W. Lloyd Williams

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a space for all the aspects of my life...

Filtering by Tag: tools

Mass Communication Tool

As I have mentioned in the past you must communicate in bulk for education and handholding. Technology today makes this easy. I recommend Constant Contact as the best way to manage your client and prospect emails.
The service tracks how many people open, click, and forward your email. This is important to make sure that you are reaching them.
I recommend you try the free trial and see how it can simplify your emails. Click here for more info.

The Pocket RoadMap™

Get Organized with One Sheet of Paper

The Pocket RoadMap™ is a single sheet of paper folded into six small panels that puts you in control of your life and time. Download the PDF file and print the two pages back to back on one sheet of paper.

Whether you are using GTD or ZTD or any other productivity system the Pocket RoadMap will keep you focused on the most important items each week. Download it for free and give it to your friends. This is a tool your entire team can use.

Video showing how to use the Pocket RoadMap coming soon.

Binding Your Presentations

channelbind Creating a professional image is doing the small things right. Throughout my career we used a channel lock binding system to create hard cover presentations. ChannelBind is the best company on the market today. After you purchase your binding machine you can baind as many covers as you desire. We had the cover embossed with "Confidential" and our contact information so we could use them for any type of presentation.

The website includes a video that explains how the system works. This will separate you from the herd.

Need something designed?

99designs1 A client recently introduced me to 99designs.com and I am amazed at the quality of the design work. This site is a exchange where you can describe the project you need and thousands of designers will submit their designs, allowing you to select from the best.

The website says “99designs connects clients needing design work such as logo designs, business cards or web sites to a thriving community of 29,936 talented designers.”

If you need something designed this is the place to go first:

www.99designs.com

New Half-Day Workshop Helps Advisors During Difficult Times

The new half-day workshop titled, What To Do Now is helping financial advisors during these difficult times. Many are replacing lost assets in a matter of weeks that were lost in the last quarter. The opportunity to grow your business is outstanding, see what others are saying. Comments from advisors who attended the Toronto workshop back in November:

“Great presentation and upbeat vision of the future. Lloyd covered the right information with good content for the current market turmoil!”

“I have never sat still for 4 hours in my life until this presentation…excellent!”

“Everyone should hear this message!”

“Lloyd has given me a load of ideas to go to clients and prospects with”

“Lloyd’s reasons for being positive are exactly what I needed to hear given the difficult markets”

Here are some comments from advisors who attended Lloyd’s workshops in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto this past January 2009:

“I needed this conference. I have been letting this business and some of my clients get me down. I needed to be reminded to remain positive no matter what. I found the whole seminar worthwhile. The wheels are turning again and I thank him for that. I have not been this enthusiastic in some time”.

“I’ve attended a number of Lloyd’s sessions in the past and always find them valuable”

“Overall it was a valuable exercise where someone will definitely have some positive takeaways, regardless of your style of business”

“I am always reflecting on trying to manage the ‘right thing’ in the book of business. His emphasis on client intimacy and the practical “how to’s” were excellent”

“This seminar was more than I had hoped for. I woke up during the night (after the seminar) thinking of the seminar and ways that I was going to approach my clients & improve my business going forward”

“Very productive and one of the best I have been to”

If you would like to host a workshop for your firm please contact [email protected] for more information.

A Great Way to Read

Kindle 2I finally had the opportunity to use an Amazon Kindle and fell in love with this technology. What a great way to read a book or newspaper. I enjoyed the PC Tablet when it first came out because of its ease of use and comfort in reading. This is even better. If you are in the US this is great technology. Click here for more info.

New Features & Enhancements

Slim & Lightweight: Just over 1/3 inch and 10.2 ounces Books in under 60 seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for crisp images and text; even reads well in bright sunlight

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: Text-to-Speech feature means Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud.

No Wireless Bills: No monthly wireless bills, data plans, or commitments. Amazon pays for Kindle’s wireless connectivity so you won’t see a monthly wireless bill.

Large Selection: Over 230,000 books, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines and blogs available

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

Give yourself a gift of a Kindle 2

Sample Letter to Clients

The following is a sample letter you can change to you own words and email to your clients. Include the full hyperlinks to the articles if you do not email. Add your clients first name for Client and your name for Advisor.

