Welcome back to the 359th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Eric Miller. Eric is the Chief Financial Advisor and Co-Owner of Econologics Financial Advisors, an independent RIA based in Largo, Florida, that generates more than $4M of revenue while working with nearly 300 client households.
What’s unique about Eric, though, is how he leverages a custom-built financial planning assessment he calls their Financial Prosperity Index, which he gives to both prospective and ongoing current clients so that they can better grasp their financial health, target the financial planning domains where clients need the most help, and even more importantly be able to track their progress over time and display the value of their ongoing financial planning relationship without needing to just talk about the numbers of net worth and investment performance.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about why Eric intentionally built his Financial Prosperity Index to cover 100 different questions where the client is scored across 9 different domains and then receives an aggregate weighted score and a letter grade (with identified areas of improvement to lift their grade higher), why Eric has found that even prospective clients will take the whole 100 question assessment before their first meeting because ultimately they want to see their score and get feedback on how they’re doing, and why, because Eric niche-focused his practice on health care practice owners (and even more specifically with physical therapists, veterinarians, dentists, and optometrists), he has been able to progress additional even-more-refined assessments geared to their specific business needs to advance display the value of their advice beyond ‘just’ the portfolio.
We also talk about why Eric chose to niche focus his practice because he saw firsthand from his family members who work in health care that those in the industry were being underserved and he felt that he could supply a meaningful difference in their financial lives, how Eric grew his practice by developing relationships with business consultants to medical professionals and offering the consultants a 3-day in-person financial education course they could offer to their business clients (allowing Eric to get in front of his ideal prospects while also creating a benefit for the consultants who were allowed to charge for the program that Eric delivered), and how, because Eric charges up to $6,500 for an upfront financial planning fee and a $475 monthly subscription fee to work with his clients ongoing, his firm is on track to create over $4 million in revenue this year with barely 1/4th of his revenue coming from traditional AUM fees.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Eric shares why, even though his firm added 60 new clients last year, Eric has his sights on acquiring at least 100 new clients per year going forward so that he can grow and scale his firm even faster because he wants to help even more people, how Eric historically struggled to celebrate his wins because he was constantly focusing on the next goal but has grown to appreciate the almost-therapeutic benefits of taking a moment to appreciate the accomplishments and progress that have already been made, and why Eric believes that younger, newer advisors should focus on not just on the technical skills but on developing their communications skills and becoming more self-aware of how they transmit with clients (because good communication skills guide to better client engagement, which is what ultimately drives a more successful career as a financial advisor).
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Eric chose the 100 questions to include in his Financial Prosperity Index, how Eric now focuses on speaking at conferences geared toward practice owners (sometimes paying thousands of dollars to do so) to more directly talk with prospective clients and display his service offerings, or how Eric wrote a book specifically for practice owners that he gives away in exchange for a prospective client’s card so that they can later set up a meeting to talk, then we hope you relish this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Eric Miller.
