Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor

Practice Management > Building Your Business

Signature Wealth CEO Embraces 'Opposite' of AI: Concierge Service

By Jane Wollman Rusoff

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Artificial intelligence is starting to boost the efficiency of many financial advisory practices. But the emerging technology has nothing to do with cultivating heartfelt relationships with clients.

That’s where concierge service can come in, Chip Munn, CEO of Signature Wealth, says in an interview with ThinkAdvisor.

The firm even has a concierge at the ready to serve clients virtually around the clock.

“Concierge service is a little counter-culture. … It’s just the opposite of artificial intelligence,” says Munn, a Raymond James independent. “You can’t automate it or reproduce it because it’s real, honest and human-centered.”

Munn, who with his longtime partner went independent in 2016, attributes Signature’s expansion from a three-person firm to a Southeast regional group — headquartered in Florence, South Carolina, Signature manages assets of about $2.6 billion — in no small part to concierge service.

The concierge handles tasks as varied as helping traveling clients out of big jams and accompanying widower clients to events after their spouse’s passing.

In the interview, Munn, a veteran advisor who was with Wells Fargo and its previous iterations for a number of years, notes that Signature’s clients “want to be able to live life today” rather than focus solely on retirement. 

Here are excerpts from our conversation: 

THINKADVISOR: Why is concierge service important for financial advisors to offer?

CHIP MUNN: It’s just the opposite of artificial intelligence. You can’t automate or reproduce it because it’s real, honest and human-centered.

Concierge service is a little counter-culture to the idea that everyone wants to be efficient and automated. 

Relationships aren’t efficient, and life is messy.

Tell me about your firm’s concierge service. 

About seven years ago we hired a woman who is literally our 24/7-available concierge-service person. If folks have a need at any time whatsoever, they call her. She can help marshal the resources of our entire network.

We want to be a trusted advisor, not just a trusted financial advisor. It’s about being accessible and available at a moment’s notice.

Why did you hire someone just for concierge work?

We call our concierge service “The Third Call.” We adopted [former Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz’s [goal] of making Starbucks [“The Third Place” after home and work]. 

We want to be that Third Call after the client’s spouse or either their parents or kids for whatever they need.

How do you go about doing that?

It comes down to being intimately involved in all the things our clients have going on in their lives and whether it’s about their kids, grandkids or pets.

We’ve found, particularly with our high-net-worth clients, that post-pandemic, what they really value are experiences and service-oriented things more than [many] material things.

We’ve worked really hard to optimize our services to meet the demands of the younger generation but to also continue to serve all of the family.

To what extent does your concierge service focus on retirement?

A lot of people, particularly the ones that we serve, aren’t only looking at retirement someday. They want to be able to live life today. 

Being able to help create some of those experiences is incredibly important.

What’s a big part of your concierge service?

Travel. We help clients who are out of the country and lose their passports to get all the documentation they need.

One client had all their belongings stolen from their car — documents, credit cards, clothing — while they were on vacation in the Caribbean.

We coordinated not only sending financial resources but the process of their going to the embassy and getting new documents issued. 

They were between hotels; so we coordinated with the next hotel to make sure their reservation stayed in place and the accommodations were paid for while they were working through everything.

Do you have any special services for clients’ children? 

We help, for example, meet the challenge of finding the right [school], facilitate introductions and help clients make their way through the process, which can require early connections. 

What’s another area of special care?

Helping with car purchases. We have a team member who used to be in the car industry, and my guess is that we’ve assisted with about a dozen car purchases in the last year. 

We help with the negotiations, whether the cars are new or antique. We even help our less tech-savvy clients customize the interior technology.

In a lot of cases, clients don’t have families who can do some of those things for them. What we do comes back to our service mentality and intentionality.

Do you ever become involved in clients’ health care?

Helping with that is a big component of our concierge service.

In one instance, a client called for assistance with a young athlete who needed an orthopedist following a medical issue he had at an athletic event. 

We reached out to our network and arranged for him to see a specialist.

What’s an example of concierge service that you offer older clients?

For folks that are homebound or have trouble with transportation, we pick up lunch for them and bring them birthday cards so they can send them to their kids or grandkids.

Are you ever called upon in situations of serious illness? 

Yes. In one instance, when a client’s parent needed hospice care, the family wanted them to have a specific end-of-life experience at a certain facility that delivered the kind of care they wanted. 

We were able to coordinate getting them into that facility.

How else do you provide clients with extras?

When there’s a death in the family, it’s a time when people have really leveraged us to help because they’re not in a [frame of mind] to handle some of [the many issues].

Our concierge has even attended events with widowers so that they don’t have to go by themselves after their wives passed away. 

It’s just a personal touch. A lot of things people need aren’t financial.

What about giving support to clients where their pets are concerned?

We do that, especially when they’ve lost a pet [through death]. We’ll mail them a small gift, and we’ve done artwork of their pet to memorialize and acknowledge that family connection. 

What role has concierge services played in your firm’s expansion to a regional wealth management group?

It absolutely has been a part of that expansion, and I think it will play a bigger part. 

A lot of it is in the cultivation of the relationships. I’m a big believer that anybody we touch should be treated with concierge-level service.

That means it’s become part of our culture. So we’ll continue to invest in things like our concierge and expand that program.

Jane Wollman Rusoff

@jrusoff2

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.