We are lucky today to have two great resources from knowledgeable experts to help us focus during these turbulent times. The Fed Chairman Bernanke Spoke to the Economic Club of New York, NY on October 15. Read it here: He made four important points:

1. This is not 1929-32 - we learned from our mistakes. Hover waited three years to respond and then tightened money. Fed acted immediately and loosened. 2. Fed Reserve has doubled in size, giving it a greater ability to impact the economy positively. 3. Everything hinges on the banks lending money again. 4. Therefore the Fed’s money will be used to stimulate the economy, if a bank does not lend money they will not be given money. They will learn quickly to start lending.

What controls the market? What makes the Market go up? Cash flow. What makes the market go down? Lack of cash flow. Cash flow into the economy is cash into the market. The infusion of $800 billion into the US economy by the Federal Reserve will be a stimulus.

The press continues to encourage investors to watch what the institutional and hedge fund managers are doing as an indicator for what they should do. And because they are selling, so should the investor. This is foolish advice, because institutional managers, during the extremes of the market, are never doing what they personally want to do. Because of redemptions during crashes and infusions of new money during rallies they are forced to liquidate or invest against their own best judgment. Investing is counter intuitive. One of the great counter intuitive investors is Warren Buffett. Read his letter to the New York Times here.

If you feel your risk profile has changed and would like to redo your risk profile analysis, we will be happy to help you.

Over the past several weeks we have talked to many people who are worried and fearful. They had no one to help them understand their situation. If you know someone you respect and value who is worried, there is no need from them to be in that situation. We’ll be happy to take them through the same analysis we use with each of our clients, at no cost or obligation, to make sure that they know where they are today, where they want to be in the future, and have a plan of action to get there. We do not what someone you care about to be afraid. Send them an email and say, Client I want to introduce you to Advisor, Advisor I want to introduce you to Client. Here is your contact information, you two should talk.

Follow this letter with a call to the Top 25 repeating the last paragraph.

50/25/25 Dollar Cost Average - How to Invest Money Now

The following is an excerpt from the new Second Edition of Attract Clients that will be available soon. There are times when the biggest difficulty you face in business is getting clients to commit their funds to an investment choice. Perhaps they agree with the concept of fee-based assets and even go so far as to say they want to place their money with professional managers, but then the question becomes not so much what to do or how to do it, but more importantly when. When is the best time to make the change and move the assets?

When asked about the best time to invest in the market, Warren Buffet said, “Whenever you have money.” Most of the time the market will be higher in the future from a present point in time; 60% to 70% of the time the market will be higher 18 months out than today so Warren Buffet is correct. The best thing you can do whenever you have money is to invest it.

That said, there are two types of money: money at risk in the past and money that was not at risk in the past. If we all had the risk profile and confidence of Warren Buffet to say, “I am setting these funds aside for an unlimited period of time and I will not worry because I will buy good companies and just hold,” then we could invest whenever we have the money. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case and we find that many investors are anxious. The stock market is a scary place for them. The funds they invest may never have been in the market before - a rolled over CD or GIC, or funds received from a business sale or real estate sale. These funds may also represent a large portion of a client’s total asset base. Therefore, prudence may encourage us to move into the market gradually. Some people like to put their toe in first and test the waters then gradually move in, while others are fine diving in. For “divers” the best thing to do is invest fully whenever they have the money. However, for the ones who want to wade in gradually, we created a model that assists your clients in adding funds to the market on a systematic basis.

I believe there are four important dates for the investment of new funds into the stock market. These dates are March 15th, June 15th, September 15th, and December 15th.

The dates are significant in that they precede the last two weeks of each quarter.

Something significant happens in the market during the last two weeks of a quarter called window dressing. When managers, investment advisors, mutual funds, and institutions liquidate underperforming positions, selling is the order of the day. This practice presents an ideal time for investors to add funds to the market as the institutions are in sell mode.

The dollar-cost averaging model starts with today’s date. If the client agrees the investment is a good thing to do, then they put 50% of the money in the market today. Then you determine future investment dates. For instance, if today’s date is February 20th, then select March 15th and June 15th as the remaining two date lines. Half the remaining assets, 25% of the total, will be invested into the market on each of these two dates.

