Financial Advisor and Quarterback Sacked for Loss of Yards
April 14, 2009 by RickBryan
Most of my estate planning engagements come from insurance advisors and CFPs, because among estate planning lawyers I recognize the benefits of life insurance and annuities where many attorneys just can’t get passed the ‘exhorbitant’ commissions being earned by the sales rep despite the value of the product to the client. For that reason, I have a pretty good sense of how all of the client’s advisors work together to put the client’s plan in place correctly and effectively and efficiently. That’s how I run my business and profession. The financial advisor is almost always the “quarterback” of the client’s financial plan; providing the broad outlines of how a client’s goals might be achieved. Unfortunately, I lost a big estate planning engagement recently which was in the works for months, and a potentially long term relationship with an advisor, because (in my opinion, obviously) the advisor didn’t actually understand the role of a quarterback.
The financial advisor (somewhat new to the business, but very successful in a short period of time) was aggressive during the client meetings regarding her role: “I am the quarterback,” came out of her month every ten minutes. Unfortunately, to me at least, she didn’t actually understand an important aspect of that position. Which is (at least it used to be before headsets), to setup the offensive formation and assign the routes for the wide receivers and backs, and watch the defense setup and call an audible where necessary. And then the ball is snapped and the quarterback’s plan is set in motion. The point now though is once the quarterback hands the ball off to the running back, the back gets to carry the ball according to how he does his job; cut left or right and juke and sidestep; whatever. Once the quarterback hands the ball off, it’s no longer his job to follow the back down the field and direct where he goes to gain yardage. The QB steps back and watches the play unfold, unless he’s blocking, of course.
Similarly, once I am handed the role of advising and drafting on the proper construction of a Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, for example, the financial advisor no longer has a role in watching over my shoulder to opine on the clauses I decide to use and how I word various provisions of the document. This advisor simply couldn’t understand that trust construction can be accomplished in a variety of ways, and that I was not going to let her nitpick and comment and have me explain the use and available alternatives of every sentence in my documents. Despite the fact that it was her client and her relationship, the financial advisor just couldn’t get over her need to control those aspects of the game plan which properly fell under my purview as the attorney on the team. Unfortunate; one meeting ended acrimoniously and I doubt the clients are going forward with their estate plan, or with the purchase of the insurance and annuities which were on the table. Most unfortunately, I had about $7,000.00 of billable time on this case, and I’m certain that’s money lost, along with a potentially good client relationship, and a relationship with the financial advisor. Fortunately, I was able to discuss what happened with the advisor’s managing partner, whom I’ve known for a long time, and who was aware of the advisor’s controlling nature. So at least referrals will still be coming from that agency, if not from that particular advisor. Oh well; we’ve all got to live and learn.
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!