“Learning from the dialogue between members and access to resources in the Knowledge Bank is the icing on the cake of Garrett membership.”

Bryan Clintsman, CFP®

We recently interviewed Brian regarding his experiences as a fee-only financial planner and Garrett member since March 2002.

Why did you decide to open your firm under the hourly, fee-only business model and why did you decide to join the Network?

This is my 22nd year in the financial planning business and I have always been an hourly financial planner.  For about the first 15 years of my career I worked for two of the largest “Big 8” accounting firms (Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young) doing financial planning on an hourly basis – granted, for very wealthy clients at a very high hourly rate.  However, the last few years of that era had me involved in providing financial planning workshops for groups of employees – the “real people” of the world as I like to call them, and I was hooked.

So in 2002 as I set out to start my own practice I had to decide which market I wanted to serve.  As a startup practice, it made no sense to me to chase the same wealthy clients as 99% of the other financial advisors in the world.  My research uncovered the Garrett Planning Network, whose members shared my same philosophy of “Where is the rest of the world supposed to go for competent, objective financial advice?”  After a couple of conversations with Sheryl Garrett I realized the Network was a perfect fit for someone who had done financial planning for many years, but had never started a financial planning business.

One other point about the time period in which I started my practice.  Many of you will remember that 2002 was the end of the bear market of 2000-2002, although we did not know it was the end at that time.  So many people challenged me about starting a practice in that type of economy.  However, my predictions came true and it turned out to be the perfect time to start a practice because most consumers had just finished 2 years of being underserved by their broker and were actually realizing that in most cases they never had a real financial planner or a real financial plan.  So, in essence, all the other financial advisors in my area drove business to me without knowing it.  I believe the last 1-2 years in the markets has created the same environment today.

What are the top 3 reasons that you remain a member of the Garrett Planning Network today?

First and foremost are the people.  Garrett members are some of the most genuine people I have met in the business.  I believe life involves standing for what you believe in, and this embodies Sheryl, who is one of the most kind-hearted people I know, and this in turn sets the tone for the entire organization.  Next is the support of the administrative team at the Network, including consultants and advisors in areas such as marketing, compliance and technology.  These people are some of the best in their industry and we are fortunate to have access to them.  Finally, learning from the dialogue between members and access to resources in the Knowledge Bank is the icing on the cake of Garrett membership.

Looking back, what is the one thing you wish you’d have done sooner in your business building activities?

Based on good advice and mentors in my early years, I was fortunate to realize that in the beginning I had more time than money so I really focused a lot of time on developing relationships, creating handouts explaining the value proposition of my business, etc.  Later we added a CRM service to begin documenting calls, meetings, clients and most importantly, processes, which helped our efficiency immensely.  Having that CRM system earlier probably would have helped us with overall documentation and planning the future direction of those first few years.

Do you have staff or outsource anything? 

We are blessed to have grown to 4 CFP® professionals and an office assistant, so there is not a need to outsource financial planning work.  But I believe that one of the keys to being a successful business owner is to know what you don’t do well.  Just like we suggest to clients that it is not in their best interest to stay current with all the financial and tax law changes themselves, I think it is important for a small business to hand off certain tasks as well – this is especially true for one-person firms.  Services we outsource include our Web hosting (AdvisorSites), much of our asset allocation philosophy (Advisor Intelligence), performance reports (Morningstar Workstation), CRM (Junxure), Newsletters (Newkirk) and of course technology (local IT firm).

What are your current business challenges and how are you overcoming them?

Like many businesses, the last 18 months have provided a challenge.  But challenges just provide opportunities for you to distinguish yourself from competitors.  So we have chosen to use the little bit more downtime we had in 2009 focusing on practice management projects that will make us leaner and stronger in years to come.  These included developing a client ranking system to help us evaluate which clients to retain going forward, workflow templates to help us improve efficiency and profitability internally, evaluation (and a change) in our investment performance reporting vendor, and relationships and marketing / value proposition pieces to help us proactively grow our 401(k) investment advisory practice.  Despite our best efforts, however, we have still not been able to get to our website overhaul project!

What was your favorite session or activity at the Garrett Retreat?

All employees at Clintsman Financial Planning happen to share a strong faith, so one of the exciting things they have begun this year is an effort to do some sort of community service project together on a regular basis. They hope to involve the employees’ children as well, which provides connections for their work families.  Bryan also teaches financial education workshops to employees around the country, which allows him to fulfill a passion he loves. Finally, Bryan would have to say his favorite sport to play is golf, but sometimes when he’s busy he has to resort to just watching it on TV so he can multitask!