Category: The Future

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Fees are Going the Way of the Dinosaur: Extinct

Admit it, we all want to get something for nothing.  We live in a world where we shop at Target, scan an item and see if we can get it for less on Amazon.  We want to value going to the local, small business to purchase a toy for a birthday party, but the reality is we are frustrated that they need to charge $5 more because the mom and pop shop does not have the buying power that Target and Amazon do.  We hope that our clients value our advice, but the reality is they feel the same way that we do, they want to pay as little as possible.

In a low cost, high-value world, how can you compete?  Previously, you charged clients 1-2% to do asset allocation.  However, your clients are watching a football game and see you-know-who saying they have no fees and they also want you to have no fees to transfer their assets.  Your firm is never going to have the amount of assets under management that Vanguard, Fidelity, and the other guys with commercials during football games do.  So, if your clients are asking for low-cost investments, what is your next step?

My wife and I have been together for nearly 15 years, she has seen my business struggle and thrive.  She always says that things are best for my business when the economy is not great.  When the markets are up, clients happily go invest in these low-cost investments and their portfolios go up.  But, when the markets go down, they realize just how important our expertise is. 

So, you can’t compete with low-cost investments, especially when the market is thriving.  Nevertheless, you enjoy what you do and have great advice.  Yet, you need to pay your office staff, bills and eat!  Instead of charging fees to move assets or obtain new assets, it’s time to adopt a retainer-based model where you will charge clients an upfront fee (retainer) to give them advice.  Yes, they may in time move assets under your management, but for now, you will develop a plan for them and help guide them.

For more information about becoming a retainer-based financial advisor click here.

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How to Stop Giving Away Your Most Valuable Asset

As a financial advisor you know that clients come to you for a variety of reasons.  They may be getting close to retiring, have inherited some money, or perhaps they are finally making enough to think about being strategic with their investments.  They likely have something already in their portfolio, whether it’s a 401K from their job, life insurance, or something else.  But, they’ve decided to seek out a financial advisor.  What is the thing they want most?  ADVICE.  They want you to tell them if what they have is okay and what else they should be doing. 

Traditionally, in your role as a financial advisor, you have given them what they want and need most for free.  You offer them some suggestions and hope that they transfer their assets to your business.  You offer some investments that will pay you.  But, what if their money is fine where it is?  What if they really do not have enough liquid assets to make it worth your time to create a plan?  What if at the end of hours and hours of work, remodeling their franchise or adding to their business is the best investment they can make with their money? 

Retainer based advising is where you get paid to give advice.  Your most valuable asset is leveraged.  Because you are a good person, you probably have already been giving them honest advice, even when it does not pay your bills.  Instead of creating a plan and hoping that what your client needs is something you can make money off of, you charge a fee to create the plan.  You charge a fee for your clients to ask you questions.  Now your clients feel comfortable asking questions about all of their assets, not just the ones that are invested through your firm.

Professionals in other fields have been using a retainer-based model all along.  If you seek advice from a lawyer, doctor, or other types of consultant they likely will be willing to have a brief initial meeting with you, but then to get specific advice in their field they will expect to be paid upfront.  Think about it, when you visit your doctor for your annual exam, you first pay your co-pay (hopefully insurance covers the rest) and then you talk to them about any concerns, they evaluate your health through bloodwork and exams and then they point you into the direction you need to go.  Whether it’s medication, exercise or keep up the good work.  You would not go to your annual exam and withhold payment until your doctor has told you to go on blood pressure medication and then the doctor would be paid through the drug store where you pick up the medication! 

Retainer based financial advisors receive payment for their most valuable asset.  Instead of receiving payment based on what products they sell or how many assets are transferred, retainer-based financial advisors collect a fee and then create a plan for their clients.                          

Think about the clients in your practice.  Make a list of two to three clients that could benefit from your advice more than your products.  Think about what advice you can offer that does not benefit your bottom line. 

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Why Become a Retainer-Based Planning Advisor

Retainer-based Planning

You decided that this is the year to make changes to live your dreams. Now what? Most of us have been there. Retainer-based planning is the way to make it happen.

You meant well, you wanted to help people with their finances and maybe you worked for a “big firm” before you decided to go out on your own. But it’s lonely on your own. You have to think about and decide about EVERYTHING. From the basic stuff of logo’s and company name all the way to deciding if you lease or purchase your next piece of office equipment.

The truth is, you spend A LOT of time thinking and managing things that your clients don’t care about. You should be focusing on the outcomes that are important to the CLIENT. But no one said life was fair.

Independent financial advisors are up against it. Let me count the ways…

Ways independent financial advisors have it rough:

We want to be different; compliance wants to keep us in the box, under control. This limits our solutions, they like us to stick with “traditional planning” and normal investments and strategies. I.E. they want us to get in line and be like “everyone else.” Kinda hard to differentiate when we all look the same.

