before we were using Elements an Excel spreadsheet. And a lot of times… We do have a lot of clients that have investment properties. We would ask about how much debt you have on the properties. So usually every six months we would get some feedback of what’s this property worth what’s the amount of debt on this property and by the way how much do you have in your savings account? And normally it would be just enough for operations. But of course you never really know how much information you get from clients that way through email. But now it’s more rarely available to see on a daily basis when you log in to Elements and see it.
Abby Morton:
Yeah tracked and monitored and something you can see even I think the changes over time. To help understand that with you and with the client. Okay cool. Tell me this is a fun question about when you came to Elements what was originally the objective you came to solve? Like what problem were you trying to solve when you came to do a demo with Elements?
Ben Stewart:
Sure I think we got involved because I saw I think I follow Carl Richards on social media and I saw that this would be a way to streamline the process of having our assistant email and ask for information. And that’s how we were doing it which is very old school. And some of our clients are old school but I think when I saw how it works I thought I’d give it a shot. And I feel like it’s a very… I think it’s… I think the price and the value it brings is competitively priced in the marketplace for sure. So I didn’t feel like it was a lot out of pocket on a monthly basis. So I gave it a chance. And I felt like we really went next level with it when we had the… It was the Morningstar ByAllAccounts linked up to Schwab because we were using just for… I guess it was Plaid. But the Morningstar ByAllAccounts was getting the information for Schwab updated I think every few hours. So once we got that on board I felt like that was really a game changer for us.
Abby Morton:
Just for those who don’t understand what ByAllAccounts is it’s a Morningstar product that allows advisors to bring in all their custodied assets over to Elements in a more seamless way rather than each individual client having to link their own institutions which as we all know as advisors can take time and it’s a hassle and a headache for customers to connect all their accounts individually. It sounds like the objective then… That you were looking for of a data maintenance tool something to help understand where your client’s money was at. That was kind of the objective you were looking to solve. And I would say just based on our converse previously that’s kind of what we’ve been able to do as well for you.
Ben Stewart:
Absolutely. And it’s given my… Or I should say our assistant a lot of work every day right? I mean we’re keeping him busy. So that’s good.
Abby Morton:
She’s earning her keep right?
Ben Stewart:
It’s actually a he, but yeah he’s great. And every day we’re trying to get him to proactively email like seven or 10 clients with the one-page plan which I really like. And then a updated personal financial statement. And we do ask is there anything on here we don’t know about? And that could be a rental property or another held away account or a 401K plan that we can’t advise on or manage. And so I think we’re trying to get our database carved up into a group A and a group B. And so every month he’s basically doing a touch proactively. And as you know if clients are very in tune with the app then they can go see everything right there. I feel like probably one out of four or one out of five of our clients are really into the app and they’re into checking their network statement on a daily basis but four or five are not. And therefore our assistant is proactively downloading the data and emailing them and then just asking is there anything else that we can add or we should know about to the plan? So I think that’s…
Abby Morton:
Yeah tell… That’s actually where I wanted to go is how are your clients engaging with the app and putting in information and it sounds like a majority then likely are not. And as you mentioned earlier you’re targeting probably this more older demographic more of a retiree demographic. Tell me about that workflow and having your assistant put in all the data. Is it really tedious? Is it working? Talk to me about the specifics of that.
Ben Stewart:
Yeah I think for the workflow what we’ve done is I think we’ve created a group A and a group B. We think that most clients it’s going to take some time for them to trust an app and get involved. But if they’re not we could at least keep on sending out that information. And once they realize okay I’m either going to have to email them the information or I could get on the app and then log into their BFA account or their Wells account or whatever it is through the app. It’s going to be one or the other. We’re just being proactive with it. We feel like if you’re a proactive advisor you ask a lot of questions about where all their money is and how can we update the plan you’re going to get crickets from some people and some people are going to say yeah you know what? I do have two rental properties and here is the debt that I have on it and yeah please input this in Elements. I think this would be helpful. So yeah.
