Cross referrals among locally “Rated” advisors

It seems that most advisors continually look for the tools which will help them market their services better to both clients and other advisors.

The yellow pages are fading and this has become a confusing time when it comes to marketing to the general public and to other advisors. The question that confronts most advisors is where do they allocate their advertising dollars?  Bigger yellow pages ads, ads in newspaper or professional journals, and then the big question, how to and if you should market on the internet (see the web-page on the APS™ e-mail system and templated website).

As stated on the previous page, many advisors join the local Chamber of Commerce or the Lion’s club or other local clubs in order to meet other professionals who could potentially refer clients.  Most of the time this fails because everyone wants to receive the referral and no one wants to give the referral.  Why is that?  It depends on who you ask, but the classic answer is that you don’t know the other advisors well enough to refer one of your good clients. Why? Because if the referred advisor does a poor job, that will reflect poortly on you and could end up costing you the client you referred.

“Rated” Members of the APS™ are a different breed than the people at your local Chamber or other local clubs. APS™ “Rated” advisors have chosen to take their consulting to the next level by being proactive by going through the rating process and supporting an entity which has as it’s core goal the protection of the American public.

“Rated” Members only become rated after going through the rating process. This process is designed to make sure that the Members know the subject matter. This is a huge hurdle when looking at the risk/reward of referring a good client to another local advisor.

Adding to your team

Remember that the APS™ rates attorneys, CPAs/accountants/EAs, financial planners, insurance advisors, stock brokers, mortgage brokers, etc.

It is vitally important when providing asset protection advice to have the attorney, CPA/accountant/EA, and financial planner on your team. Asset protection planning usually requires the retitling of assets such as investment property and stocks. This will affect the advice and/or approval of all three of the major advisors each client has.

Not all clients have an attorney, CPA/accountant/EA, or financial planner.  Or if they have all three, many times they are not satisfied with them.  An APS™ “Rated” advisor can help his/her clients by being able to find other locally “Rated” advisors to help.  This creates a unique referral system which is driven by providing the best advice for your clients (something a referral system through a local chamber of commerce does not have as it’s overriding goal).

The best way to help your clients is to have a local “team” member who knows the topics you know.  99% of the advisors out there know very little or NOTHING about asset protection planning.  By having local advisors who you can add to your team, you will be able to provide better and more comprehensive planning to help your clients implement their plans in a timely manner (because you do not have to educate or debate the recommended plan with someone who is not educated on the subject matter).

Think about the following example

Mr. Green visits his local financial planner who happens to be a “Rated” member of the APS™ with a rating of “AAOG.”   The financial planner suggests to Mr. Green that he really needs to place his $250,000 brokerage account in a domestic LLC setup in the proper jurisdiction.  Mr. Green does not have a local attorney.

What typically happens?  Mr. Green will go to the phone book and pick a local attorney to create the LLC.  That local attorney, however, will not know anything about asset protection planning. Mr. Green also happens to live in a state which has a terrible LLC statute (no reliable charging order protection). The financial planner is going to have to educate the attorney as to why the LLC is needed.  Assuming the attorney gets on board, he/she will suggest that the client use an LLC formed in their home state.

The financial planner then has to tell the attorney that the LLC statute is no good in their particular state when it comes to asset protection planning and the LLC needs to be formed in AK, NM, AZ, DE, etc.    The local attorney is skeptical and becomes an impediment to implementing a proper and timely asset protection plan for Mr. Green.

What would be better is if the financial planner referred Mr. Green to a local attorney who has been “Rated” by the APS™.  Then Mr. Green would receive a collaborative team approach and his plan would be accurately conceived and properly implemented in a timely manner.

The C.A.L.M. Plan

Many of the APS™ “Rated” members subscribe to the C.A.L.M. plan.  This is basically a sale’s platform with a regimented process which takes clients from needing an asset protection plan to having one implemented in a timely manner.  Instead of explaining the C.A.L.M. platform in this section of the website, we recommend you click here to learn more.

Upcoming Support

The APS™ has several ideas in the works which will help introduce you to the other local members in your area.  You will receive notice when these ideas are transferred into an action plan ready for implementation.

For now, we suggest that you click here to find the local Members in your area who you can contact directly.