Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 389th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Mark Berg. Mark is the Founder of Timothy Financial Counsel, an RIA based in Wheaton, Illinois, that is on track to generate approximately $5 million in annual revenue this year serving 800 client households.
What’s unique about Mark, though, is how his firm has scaled from $1.8 million of revenue to $5 million, in only 6 years, and has maintained a 25% profit margin… all while serving clients by exclusively using an hourly fee model.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Mark created a structured process to serve clients under the hourly model, including segmenting client engagements into 5 “levels” based on the complexity of their needs to match them with the right advisor, how Mark’s firm uses those levels to provide accurate quotes for how many hours it will take to meet a client’s planning needs in the first prospecting call , and why Mark thinks that proper pricing is a key to success using the hourly fee model, with his firm charging either $350 or $450/hour depending on the seniority of the assigned advisor.
We also talk about how Mark’s firm attracts clients both through referrals from current clients and from other financial advisors who need to refer prospects who don’t meet their asset minimums or whose planning needs don’t match their expertise, why Mark created a client waitlist to manage his and his staff’s capacity amidst a wave of interest from prospective clients (after realizing that this “wave of interest” could be the new normal that he couldn’t just assume was temporary and would pass), and how Mark uses time-tracking software not only to accurately and efficiently bill clients, but also to manage his and his advisors’ capacity as well.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Mark shares how hiring a president of the firm – and choosing someone without a financial planning background – helped his firm scale by allowing him to focus on the big-picture ideas for the firm and having the president implement them, how Mark structured the firm’s employee hiring, onboarding, and training process to match the unique development curves of his firm’s junior employees in an hourly model where nearly everyone contributes to generating revenue, and why Mark compares the hourly fee model to a “blue ocean” of opportunity for financial advisors, with the potential to reach millions of potential clients for whom other fee models might not be a fit, but who are showing a clear willingness to pay several hundred dollars per hour in fees… that advisors themselves can build and scale with.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to scale a firm using an hourly fee model, how to segment client engagements based on the complexity of their needs, or how to create processes for hiring and training employees in a growing business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Mark Berg.
