Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 386th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Dann Ryan. Dann is a Managing Partner of Sincerus Advisory, an RIA based in New York City, that oversees approximately $165 million in assets under management for nearly 150 client households.
What’s unique about Dann, though, is how he has channeled the anxiety of having imposter syndrome, which still causes him to be nervous before every client meeting (despite having 17 years of experience in the financial advisory business), as a means to hold himself accountable to always be doing the best he can for his clients, which has allowed Dann to build a thriving financial planning business that generates a steady flow of client referrals.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Dann and his partner have 5Xed their AUM in the past 5 years thanks to their firm’s commitment to quality client service (which has spurred so many referrals that Dann’s firm has implemented a waitlist),why Dann has found that referred clients are willing to remain on the waitlist (because they don’t mind as much when Dann explains it’s because they’re already working so hard for their existing clients!), and the reason that Dann’s firm has continued to stick with an AUM fee model despite an increasingly financial-planning-centric service offering.
We also talk about how Dann started his career at a fee-only financial advisory firm in the mid-2000s, when such a path wasn’t nearly as common as it is today, why Dann believes that the long hours he put in building financial plans as an employee advisor earlier in his career were a positive career investment that gave Dann the skills needed to be an effective lead advisor today, and why Dann, after not getting an opportunity to become a partner at his previous firm, decided to take the leap and break off to start his own firm.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Dann shares his agile approach to the planning process, proactively analyzing planning issues according to a structured quarterly client service calendar while making himself available when issues arise in the interim, why Dann takes a hands-on approach to the investment planning process and is even open to helping clients implement investment ideas they bring to the table instead of talking them out of it, and how Dann’s interest in working with a wide range of client types, rather than focusing on a single niche, coupled with his desire to build long-lasting relationships with these clients, has been crucial to managing his imposter syndrome and building a successful career in financial planning.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to build a career entirely at fee-only firms, the unexpected upsides of impostor syndrome, or how to handle situations where clients bring their own investment ideas to the table, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Dann Ryan.
