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The growth of your business depends on the strength of your relationships with your clients and the trust and respect you earn as an advisor. Acting in the best interest of your client, listening to clients' needs and assessing the most prudent strategies to meet their financial objectives is not only your obligation as a fiduciary but also is critical in building your reputation and practice.
Indeed, your role as an RIA involves considering both sides of a client's balance sheet, assets as well as financing, with thoughtful attention to many moving parts including tax consequences, current risks and potential rewards while staying on track building and preserving wealth for your clients and their future.
Building your RIA practice today requires access to lending resources that can help clients reach their goals and set you apart in an increasingly competitive landscape. Finding sensible solutions to common problems concerning liquidity, debt consolidation, and flexible financing can fortify your position as a trusted advisor and lead to success not just for your current clients but also your practice in the form of potential new clients and referrals for a job well done.
Lending solutions can most appropriately and thoughtfully be considered when the advisor/client relationship includes a full understanding of the unique issues facing a current client or a potential client. For example, accessing competitive financing that allows a potential client to obtain loans to cover existing obligations and move assets under management to your practice can allow clients to "unstick" themselves from ineffective advisors and facilitate your practice expansion. Additionally, if an existing client anticipates a large capital expense, accessing credit for a short-term need is usually preferable to suffering potential capital gains and lost growth opportunity caused by liquidating assets. Advisors can work with clients and lenders to determine the loan type, a secured fixed-rate loan or a line of credit, to best fit the client's needs.
If your client's requirement for cash necessitates a frantic review of potential scenarios for gaining liquidity, it might signal you're not up to par with the competition. A strong awareness of the best available financing alternatives and gaining quick access to it are important parts of your repertoire as an advisor, especially as securities-based loans are becoming increasingly attractive for high-net worth clients and more available in the marketplace. To fulfill a client's long-term wealth building strategy an advisor must consider more than asset management; a wealth building strategy may require prudent debt as a tool for achieving a client's growth goals.
Bryan Loew is head of Wealth Lending Sales, TD Wealth.
