Risk and return. They are fellow travelers, but they couldn’t be more different. Return is easy to measure. It’s a number. It happened. We can all agree on it. Measuring risk is hard. It’s a concept. It has no precise definition. It looks different to different people on different days in diff
Business Builders
Posts for Category: Business Builders
The Challenge of Being Independent – And What to Do About It
I get to sit in one of the best seats in our profession. My job is to support the financial advisors who decide to work with First Ascent. What that “support” looks like varies widely, from coaching on how to explain our portfolios to clients, to answering nitty gritty questions, to acting a
Two Newly Embraced Ideas, Thanks to First Ascent
Recently, a financial planner I really admire invited me to a group she was hosting at her office for women in financial services to elevate each other in their respective roles. After I gladly accepted the invitation, she emailed me again saying that the speaker for this month’s get-together ha
“No man is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.” – Julius Caesar The idea of investing for the long-term sounds easy in theory. However, it can be a difficult concept for clients to internalize when they are in the heart of a volatile market. “This too shall pass” may
Making Business Networking Work for You
“The old adage is wrong,” a professor at my business school would say. “It’s not about who you know; it’s about who knows you.” He would go on to posit that a few deep connections with people who truly know and trust your character can be more valuable than dozens of industry acquaintan
The Importance of Sticking It Out
What a month! As the markets racked up the first full year in history with 12 months of positive stock market returns, the tension that’s been building for many investors throughout 2017 finally broke. To buck the trend, February of 2018 brought us the two largest single day point drops in the his
Ask Yourself These 3 Questions to Find Out We offer outsourced investment management with a high level of service that we believe is worth far more than our low, flat fee. But even so, outsourcing might not be for everyone. When advisors who haven’t outsourced before contact us, we talk a lot abou
Framing Your Value – Working with Outsourced Money Managers
At First Ascent, we partner with independent financial advisors to manage investment portfolios for their clients. Increasingly, (and partially due to the attraction of our low, flat-fee structure), we are working with more advisors who have historically managed assets themselves or who are breaking
What Your Clients Want to Know
We recently came across a blog post that Jason Zweig of the Wall Street Journal wrote about 19 questions clients should ask their advisor. As I read through the article, it seems to me that the one concern driving many of the questions is: How do I know I can place my trust in you? Business Builders
Tuning Out the Noise in Investing
I was reading a post in the Fat Pitch blog this morning by Urban Carmel and he found a fantastic chart on the perpetual doom and gloom prognostications of market commentators. Source: Fat Pitch These quotes come from commentary and outlook written by experienced money managers, all indicating that t
Lately, we’ve been thinking that maybe our $500 flat-fee pricing model is a bit of a spotlight hog. Please don’t get us wrong. We are thrilled to be able to offer a low, flat fee. We believe strongly that our pricing model serves our advisors and their clients well. It allows us to fit more
How Advisors Can Go from Good to Outstanding
Being a good financial advisor requires mastery of a wide range of technical skills. Being a great financial advisor requires having skills as a counselor and psychologist. Being an outstanding financial advisor requires developing your skills as a teacher and coach. Here’s why. The job of a finan
Explaining Third-Party Asset Managers to Clients
Maybe you’re thinking about outsourcing to a third-party portfolio manager, but you’re not sure how to explain it to your clients. Actually, we get that a lot here at First Ascent. So, I surveyed a group of advisors who work with First Ascent to get their feedback. The consensus was that advisor
Why “Under Promise, Over Deliver” Can Hurt Your Business – And What to Do Instead
Our First Ascent offices are in a hip space right in the heart of Denver. The building is called INDUSTRY because developers converted an old, industrial warehouse into creative office space. This image captures what’s on the wall across from our First Ascent area: “Under Promise Over Deliver.
Two Practical Ways to Integrate Behavioral Finance in Your Practice
Every advisor would like to snap their fingers and have their clients behave like more rational, patient investors. While the idea that clients are prone to bad investing behavior is not new, one of the primary challenges for financial advisors – and one of the greatest values they provide – is