Ep 352: Finding Personal Scale By Leveraging Yourself Through Outsourced Delegation With Bridget Venus Grimes
Sep 26, 2023
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Bridget Venus Grimes, President of WealthChoice and Co-Founder of Equita Financial Network, shares her journey of building her firm through outsourced delegation. She discusses tasks like compliance, operations, and client scheduling that she delegated to focus on her niche of female executives. Bridget also talks about her unique approach to compensation and client service, her decision to write a book for credibility, and bringing her daughter on as part of a succession plan.
Outsourcing non-financial-planning tasks allows advisors to focus on their niche and scale their firm without hiring more advisors.
Vetting trusted outsource service providers and negotiating rates are crucial for successful outsourcing.
Adding a W2 employee, especially a family member, for succession planning can provide continuity and support for clients.
Holistic planning and minimizing taxes are important aspects of financial planning for clients.
Deep dives
Building a Leveraged Solo Practice with Outsourcing
Bridget Venus Grimes, president of WealthChoice, discusses her highly leveraged solo advisory firm. Despite growing to $77 million AUM in seven years, Bridget decided not to scale by hiring more advisors but to delegate tasks to virtual outsource contractors. She outsources compliance, operations, trading, and investment research, allowing her to focus on financial planning work. Bridget also explains how she vetted trusted outsource service providers and launched Equita Financial Network, allowing other advisors to plug into their negotiated outsource rates. With a focus on a niche of female executives, Bridget streamlines her processes and can relate to her clients. Additionally, she talks about her frustrations working as an employee advisor, her investment in writing a book, and her decision to bring her daughter on as an advisor for succession planning.
The Service Model: Deep Dive Into Financial Planning
When onboarding new clients, Bridget starts with a document gathering meeting to prepare clients for the information they need to collect. She then creates a deep dive financial plan by analyzing the documents and asking clarifying questions during a clarity meeting. This is followed by an initial financial plan meeting, where Bridget presents the balance sheet, cash flow, investment observations, and retirement and career plans. Subsequent meetings focus on risk management, including insurance and estate planning, as well as tax planning in collaboration with the client's CPA. Bridget's service model ensures that clients have a thorough understanding of their financial situation and goals, while addressing any specific challenges they may face.
Navigating Challenges and Outsourcing
Bridget explains how she navigated challenges as a solo advisor, such as overwhelming workload and the complexities of managing a growing business. To overcome these challenges, she leveraged outsourcing to delegate compliance, operations, trading, and investment research to trusted virtual professionals. By doing so, Bridget was able to focus on the financial planning work she enjoys the most. She discusses the importance of vetting outsource service providers and forming partnerships to negotiate better rates. Bridget also emphasizes the significance of focusing on a niche and leveraging her own experiences to better serve her target clients.
Transitioning to a Leveraged Solo Advisor Practice
After successfully running a highly leveraged solo practice, Bridget decided to add a W2 employee, her daughter, for succession planning. This decision is driven by the need to ensure continuity for her clients and to have support when Bridget wants to take time off. While initially hesitant to add complexity and manage people, Bridget recognizes the value in having someone else who can learn the business and eventually take over. She highlights the positive response from clients and the benefits of having a family member who can provide a seamless transition. Bridget also shares how engaging with coaching and delegating tasks have been key to her business success.
Focus on Minimizing Taxes
One of the main goals for clients is to minimize taxes. The podcast discusses the importance of finding options to help clients minimize their tax burden. The speaker mentions that they have recently incorporated holistic planning into their practice to address this specific client need.
Delivering the Plan Summary
The podcast episode explains that after a series of meetings, the next step in the process is the solutions meeting. At this meeting, the clients are presented with a plan summary that outlines their financial goals, current net worth, investment values, and a projection of their portfolio. The plan summary covers various areas of financial planning, and it is updated regularly as the client's circumstances change.
Ongoing Client Process and Fee Structure
The podcast touches on the ongoing client process, which involves meeting with clients at least twice a year to review their plan summary, update their financial goals, and discuss any open planning items. The podcast host also mentions their fee structure, based on the client's assets under management. The fee starts with a minimum fee for clients with less than $500,000 and gradually decreases as the AUM increases.
Bridget Venus Grimes is the President of WealthChoice, a virtual independent RIA that oversees nearly $80 million in assets under management for 68 families, and Co-Founder of Equita Financial Network, an advisor platform that helps advisors share resources. As a solo advisor, Bridget quickly grew her firm to $77M in AUM over 7 years, but found herself stretched thin managing various business aspects while serving her clients. Instead of scaling her firm by hiring more advisors, she chose to delegate non-financial-planning tasks to virtual outsourced contractors, freeing her from day-to-day management responsibilities.
Listen in as Bridget shares her journey of building her firm by outsourcing various tasks like compliance, operations, and client scheduling to focus on her niche of female executives. We also discuss her unique approach to compensation and client service, which led her to launch her own firm, and how she invested $30,000 in writing a book for credibility rather than sales. Bridget also dives into the importance of business coaching, learning not to compromise on client fit, and her decision to bring on her daughter as part of a long-term succession plan.