Three scenarios can occur in the market after the initial investment of half the assets. Historically, over an 18 month period, the market tends to be up about 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time, the market could be down or flat. If we are bullish and think the market will be up in the future, it would be foolish to hold back part of the funds and wait to invest them later at a higher price. But what if we take a large portion of a client’s assets and invest today and then, in 2 months, the market drops significantly? The investment timing seems imprudent and the client might be upset. By using the Dollar-cost Averaging model a disciplined approach to making the investment decision of adding funds to the portfolio is established.

In my practice, when a pool of money accounts for 25% or more of a client’s existing assets, the Dollar-cost Averaging model was presented to the client as an alternative to investing all funds at once. If the client agreed, we immediately invested 50% of the assets in the market that day. We then determined the next two investment dates and allocated 25% of the total to be invested on each of those days. The client gave us a market order for those specific dates. My team wrote the order tickets for those dates, but the tickets were not dated for reasons I will explain shortly. My service assistant kept a folder for each of the four important dates: March 15th, June 15th, September 15th and December 15th. When a predetermined date arrived, all order tickets in that folder were executed.

Assume a client has $100,000 to invest, a large portion of their current assets. They agree to invest 50% today, 25% on March 15th, and 25% on June 15th. However, during the period between today and March 15th, the market pulls back and drops 9% below the previous quarter. That means the designated funds can buy at a 9% lower price than originally paid. It is not March 15th yet, but because the market is down 9% from the previous quarter, the folder of order tickets for the next important date are executed now. It is important to note that we never took discretion and contacted clients by phone to explain the opportunity to buy in earlier at a reduced price and to obtain their authorization. If you take discretion in client accounts, you can explain this possible scenario to the client up front.

Along comes March 15th. Since we already invested the funds, we do not do anything until the next quarter’s investment date. The market continues to go up. By June 15th, the market is higher. That is alright though because the client understood in advance that 70% of the time they would pay higher prices.

On average, the market may drop 9% inter-year about once every 18 months. If the market drops 18% inter-quarter, take the next two investments, the remaining 50%, and invest them both early. Over the last decade we invested near lows of the cycle by using this model.

When an investor is nervous, the Dollar-cost Averaging model is the best way to get their money into the market. Dollar-cost averaging renders a disciplined approach and the potential to pay significant benefits by investing at or near lows of the period. Even if you do not reap the additional benefit of investing at a lower price, the client still benefits by investing over time without missing the opportunities of a market that on average is up more often than down.

Answer Client Questions Easily

How do you handle client questions? Sometimes your business can be overwhelmed with questions that seem to be trivial or time consuming. If clients are asking a lot of small questions, there may be a trust issue. Deal with the disease and not the symptom. Build the trust and the questions will go away. Some clients just require more information. The following are a few simple tools you can apply to your business today.

1. Create a series of answers to common questions and save them as keyboard macros. When a client calls have your assistant get the whole question and then in a few keystrokes you can answer the question by email.

2. save all the answers and put together a FAQ file in PDF that you can send out to your clients quarterly as an educational piece. That way over time they will realize that the answer to their question is probably coming in the next update.

3. Solve the problem proactively by doing a monthly email about the issues you know your clients will be asking about. This answers their questions before they call or email and ask.

## Keyboard macro programs

Keyboard macro programs allow you to type a few simple letter and the program replaces what you type with the text you desire. There are several programs on the market that allow you to manage your keyboard macros. On the Mac I use [TypeIt4Me](http://typeit4me.com/). For a Windows computer, a [Google](http://www.google.com/) search for "keyboard macro windows" will reveal a number of choices.

A good keyboard macro program will allow you to define any text and give it a shortcut. I use a number of these for responding to email with different standard replies.

## Examples:

"aaty" results in "Thank you, Lloyd"

"aasub" results in "You are now subscribed. Thank you, Lloyd"

"aats" results in "2007-01-18 - Thu - 11:53"

"aaattract" results in "Attract Clients: A Financial Advisor's Guide to Building and Running a Practice"