Every one of Beratung Advisors’ clients go through its 6-step Financial Planning process. The process, which is succinctly outlined on its website, every aspect of a client’s financial picture is reviewed and presented so that they understand the dynamics.

In the first session—the “Listen” meeting—advisors get to know the client’s goals, values, and unique life situation. In the next step, an internal meeting called a “Peer to Peer” review, financial planners develop a plan and discuss the best way to explain the information. The following step is the “Clarify” meeting, where advisors develop a personalized financial plan based upon the client’s goals and data. The next step is the “Educate” meeting, where the client receives recommendations and a breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses in their plan.

In the final two steps, the “Implement” and “Monitor” steps, the client’s plan is put into practice and continually reviewed. “Transparency plays a huge role in client retention and client relationships,” says Sarah Buchko, Director of Operations for the Pittsburgh-based firm. “Your clients trust you with delicate information about their goals, financials and what keeps them up at night. If they don’t trust you or think you’re hiding something, the chances of them becoming or staying a client is very slim. Transparency is a large part of our brand and messaging.”

Beratung Advisors meet with its clients on a regular basis to constantly review and monitor the plan, helping them to adapt the plan as new challenges may arise. “We never stop educating our clients and helping them pursue their goals and live a fulfilling life,” Buchko says. “From internally to client facing, we believe being radically transparent is so key to our relationships with our team and our clients.”

No new clients are brought on board unless they go through the “6-step Financial Planning” process. “Through the process, we are able to thoroughly understand the client’s financial goals, what keeps them up at night, their risk tolerance, and many other key pieces of information so we can make recommendations that align with their goals and financial picture,” Buchko says.

The Relationship Factor

If you have visited the Covenant Wealth Strategies’ office, met with an advisor or spoken with a member of its support staff, you most likely would have heard someone say, “We get to do meaningful work for people we care about, with people we care about.”

Client Concierge Dave Walker says the culture at the Wilmington, Delaware, firm is centered around the principle of relationships. “Excellent service is built upon healthy relationships. Healthy relationships are built upon transparency, and transparency is the result of integrity. We desire to serve our clients with excellence, which demands that we know them, which requires them to know everything about us. Therefore, we strive to be proactive in our communication and work diligently to ensure that our clients know or have access to the information they need.”

For example, Covenant Wealth Strategies regularly reviews the fees associated with the services it provides. Walker says the firm is eager to share this information because fostering a healthy relationship demands transparency. “A healthy relationship is the goal and transparency is a key ingredient.”

When it comes to investing in its clients and building healthy relationships with them, trust is the commodity Covenant Wealth aims to exchange. “If an aspect of our relationship is causing the client to feel uncertain, we want to be able to discuss it,” Walker says. “It’s because we prioritize this conversation at every meeting that we’re able to maintain open dialogue and build trust with our clients.”

In an industry where a continual flux in regulatory and compliance matters results in ever-changing legislation, being able to transparently adjust your firm to remain in step with those changes is critical. “We place a significant amount of effort into communicating clearly and consistently with our clients during periods of regulatory change,” says Wealth Advisor Dan Crisona. “This is one of the many reasons why we place a high priority on meeting with our clients as frequently as possible. Our ideal client relationship would meet at least once every six months, which enables us to keep our clients up to date with any relevant regulatory or compliance changes and empowers them to make the very best decisions.”

Crisona says the healthiest relationships are based on a clear understanding of each other’s values. At Covenant Wealth, the No. 1 objective in a client relationship is to get to know the client’s personal history, their future desires, the values that shape who they have become and who they will be in the future. “Once we know the client, then we can help them understand the complex tools and concepts that we use. It’s important to remember that our objective is to serve the client. If we don’t work diligently to determine how to communicate in a way they can understand, then we aren’t prioritizing the client’s needs over our own. On a practical level, we tell the client we want to know as much about them as possible, because all that they are will influence all of the decisions they make regarding their wealth portfolio.”

With trust and transparency being the cornerstones of a resilient financial system, ensuring that stakeholders can make informed decisions with confidence is the key to building and fostering relationships. By prioritizing these critical variables, the finance industry can foster a culture of integrity and accountability, paving the way for sustainable growth and stability.

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