Welcome back to the 314th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Sue Chesney. Sue is the owner of Delegated Planning, which offers virtual outsourced financial planning support to 55 advisory firms, and the co-founder of Planning Zoo, an outsourced financial planning data entry business that helps current and recently graduated students from college CFP educational programs connect with advisory firms that need paraplanner support for data entry into financial planning software.
What’s unique about Sue, though, is how through Delegated Planning and Planning Zoo, she’s pioneered one of the largest outsourced financial planning support firms in the country, and shares her first-hand experience of how advisory firms are scaling the delivery of comprehensive financial plans by increasingly separating the front-office work of delivering comprehensive financial plans to clients from the middle-office work of creating them (and how firms are increasingly leveraging outsourcing providers so they don’t have to be responsible for hiring and training those financial planning support employees, either).
In this episode, we talk in-depth about why Sue founded Delegated Planning so that she could bridge a gap between CFP professionals who simply wanted to work on financial plans (and not necessarily with their own clients) and advisors doing financial plans for clients who needed both paraplanning and virtual CFP support services but don’t have the time (or resources) to hire a full-time employee that they would also have to train and manage, how, in a similar vein of supporting advisors, Sue decided to launch Planning Zoo where she and her partners train and teach aspiring CFP professionals the skills to do data entry with financial planning software using real client cases so that they can gain industry experience before graduating (again while relieving the pressure from advisors that need additional trusted support but don’t want to hire and train it), and how Sue has seen that by charging by the hour (down to the minute) for Delegated Planning, the advisors who work with them have been able to better align their fees and their financial planning offering… now that they can see how much time it truly takes for their financial plans to be built for each client.
We also talk about how, while on the verge of taking over another advisor’s business, Sue realized she enjoyed planning work more than working with clients directly, and with the encouragement of a virtual assistant from her former firm and peers in her study group, she decided to offer her services as an outsourced CFP and launch Delegated Planning, how, by offering flexible schedules, Sue was able to tap into a unique talent pool of advisors who want to supplement their income while getting their own RIAs off the ground and planners who also enjoy the planning work but don’t want to work with clients directly, and the way that Sue navigates the cybersecurity and E&O risks of serving as an outsourced financial planning service provider by operating as a “co-fiduciary” with the advisors her firm works with to their end clients.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Sue shares how, as Delegated Planning has scaled over the years, she has dealt with the difficult task of shifting from being a manager of her growing team into more of a CEO mindset to help scale the business further, why, even though it may feel risky and scary, and requires a lot of preparation, Sue feels it is important for newer advisors to explore the opportunity of one day owning their own firms because of the freedom it brings and the rewarding feeling of helping clients and furthering the financial services industry, and why Sue feels that the key to her success has been enjoying what she does for a living, as in the end as a business owner the business is always on her mind… but she doesn’t mind that it’s so hard to stop thinking about work, because it’s work she enjoys and finds fulfillment in how she’s able to help other advisors.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about why Sue launched Delegated Planning and Planning Zoo to help advisors find planning and data entry support, how Sue helps newer planners gain real-world experience and learn a variety of planning software, or how Sue deals with the challenges of stepping into a CEO role and managing two businesses, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Sue Chesney.
