Welcome to my sixth in a series of seven blog posts about the importance of culture, core purpose, and core values at Greenspring Advisors.
In my first post, I shared the significance of culture at our firm and how our Core Purpose and Core Values form its cornerstone. In my second post, I discussed our Core Purpose, which is why we exist and what we stand for at Greenspring Advisors. In my third post, I wrote about our first (and most important) Core Value, which is to “Love Your Neighbor.” It means to think about others before yourself. In my fourth post, I outlined our second Core Value, which is to “Own Your Stuff,” which means to take responsibility for your actions. I covered our third Core Value in my fifth post, which is to “Have A Bias Towards Action.”
In this post, I will cover our fourth Core Value, which is to “Master Your Craft.” At Greenspring Advisors, we prioritize professional growth, and we encourage and challenge our people to develop their skills. As a firm, we pay for up to two designations for each advisor (along with annual licensing or maintenance fees). We provide a significant continuing education budget each year to every employee of the firm, regardless of role or tenure. We believe this is important for two primary reasons.
First, we believe it’s important for our culture. Research has shown that an intrinsic desire to do a good job and grow professionally are two of the top five drivers of employee satisfaction. And happy, highly engaged employees contribute to a healthy and thriving environment. We believe success and happiness are highly correlated to professional growth and development, which is always highly rated during our annual employee surveys. By providing our people with the financial resources and time to pursue advanced training, we demonstrate a commitment to their professional future.
Also, a commitment to the “Master Your Craft” philosophy means that our people constantly read, research, and learn and apply that knowledge to client situations. One of the things I admire most about my colleagues is their commitment to continuous learning. Even more, we have a group of people that are willing to share that knowledge with their teammates and be a resource for one another.
This knowledge-sharing and willingness to help one another for the sake of our clients is a cool aspect of our culture. It’s not uncommon to hear our team members provide updates to one another about things they’ve recently learned or sitting in one another’s offices asking for advice about a situation they’ve encountered. This also exemplifies our core value of “Love Your Neighbor.”
Second, we believe it’s critical to the success of our clients. The financial services industry is often referred to as a “relationship business,” The most important thing an advisor can do is develop close relationships with their prospects and clients. And this is certainly true. Strong relationships lead to high levels of trust, which generally leads to long-term clients who are loyal and who follow your advice. But being a great advisor is not simply about being likable and good with people (though this is important). It requires being technically competent and providing objective, comprehensive, and accurate advice.
This may sound easy or like it should be a given, but you would be surprised at how many advisors there are great people but not technically adept. And having technical depth is increasingly important because clients’ needs, products, and services exist, and the rules and regulations are all growing more complex. At best, mistakes can be costly, and at worst, they can be disastrous. Knowledge, experience, and expertise are at a premium, and we believe our team of trained and credentialed professionals instills confidence in our clients and improves outcomes for them. That’s why at Greenspring Advisors, we currently have:
- Six (6) CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals
- Five (5) Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) designees
- Two (2) Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist℠ (CRPS®) designees
- One (1) Enrolled Agent
- One (1) Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA)
- One (1) Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) professional
These designations and licenses require a significant investment of time to earn, broad knowledge of advanced topics, and annual continuing education requirements.
Due to the increasing complexity of our business, we also believe in the power of specialists by narrowing the scope of what we do and developing deep expertise. Since our inception, we’ve taken the approach that we could either be mediocre at many different things or excellent at a few. We have always chosen the latter, and that’s why we only focus on wealth management for individuals and families and consulting corporate retirement plans and non-profits and endowments.
Many firms try to be a “one-stop-shop” for clients by providing life insurance, employee benefits, loans, mortgages, credit cards, checking accounts, etc. In theory, this sounds like a great idea because it aims to simplify your life if you are an individual investor, company offering a retirement plan, or non-profit organization overseeing an endowment. And financial services companies love it because the more services you use, the “stickier” your relationship and less likely to leave.
But in my experience, here’s what usually happens. Your advisor (or their firm) is good at one thing (hopefully) and not very good at everything else. And despite the promises of “simplicity,” your overall experience suffers due to mediocre advice (or poor service) by people who aren’t really experts. Most financial advisors are “jack of all trades and masters of none” because the scope of knowledge and expertise required is too vast to be an expert in everything. That’s what happens when you try to be all things to all people.
I see this all the time in the corporate retirement plan world because most companies hire non-specialists or what I call “recreational 401(k) advisors.” In most cases, these advisors are primarily focused on wealth management but may work with a handful of corporate retirement plans because an individual client owns a business. Unfortunately, because they don’t specialize in this area, they don’t have the experience or expertise to help companies successfully navigate the fiduciary landscape, creating risk for both organizations and their employees. They aren’t up-to-date on the latest research, best practices, trends, vendors, or technology that drives outcomes.
You see, wealth management and corporate retirement plans are two vastly different disciplines, both with tremendous complexity. You can’t be a true expert in both. It’s why at Greenspring Advisors, we have advisors focus on one or the other as a member of our Private Client team or Institutional Client team. We believe this approach is the right one that yields the best results for our clients (in either practice) because it develops advisors who have deep expertise and technical depth to advise and guide clients successfully.
When it comes to specialization, I like to use a medical analogy. Imagine you needed a heart transplant and had to choose a doctor to operate on you. Would you select a doctor who was a general practitioner at a local community hospital that recently completed their residency or a heart specialist from Johns Hopkins who has been a leading surgeon for 15 years, publishes in medical journals, speaks at industry conferences on the latest techniques and conducts research of cutting-edge procedures? Regardless of likeability, trustworthiness, or even bedside manner, who would you want to hold the scalpel?
Thanks for continuing to follow this blog series. In my next and final post, I’ll discuss our fifth and final Core Value, which is “Trust The Evidence.”