Abby Morton:
Do you have maybe a client story where maybe seeing some of the reports or one-page plans that you’ve sent. Has that been resonant at all with any of your end clients that you could speak to?
Ben Stewart:
I think for the most part you could say that there’s a lot of success stories where people that were probably updating their net worth on an annual basis and weren’t super detail-oriented with it really like having that updated sheet. And I think it’s really… A couple of good examples would be we had people doing refinances and anytime you can get a personal financial statement for your client with everything on it and they can hand that to their mortgage broker or financial institution whether we’re doing the refinance it’s just very helpful.
Abby Morton:
Yeah so you’ve used it in that capacity as well. They’ll just email you and say can I have this? And you send them that over and it’s done and easy. I love that.
Ben Stewart:
Yeah they know where all their assets are at. And that’s… So we think that that’s a real benefit to it as well. And then also advisors can use the branding. So I have… For Stewart Wealth Management we have a logo that is kind of green and gold with an SWM. It’s all in all of the documents that go out. So it’s pretty neat. Yeah we like it.
Abby Morton:
Okay cool. Tell me… Some advisors say well Elements doesn’t do everything I need. I still need to have my traditional planning tools to go run Monte Carlo simulations and I still need these other planning tools. So talk to me about how you’ve used Elements in conjunction with other planning tools and what role do you feel like Elements plays with other maybe even other pieces of traditional tech that an advisor would have?
Ben Stewart:
That’s a great question. I think for us there’s two different other planning tools we use. You just mentioned Monte Carlo and we do use that. So I think on the one-page plan it might just be we’re talking about the number of maybe the asset goal. And then of course when you get that asset goal we want to know how much percent is in tangible real estate, private equity, public equity, public debt, real estate and so forth. So I think that you do need to run a Monte Carlo simulation for some clients. Or if that’s too much for some then we use iRetire for BlackRock it’s a little three-page plan for someone that’s really basic. Maybe it’s five-page I don’t know. But yeah we use a Monte Carlo simulation which is probably too many pages and way over people’s head. But it gives them an idea of if there’s really good markets you’re going to pass down millions to your kids. And if there’s bad markets you’re going to die with zero. And I think that’s a proc that is making some headway out there in today’s day and age. So yeah it’s all good. But we use Monte Carlo for the most part with almost all of our clients. And I think the real basic ones that are out there they come with some of the ETF providers like the BlackRock is fine.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Okay. Very interesting. And has Elements… Do you feel like played nicely or worked well in conjunction with these other tools?
Ben Stewart:
Yes. I think it’s really good for like I said earlier getting a 30, 60, or 90-day touch that your assistant can really download and quickly send out. Right. I mean that’s it. I mean people want to know that you care about them and you’re paying attention. So if you ask how’s your summer going? Here’s the update. Is there anything that’s changed in your financial world that we should know about? Let us know. Call if you have any questions or if you’d like to set up a Zoom whatever meeting. It’s just a really easy tool to use.
Abby Morton:
Yeah Okay great. What about how if at all do you think your mindset has shifted since you’ve started engaging with Elements?
Ben Stewart:
Well I think it’s easier to build organic growth. So we probably have… I think it feels really good to get a new client and have a sales call and bring someone on board and that’s great. But I think that Elements is… And Elements is great by the way for prospecting too. That’s another thing. But I think it’s really important for if someone’s building organically. If you’ve already had a client and… I know there’s people out there that they might hire an advisor just to rollover 401k and see how you do. And they’re not really in the planning process, but then if you wanted to build the plan and have organic growth I think Elements is great for that.
Abby Morton:
Yeah absolutely.
Ben Stewart:
The organic growth mindset would be my answer for that.
Abby Morton:
Okay awesome. And you mentioned it’s great in kind of a prospecting growth lens as well. Can you talk to me a little bit more about that and what you mean in that aspect?