The more money a prospect has, the more likely they can’t “take a chance” on an independent firm or team. They have too much to lose. So they go with the “Insert local, old trust company here”. They know they probably should have more than traditional stocks/bonds (especially with the length of this stock market expansion). But they need to be “conservative” and usually pick the older firm with name recognition. Usually not you.

But there is hope!

So how do I create a profitable business that adds real value to my clients and if I’m being brutally honest, I don’t want to work too hard?

Common sense is not common practice.

Pretend you are a high net-worth prospect. What do you want? I think at a basic level you want advice to help make smart choices about money. You want someone whose answer is not tied to a commissioned product and you want to be able to leverage low-cost platforms but still have an advisor to talk to you. And if you (as the prospect) are also being brutally honest, you want value. You are willing to pay for it, but you want value. Save you time, give you more than the stocks/bonds you’ll get at the brand name trust company or low-cost fund company.

Retainer-based planning checks all of these boxes.

So we have the outcomes we are trying to accomplish. Add value to the client, have a profitable business, and work less.

Advice – A Game Changer

The game-changer is coming. What if there is a simple change in your practice and mindset that could do all three? Add value, make a profit, work less…..

Charge for what you give away now. If you make your practice a financial advising firm, not just wealth management or asset management, or financial planning type of firm.

Honestly, I did it, and I regret not doing it sooner. Although I think if I tried this any earlier I would have been stopped by many factors and this current time is perfect for this change.

Once you decided to be advice-driven you need to create a repeatable process to deliver the right advice to the right client at the right time. You create the process once and use it often. No more “one-offs” which never work. Retainer-based planning is scalable.

When is the last time you made an exception that actually worked out long term?

I had a client who wanted to choose what we put into his portfolio (this would never happen again). He wanted certain funds, and I went along. His portfolio didn’t do as well as the one I would have put him into and he fired us. He should have fired himself.

I digress, bottom line, the time is right for you to change your practice to an advice lead practice and really, truly help your clients.

I did and it has made all the difference…

Make sure to check our Youtube channel!


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When is the right time to switch to retainer-based planning?

When is the right time to switch to retainer-based planning?

When I started contemplating the idea of retainer-based planning, I had various thoughts and questions going through my mind.

When is the right time to switch to retainer-based planning?

How long will the transition period be?

When’s the best time to implement it? 

Am I ready? Is my team ready?

Ask the Team

I kept having these thoughts in the middle of a workday until I finally brought it to my team. It was important to hear their thoughts and even their concerns. After all, my idea would change everything.

I started seeing my ideas come to life and realized it isn’t as complicated as initially thought after having numerous discussions with my staff. I took my time making sure the process worked before I felt ready to introduce it to the world. Once we began building it out, the timing came naturally.

There is no one specific set time frame between deciding to be retainer-based and implementing it. You can’t rush the process. Otherwise, it won’t work. Ever.

So, when is the right time to switch to retainer-based planning? Whenever you want. Just don’t miss the boat.

Make sure to check our Youtube channel!

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Avengers & Financial Advisors

Avengers and Financial Advisors

It turns out that the Avengers and Financial Advisors have a lot in common. I will try not to spoil the movie, but you should have seen it by now.

An Ending Leads to a Beginning

The world is constantly evolving. Stories are ending and beginning in an infinite cycle. Many stories ended this year, like Game of Thrones, Kingdom Hearts, and Big Bang Theory.

Nevertheless, as one story ends, another begins. Some of the shows plan to launch spinoffs in the future. That makes fans like me happy.

Despite many stories coming to an end, there’s one that occurred in April that sent the world into an emotional state: Avengers Endgame.

Marvel is officially ending one saga and entering a brand new one. Switching from asset management to retainer-based planning is the same.

Avengers & Financial Advisors

In Endgame, we said goodbye to some of our favorite characters; we also said hello to new ones. The same thing goes for our practices. We say goodbye to old processes and say hello to new ones that will better benefit clients: retainer-based planning.

That’s why the Avengers and Financial Advisors have so much in common. We might end one thing, but it’s only so that we can go on to change the world in a different way.

You can still be a hero to your clients, even as their needs change.

The original story of asset management informs the new story with a stronger focus on planning. We transition clients, one by one, to a system that adds more value.

Although the end is daunting, it doesn’t have to be bad. Ending or changing a process is a natural occurrence and should be viewed as an opportunity. View it as something exciting that will allow you to focus on what you truly enjoy doing.

Just because something ends doesn’t mean the door is always closed. An end always leads to a beginning. The joy of the journey is discovering your new beginning. As Tony Stark says in Avengers: Endgame, “Part of the journey is the end”.

And remember, real superheroes are on retainer.

Make sure to check our Youtube channel!

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What if you don’t move to retainer-based financial advice?

What if I don't move to retainer-based advice?

I’ve been asked, “what if I don’t change?”

Well, that is an option.

Someone smarter than me once said, “The easy answer is rarely the right one and the right answer is rarely the easy one.”

