Ep 423: Expanding Across The Household By Helping (Affluent) Sandwich Generation Kids With Their Parents’ Financial Needs with Cristina Livadary
Feb 4, 2025
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In a fascinating discussion, Cristina Livadary, CEO of Mana Financial Life Design, shares her journey in helping the sandwich generation manage the financial needs of both their children and aging parents. She elaborates on the complexity-based fee structure her firm adopted and the importance of 20-minute 'fit' meetings with potential clients. Cristina's personal experiences provide insight into the emotional and logistical challenges faced by this demographic. She emphasizes the value of empathetic communication and the essential role of defined team roles in fostering effective client services.
Cristina Livadary highlights the dual financial planning needs of the sandwich generation, addressing both their children and aging parents' requirements.
The transition to a complexity-based fee structure allowed Mana Financial Life Design to better reflect the time and resources dedicated to client services.
Christina emphasizes the importance of maintaining personal and professional balance, viewing success through the lens of relationships and client trust.
Deep dives
Navigating the Sandwich Generation
Christina Livadieri, CEO of Mana Financial Life Design, emphasizes the unique challenges faced by the sandwich generation—those simultaneously caring for young children and aging parents. Her personal experiences helped shape her firm's focus on providing tailored financial planning that addresses both aspects. This approach not only encompasses financial needs of her clients but also offers additional planning services for their parents, creating a comprehensive support system. Christina's initiative stems from her recognition of the emotional and logistical burdens faced by this demographic, particularly during her interactions with clients who shared similar familial responsibilities.
Crafting Relevant Content
Christina leveraged her research and experience to create informative content for her clients and prospects, addressing pressing concerns for those in the sandwich generation. This includes writing blog posts and newsletters about relevant topics like assisted living options and financial discussions with aging parents. By openly sharing her journey, including her mother’s dementia diagnosis, she fostered deeper connections with clients, prompting them to share their own concerns. This approach not only raised awareness but also established her firm as a knowledgeable source, leading to an influx of inquiries from clients needing similar guidance.
Evolving Business Practices
Christina and her business partner launched Mana Financial Life Design with a focus on life planning but faced challenges in scaling their practice effectively. Initially, they offered low fees to attract clients, but soon recognized the unsustainable nature of their service delivery model. They transitioned from a flat annual fee to a complexity-based fee structure that reflects the amount of time and resources required for each client. This change allowed for more accurate compensation tied to the specific needs of their clients, ultimately enhancing both their service and profitability.
Utilizing Technology for Efficiency
To streamline operations and enhance client interactions, Christina adopted various technologies like Fathom for AI note-taking and Airtable for client management. Fathom automates meeting summaries, allowing her and her team to focus more on the client experience instead of documenting discussions. Meanwhile, Airtable functions as a versatile database where they track detailed client information and document management seamlessly. By integrating these tools into their operations, Christina's firm improved efficiency, enabling them to handle a growing client base without compromising quality.
Redefining Success
For Christina, success transcends financial milestones and is rooted in achieving personal and professional balance. She values spaciousness in her daily life, which allows her to prioritize family time, personal well-being, and effective client management. These aspects of her definition of success also echo in the trust and relationships she cultivates with her clients, affirming her purpose in guiding them through life's complexities. This holistic view shapes not only her business practices but also her personal fulfillment, demonstrating how success can manifest in various forms.
Cristina Livadary is the CEO of Mana Financial Life Design, an RIA based in Los Angeles (that works virtually with clients nationwide) overseeing approximately $70 million in assets under management for 119 client households. Cristina's firm helps “sandwich generation” clients by crafting financial plans that address their personal needs and goals while also offering optional add-on planning engagements to tackle the financial challenges of their aging parents, who may require support in the future. This dual-focus approach ensures comprehensive support for clients navigating intergenerational financial responsibilities.
Listen in as Cristina shares how her personal experience navigating the challenges of caring for aging parents and young children inspired her to focus on serving this niche. She also discusses how she transitioned her firm to a complexity-based fee structure, how she conducts 20-minute “fit” meetings to determine whether prospective clients will be a good fit for her firm’s services and fee model, and the lessons she’s learned about creating defined roles for new hires in order to build a cohesive team.