This is the fifth and final in a series of blog postings defining success for retirement plan advisors by Liz Davidson, who as president of Financial Finesse has a unique vision of who the most successful retirement plan advisors are, and what they have in common.–Ed.
In the first article of this series, The Successful Retirement Plan Advisor, Pt. 1: 3 Traits They Share, I identified key traits that successful advisors have in common. One of those traits was understanding the difference between expenses and investments, and committing to strategic investments that have the potential to take your firm to the next level.
Tom Royce and Mike Chong of Voyage Financial Group are a tremendous example of how effective this strategy can be. They took a big risk about a decade ago to take on the time and expense of cultivating a relationship with a Fortune 500 company, providing financial planning services to their mostly blue-collar employees—something most wealth managers would never even consider a viable strategy. Today, they have nearly 700 clients and manage more than $350 million using this difficult but highly effective model. No cold calls, no expensive direct mail materials and no expensive travel to networking events—just time spent working with middle-income earners at their workplace, for free, who could be potential clients and advocates for their services.
Today the firm is rapidly developing a name for itself among Fortune 1000 companies in the Chicagoland area—a highly sought-after alternative to the likes of Ameriprise and MetLife who prefer to focus their time and energy on the executive market—something that plan sponsors are increasingly concerned by, recognizing that middle-income employees so desperately need good financial advice in today's economy.
Voyage's Two Keys to Success
Here's what makes Voyage Financial Group so successful, and how advisors can apply a similar strategy to their own business to carve out a highly profitable niche for themselves, and ultimately build a highly respected brand within their area of expertise:
- Voyage very cleverly followed what renowned business gurus W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne call a "Blue Ocean strategy"—finding an area of opportunity that other advisors were ignoring instead of competing in the "red ocean" where everyone is fighting for business (and many wind up up being eaten alive).