Ben Stewart:
Sure I think… I mean we had for several years we were using of all things SurveyMonkey and we were sending out a 10-question survey on if they were a good prospect right? It’s like how much do you have in your house? Equity how much liquid how much… Lots of questions and some people were like I don’t know how to answer this. So now we’re asking them to send us a network statement we’ll build you an Elements profile we’re going to give you an hour of our time and we’re going to see if we’re a good fit. So if I give them an hour of my time and I say well maybe you don’t have quite as much of manageable assets on what we’re looking for but you still have this… You still have your element’s profile and I can still keep an eye on what you’re doing. Then I can maybe reach out six 12 months later down the road and see how they’re doing or try to refer them to someone that can help them. But I think it’s really good to help someone one build a network statement if they don’t have one.
Abby Morton:
Right. And have you found that they will engage with you in building that network statement before they’re a client?
Ben Stewart:
I think for the most part if they’re looking for a planner then yes and if someone’s looking for alpha generation on money management then probably no. But not many people are doing that anymore everyone’s pretty familiar with how low cost ETFs perform. So yeah I feel like it’s… Yeah it’s a great tool for prospecting for sure.
Abby Morton:
And do you typically… In your lead funnel right now lead generation are you… How are you finding these prospects and then asking them to fill out that information? Like how are they coming to you typically?
Ben Stewart:
Yeah so I was blessed early on to have some good connections when I got my business going. And then I’ve done a work by referral process for a long time. If they’re referred in to us I feel like there’s a little bit more trust. I feel like we’re getting people to divulge that information or send us a network sheet. And tell them we’re not going to sell them anything out of the gates we’re just going to give you an hour of our time. This is what we would do if I was in your shoes. And if you want to work with us and we have similar philosophies then maybe this is a good fit. And if we’re not maybe we’re not. But yeah I feel like working by referral is a great way to build business. It just takes a long time. You have to have a lot of good clients that are willing to refer and then some clients that maybe have a little bit of influence on people.
0Abby Morton:
Yeah definitely.
Ben Stewart:
People will listen to what they have to say.
Abby Morton:
Yeah. Okay. Well great. Thank you so much. Any final thoughts to leave our listeners with?
Ben Stewart:
Well yeah I mean I would say that it’s worth trying to for us when we tried to opt the software we were trying to figure it all out. And now that it’s been one year we’ve had a lot of success with it. And I think it’s helped grow our business and I think it’s uncovered some assets we didn’t know about. And I feel like we’re getting better information for plans. So in my opinion for what you guys charge per month and what it delivers it’s definitely worth it. So I’d give it a shot.
Abby Morton:
Thank you. Thank you for that plug. So nice.
Ben Stewart:
I mean I don’t know if everyone that listens is on the fence. I’m sure half of the listeners probably already have it right? But if you’re on the fence I would say it’s worth a shot to.
Abby Morton:
Oh I love it that. I think that’s… One of the reasons we have a podcast is to hear people like you who’ve gone through the experience of using Elements and trying it in practice and hearing the good and even maybe some of the bad right? We’re a startup we’re brand new we’re just getting… We’re two years into our business plan and getting going. And so of course we’re not all going to be exactly where everyone wants us to be. So I think it’s just helpful to hear good stories of people using it and how it’s working for you. So I appreciate you being candid. Thank you so much. If people wanted to reach out and ask you any questions or follow you where would they potentially reach out to you?
Ben Stewart:
We’re Stewart Wealth Management. And yeah that’s pretty much it.
Abby Morton:
Perfect. Okay thank you so much Ben. I appreciate your time.
Ben Stewart:
All right Abby. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.
Abby Morton:
Next time on Elementality.
Matt Reiner:
If you find yourself in my opinion competing with Vanguard and these firms and clients are choosing them over you there’s something missing in the sales pitch because they are innovating which is hopefully gonna cause… And I think that that’s the value of them doing this is that they’re innovating and delivering more which should push us as RAs to do more faster and better and we have the resources now. The technology landscape is better than it’s ever been. The integration capabilities is better than it’s ever been. The new opportunities is better than it’s ever been. So you have the ability if you just move and take action.
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!