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Financial Advisor Success

Ep 356: Scaling To (Nearly) $2M Of Revenue As A Flat-Fee, Advice-Only Firm, With Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez

Oct 24, 2023
Sarah-Catherine Gutierrez, founder of Aptus Financial, shares her successful approach to building a flat-fee, advice-only firm. Topics include sustainable marketing systems, transparent fee structure, efficient onboarding process, tailored cashflow strategies, and unique marketing approach.
01:29:59

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Sarah Catherine Gutierrez successfully built a fee-only, advice-only firm, challenging the reliance on AUM.
  • Aptus Financial employs an efficient onboarding process to convert prospects into fully-informed clients in just two calls.

Deep dives

Sarah Catherine Gutierrez's Unique Approach to Building a Successful Financial Planning Firm

Sarah Catherine Gutierrez has successfully built a multi-advisor firm, Aptus Financial, despite the common belief that scaling without AUM is not possible. She operates as a fee-only advice-only firm, focusing on building sustainable marketing systems to eliminate the need for advisors to prospect. Sarah Catherine transparently communicates her value by pricing her financial planning fees within a range specific to recently graduated physicians. She also emphasizes building trust-based referral systems and uses an efficient onboarding process to convert prospects into fully-informed clients in just two calls. Sarah Catherine has segmented her planning fees by charging an upfront fee for the first year plan, followed by a lower year-over-year fee for ongoing service, along with an additional end-of-year annual review fee. She has also developed custom financial planning spreadsheets and cash flow management plans tailored to the specific needs of her physician clients planning for early retirement. Despite the challenges of scaling the advice-only model, Sarah Catherine's determination, neutral marketing approach, and automated financial planning systems have led her to build a successful firm with over 480 client households approaching $2 million in revenue.

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