RJFS Hosts Confab; Showcases Growth

"As baby boomers retire and become responsible for creating income, we have to have the tools and mechanisms that can make that easy and compatible with our other forms of service," he shares. "These accounts are for retirees to use as their income gets distributed, and this entails services like bill paying. We want to make their financial lives as convenient to manage as possible. And our advice, the focal point of that advice, should be on core capital — on creating income and making it last, rather than the logistics affecting that capital."

While some advisors might see this work as similar to that of a bank, that's no longer the case, Helck says. "Things have changed, and we need to be responsible for helping clients with the entire set of variables, including cash management services and accounts."

Beyond accounts, Raymond James is focused on "recalibrating the way our entire back office is structured to focus on relationships," according to Helck. While computer systems are account-centric, FAs "know clients as relationships, and we need systems like this, which are centered on customers. We are really focused on doing this. Not just IT — it's a strategy for the whole business and will require that we re-design everything we do."

Helck acknowledges that entering "the new world of relationship management" won't be easy. "But we have to position FAs to deal with a client in ways that best make sense for them," he explains.

A key component of this transition, the database, is being rolled out in early 2008. "We're building this in layers," says Helck. "And you can't buy this at CompUSA," he quips.

In addition, a new website for investors is being introduced, and relationship management will be embedded in it. This is meant to help clients by allowing Raymond James to better understand their preferences as to account paperwork, reports, statements and mailings.

Plus, Raymond James is working to align its support systems so FAs are better able to conduct business with clients from a "needs-based point of view," says Helck. "Now we are crafting solutions for certain client objectives … so FAs don't have to work from scratch every time and, say, go to five Raymond James experts when they're putting together a high-net-worth proposal.

A greater variety of retirement solutions will be coming out, he says, that build on what Raymond James has done in the HNW area. "We're talking about much more than portfolio management. This works across products, services, accounts and diversification. It's about everything, including non-investment type issues, such as gifting and creating a legacy."

"We are organizing the company to really work with FAs in a much more effective way," Helck concludes.

While some of these developments will take a top-down approach, there's a lot going on from the bottom up, such as the Practice Intelligence website and resource center for FAs. "We're also sharing best practices around the advisor business. It's about having discipline that can replace emotion. That's what money managers are all about," explains Helck.

"An extension of that is that we are striving to automate this as much as we can, so FAs can be consistent with clients over time without having to hire a lot of staff and can let the systems do much of the work."

This process includes customer-relationship management platforms and functions, he says, and represents a "major commitment" on the part of Raymond James. "There will be more and more automation going forward," says Helck. "We're talking about being more reliably, dependably and consistently process-driven, like you see in all successful industries."

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Janet Levaux is the managing editor of Research; reach her at [email protected].