As an independent advisor, growth can often feel like a siloed, overwhelming effort. And while you can grow your business alone, it’s far more effective to do it by leveraging strategic partnerships, especially when it comes to serving sophisticated clients like business owners and high-net-worth investors.
But when—and how—do you find the time to build those necessary relationships?
At Integrated Partners, we don’t believe “independence” ever has to mean “alone.” That’s why, in addition to the robust resources available on our platform, we also make it easy for our advisors to connect and collaborate with centers of influence (COIs) and other strategic partners.
Below, members of our recruiting team share the Integrated COI and partner programs they believe are most effective in helping advisors grow their practices.
CPA Program
Building a symbiotic relationship with CPAs can drive incredible growth for advisors and incredible results for clients. Business owners and high-net-worth families place implicit trust in their accountants. So it only makes sense that they would be likely to act on a CPA’s referral to a financial advisor.
“Often, CPAs and advisors work together to serve business owners or clients with significant net worth. Both of those markets have complex financial needs that can’t be met solely by one party or the other. When advisors and CPAs come together, they can deliver more holistic financial guidance to these clients,” said Andree Peterson, Chief Implementation Officer and Head of Integrated’s CPA Alliance.
The CPA Alliance program creates a financial planning brand for the CPA firm, which seamlessly makes our advisors a part of the trusted CPA-client relationship, while also developing and generating a new stream of recurring revenue for the CPA firm.
Marketing
Advisors have long relied on referrals to grow their firms, and while that’s certainly still an effective stream of new business for many, implementing a marketing program has the power to accelerate growth exponentially.
But advisors are experts at serving their clients, not branding, demand generation, website optimization, social media, email metrics—the list goes on. And hiring a full team to execute marketing in house can be prohibitively expensive.
“In today’s digital era, advisors who want to remain competitive can’t ignore the power of marketing to increase brand exposure and attract new clients to their businesses,” said Becca Zophin, our Chief Marketing Officer. “But marketing doesn’t always come naturally to advisors, and executing it effectively requires time and resources that they don’t have.”
To help our advisors elevate their exposure and take their practices to the next level, Integrated established its own proprietary, boutique marketing firm, InTouch Innovations. Advisors have direct access to the InTouch team… from automated marketing campaigns and collateral designed to elevate brand exposure and attract new business… The InTouch team will turn your vision from concept to completion and even deploy on your behalf to your most important contacts.
Technology
You may already have the tech stack in place to run your firm smoothly and efficiently—and if you do, you understand the important role technology plays in business growth.
But if you don’t, the thought of vetting, evaluating, implementing and maintaining the ever-growing number of technology options available to advisors can be overwhelming.
“Cutting-edge technology is a non-negotiable for advisors who want to grow,” said Andree Peterson, Chief Implementation Officer and Head of Integrated’s CPA Alliance. “But finding the time to do your due diligence, implement a solution and train yourself and your staff to use it effectively is nearly impossible for independent advisors who are busy meeting with clients and running their businesses.”
Integrated has built partnerships with some of the best fintech firms in the business, so our advisors can simply tap into our resources to streamline efficiency within their own practices. And because technology is constantly evolving, we have a team dedicated to staying on top of the latest innovations so we can bring them to our advisors.
Independent Doesn’t Mean Alone
Centers of influence and strategic partnerships can have a major impact on your business trajectory. Learn more about how Integrated Partners helps independent advisors tap into valuable relationships to serve clients more holistically, attract new business and grow their firms more efficiently.