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In early August, I got a call from an investor in Toronto, asking if I could recommend an advisor. This was in response to my weekly column on the financial pages of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading national newspaper.
In talking about her situation, this woman explained that she and her husband were both in their mid thirties with one child, owned a house in midtown Toronto worth about $1 million on which they were aggressively paying down the mortgage, both had good jobs and had saved about $500,000 – so not huge clients, but ones that would be a fit for many advisors.
After spending a bit of time trying to understand exactly what she wanted, I suggested that I identify three advisors that might be appropriate for her needs, and she could talk to them and make a decision on whether one of those three was a fit for her.
Three advisors who took a pass
I emailed six advisors in Toronto who I thought might be candidates. At some point, all had approached me about the possibility of getting introductions to new clients.
In each case, I provided some background on this client and asked if they’d like to have their names put forward – understanding that they would be one of three advisors who I’d be recommending.
In one case, I got an out of office email response that this advisor was away until September 7 and that on urgent matters I should contact his assistant. (Remember this was early August.)
In a second case, the advisor got back the same day, thanking me but saying that her minimum asset level for new clients is $1 million – but that she’d be happy to be considered in the future for prospective clients who had at least $1 million.
A couple of days later I got an email back from a third advisor saying that if I wanted to put his name forward and recommend him, that he’d be happy to talk to this client but that he had no interest in being one of three advisors and having to participate in a “beauty contest,” as he put it.
Putting your best foot forward
I asked each of the three remaining advisors for an overview with some basic background, summarizing their approach and the benefits to clients of working with them, with the view to forwarding this to the prospective client so that she and her husband could have some background on the advisors before contacting them.
I got virtually the identical response from all three advisors.
In every case, the answer was that they didn’t have a summary that could be forwarded to a potential client – instead they sent me links to various documents.
One advisor included an article she’d written, another included an article that had been written on him. A couple included an overview of their team. Two sent links to a summary of their process. And one included an overview of what clients could expect.
I sent each email to the prospective client exactly as it was sent to me – I simply forwarded on the information that I was provided.
