Welcome back to the 357th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Jon Henderson. Jon is the Founder and CIO for Echo45 Advisors, an independent RIA based in Walnut Creek, California, that oversees $163 million in assets under management for more than 180 client households.
What’s unique about Jon, though, is how he has carefully vetted and curated his advisor tech stack of third-party software to provide a strong “high-tech” client experience… and has paired the technology with what he calls a “Client Concierge” staff member who leverages a series of internal checklists they’ve developed to ensure that every client is receiving a high-touch service as well.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Jon evolved his “high tech and high touch” mindset to serving clients by regularly iterating upon and updating his advisor tech stack while also elevating his long-time client service administrator into a more holistic client concierge (because the future isn’t about tech or human service, it’s tech and human service, each doing what they’re best at), why Jon pursued a Certificate in Blockchain and Digital Assets from the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and now uses a digital TAMP, Eaglebrook Advisors, to hold a 1% allocation to cryptocurrencies for his clients, and why Jon left his team at Merrill Lynch after 19 years where he was managing $150 million in assets under management and serving 150 client households so that he could launch his own firm to serve clients in the high-touch high-tech way he saw fit (which meant including the aforementioned cryptocurrency investing, deeper tax and estate planning, working with a more manageable number of clients he could really focus on, and being able to curate his own desired tech stack).
We also talk about the tools and services that Jon has incorporated into his own modern advisor tech stack, including why Jon utilizes a service called Advisor Referral Boost to gain better vetted introductory meetings with Centers of Influence like CPAs and estate planning attorneys to develop a steady flow of referrals, why Jon uses Asset-Map to help clients visualize their finances (and even has prospects fill out their financial information so that their own Asset-Map can be populated prior to an initial discovery meeting), and how Jon has integrated an annual tax review into every client’s service offering (and then completes the tax reviews efficiently by leveraging Holistiplan).
And be certain to listen to the end, where Jon shares how he went through the breakaway process to launch his firm just as the pandemic hit and had to deal with the pressures of paying employees and having invested a lot of money into an office space and tools even as the stock market plummeted, why Jon credits listening to podcasts about financial advisors and the struggles they faced as they were launching their firms as a major source of education and inspiration for him to launch his own firm (because it’s easier to gain perspective on what’s really possible by hearing the journeys that others have taken), and how Jon’s own definition of success has evolved as his career has evolved, from what was initially about simply bringing in clients and generating revenue but now increasingly is about being a job creator who’s providing opportunities for his team to be growing and expanding as more and more clients are served.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Jon built a truly collaborative team of experts, how he balances crowded meetings with work demands, and why Jon believes that leveraging technology to connect teams and educate people can help everyone make the most of their talents, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Jon Henderson.
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