Michael Kitces: 8 Ways Planners Can Boost Efficiency, Income

Advisors looking to scale their businesses should follow a set of best practices that allow them to leverage their time so more time can be spent with clients and factor in the impact that specialization can have not only on advisor income but advisor work efficiency, according to Michael Kitces, head of planning strategy at Buckingham Wealth Management and chief financial planning nerd at Kitces.com. Just like accountants, doctors and lawyers, advisors who specialize tend to see higher incomes than those who are generalists, he said in the YCharts-sponsored webinar "Michael Kitces' Scaling Advice: From Financial Advisor to Financial Advicer" on Jan.19. "A lot of us have gotten pretty good at scaling how we manage the investment side of the business," he pointed out at the start of the webinar. Tech tools for portfolio management, trading and rebalancing, and investment research have helped advisors become more efficient investment managers, he noted. "But when you get down to the client relationships, the financial planning … that more and more firms are now bringing together with their investment management, we suddenly discover that the financial planning side of the business is not as scalable and a little more time and labor intensive," he said. Kitces went on to provide eight tips for advisors to provide planning services more efficiently — while increasing their income in the process.