I think the times are gone where being an advisor was about asset allocation and sales practices. We used to be the source of investment information, but Google makes that skill irrelevant.

We can add value to the client who is looking for advice. We can add value to the client who wants an allocation to alternatives but wants to keep the bulk of assets at a low-cost provider (or is stuck in a 401k, while they work). We can add value reviewing current and recommended insurance policies.

So if you keep your practice “as is”, that’s fine with me, but your clients may move to a firm like mine.

Feel free to share my contact info :-).

Make sure to check out our Youtube page!

About Mr. Retainer

Fred Hubler (Mr. Retainer) is an accomplished financial advisor with more than 25 years of success in financial services and technology. 

He founded Creative Capital Wealth Management Group and grew the firm to 11 states. The practice focuses on retainer-based wealth management. As Chief Wealth Strategist, Fred works with individuals and families to serve their financial needs and achieve their goals. 

Fred is an inspiring speaker with a deep knowledge of market leadership, business development, goal execution, and wealth management. 

He is an innovative leader with a keen eye for unique solutions and vast knowledge in alternative wealth creation strategies. He built a framework to allow third-party experts to collaborate with and assist his clients, a practice now spreading throughout the industry.  He is also a certified Behavioral Financial AdvisorTM (BFATM). 


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What the client gets out of Retainer based advice

What does a client get out of retainer-based planning?

Looking at the retainer-based planning “movement” from the clients’ perspectives, several advantages are apparent. First, most working individuals and business owners do not have significant investable assets outside of their 401k or business (respectively).

However, the value and choices wishing the 401k and around the business could benefit from an outside financial advisor. In addition, by not having revenue come from AUM, the client can get advise “where they are”.

My office is practically in Vanguard’s backyard and I will never be as big or cheap as them. So, with this model clients can keep their assets at Vanguard and we can provide advice on asset allocation and insurance; if they are accredited investors, we also provide access to alternative investments that they won’t get at a Vanguard.

One of our newest clients was a Director at a publicly-traded company. He had a $4M rollover and a small investment account with another advisor. This client didn’t feel like paying 1% on $4M (and I don’t blame him).

So, he hired us to provide retainer-based planning. We charged him $5K in the first year (a savings of $35K) and did more than simple asset allocation. He was exposed to alternative strategies that would complement the bulk of the $4M. We kept his assets at Fidelity and only moved the alternatives under our “umbrella”. The client saves significant fees, gets exposure to an asset class he was lacking, and gets additional services from our planning program. All for less than just the AUM fee he would have paid the “other guy”.

Win for all. Except for the guy who didn’t get the rollover business 🙂

Make sure to check our Youtube channel!

About Mr. Retainer

Fred Hubler (Mr. Retainer) is an accomplished financial advisor with more than 25 years of success in financial services and technology. 

He founded Creative Capital Wealth Management Group and grew the firm to 11 states. The practice focuses on retainer-based wealth management. As Chief Wealth Strategist, Fred works with individuals and families to serve their financial needs and achieve their goals. 

Fred is an inspiring speaker with a deep knowledge of market leadership, business development, goal execution, and wealth management. 

He is an innovative leader with a keen eye for unique solutions and vast knowledge in alternative wealth creation strategies. He built a framework to allow third-party experts to collaborate with and assist his clients, a practice now spreading throughout the industry.  He is also a certified Behavioral Financial AdvisorTM (BFATM). 

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Why retainer-based planning is the future

The future of financial advising

I enjoy taking time off to think. Usually, there is a cigar involved (don’t judge me). A few years ago I started “thinking”; I thought “what if I never left Unisys?” And now I was a highly paid executive with a fat juicy 401k.

I may not have a lot of investable assets to hire a fee-based planner, and I would not be attracted to a commission sales practice either.

So where would I go? Where do high net worth people with little investable assets go? And that is when I decided to change my practice and focus on retainer-based advice without the need for AUM or commissioned products needing to be purchased by the client.

I think other clients will have or have had this “aha” moment and as soon as they find out there is a way to get trusted advice, without having to pony over large sums of cash they probably don’t have or buy products they may not understand, they will take this option.

Every time.

Make sure to check our Youtube channel!

About Mr. Retainer

Fred Hubler (Mr. Retainer) is an accomplished financial advisor with more than 25 years of success in financial services and technology. 

He founded Creative Capital Wealth Management Group and grew the firm to 11 states. The practice focuses on retainer-based wealth management. As Chief Wealth Strategist, Fred works with individuals and families to serve their financial needs and achieve their goals. 

Fred is an inspiring speaker with a deep knowledge of market leadership, business development, goal execution, and wealth management. 

He is an innovative leader with a keen eye for unique solutions and vast knowledge in alternative wealth creation strategies. He built a framework to allow third-party experts to collaborate with and assist his clients, a practice now spreading throughout the industry.  He is also a certified Behavioral Financial AdvisorTM (BFATM).