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Financial advisors and wealth professionals who have never worked remotely will be struggling to figure it out for themselves and their teams. Here is a simple list of practice management items to think about.
Practice Management checklist for financial advisor teams working remotely
___ Set up your workspace with minimal distractions (easier said than done)
___ Communicate often with your team through online collaboration or consider using communication tools such as www.slack.com or www.trello.com or www.monday.com or asking your firm for tools
___ Maintain a schedule or work hours. It is now easier than ever to just keep working. Tell people to have a normal start and end of day
___ Embrace your online meetings with staff, clients and prospects. I have been telling advisors to save hundreds of hours of time through online meetings such as zoom or gotomeeting for the past three years. Now is the time to implement what your firm recommends (with compliance approval of course) or go and implement online meeting software
___ Update your technology. Look at getting a new laptop to work remotely with the latest technology. Get headphones for online calls. Noise-canceling headphones increases the sound quality and make the calls hands free
___ Consider recording the meetings with clients and prospects permission of course. This is the perfect time to improve your conversations with clients, by listening to the discussion. Trust me do it one and you will improve! Start with a friend or colleague to test it out.
___ Bring your team together. You can do this by having a video mode setup for everyone. Go and budget for cameras so you can connect with your team online. Most online software allows for up to 25 people or more to be online with a camera. A global study group I am part of has people from every corner of the world online and on camera, from Dubai to Delhi and Denver.
___ Set up projects for your team to work on. What projects can be done while working remotely? For example, your on-boarding process can be enhanced or worked on. Your meetings which may be online can now be delivered through Microsoft PowerPoint, enhancing the client experience with pictures of their goals. Work on your processes.
___ Take courses. Encourage staff to take a course or two and do some online learning. A great place to start is Linkedin learning an start with the working remotely course as a starter. https://www.linkedin.com/learning/working-remotely-2/the-value-of-working-remotely
___ Technology considerations. Considering improving internet speeds, computers and of course cybersecurity. Ask your firm for guidance or support on testing security protocols.
___ Databases and data security. This should be your biggest concern. Consider updating your privacy and confidentiality forms with staff, to ensure complete confidential protection or data
___ Online scheduling. Consider using an online calendar for clients and prospects to set up and online call or online meeting with you. You can program the scheduler to do 15 or 30-minute calls, and all you have to do is email clients with the link. For a sample click on my calendar link here https://my.timetrade.com/book/JMTNJ or if you want to discuss practice management, you can book it.
___ Sharing documents securely. Now more than ever email security may be at risk. Sharing documents securely by checking with your firm's recommendations or using software such as https://corporate.e-courier.ca/ or https://www.sharefile.com/
___ Setting up a remote culture since you probably have never had to before. Go online or send me an email at grant@ghicks.com for guides on how to set up an online culture successfully.
Share this checklist with your team on an online call and discuss your new practice management processes for working remotely. If you add to the list, let me know, I would love to hear from you, as I tried to shorten it up as best I could. Best of luck working remotely!
Related: Financial Advisors Need To Add More Value Every Year to Their Clients