For Advisors

Helping military and federal government families is a special niche, one that requires some specialized knowledge and a level of empathy that not too many advisors can showcase. Their needs are specific and specialized, and the advisor’s skill set must follow suit to serve them well. Kate Cote has developed a practice around these skills and knowledge, and her clients are as loyal as can be as a result. Don’t miss this fact-filled episode on niche practice development as its finest.

Kate Cote, specializes in helping active and retired military families transition to the private sector and federal government employees navigate towards retirement. Kate is the owner of Red Clover Financial Planning, an independent financial advisory firm that offers its clients a personalized holistic approach to financial health and personal happiness that is accessible no matter where life takes them. Kate has over 20 years of experience in the financial service industry and is a certified financial planner. She is committed to delivering financial plans that serve as a comprehensive action-oriented roadmap. As a military spouse and after years of experience helping government employees, Kate is well-versed in the benefits and challenges employees in these areas face and desires to help them maximize their opportunities to live their best lives now.

Their benefits really put them in a position where they can retire early, but definitely planning has to be done around that because usually the pension isn’t enough to fund their lifestyle when they retire. So, you know, you have to build up assets that can be accessible without penalty or create other passive streams of income so that they can do it . . . They have the pension, which is huge. It can be quite significant amount of money. And then the other thing that helps make it possible to retire early is the healthcare benefits that they receive. Military can continue with Tricare and government employees can continue to pay the employee amount for the health insurance that they have, which is quite a bit less than what you would have to pay out on the open market or even for a supplement plan when you go on Medicare at age 65.

Have referrals started to dry up, is your pipeline of new business getting shorter and shorter, is it taking you longer to find and identify prospects? If the answer to any of these is “yes”, then this is the episode for you! Christ Wendt lays out digital web-based marketing tactics chapter and verse, digs in deep and shows you what’s needed to start reeling in new clients you’d never find any other way. Don’t miss this make or break half hour!

Chris is the founder of Midstream Marketing, a digital agency that delivers predictable quality leads for independent financial advisors. Some of his current clients include Pinnacle Advisory Group, Financial Synergies Wealth Advisors, Alfa Fiduciary, and a dozen other firms across the country ranging from small startups to close to 1 billion in AUM. Christopher started his agency back in 2002 and first began to serve RIAs in 2010 when he took on the Pinnacle Advisory account. From there, one thing led to another and by 2016, he found that he wanted to serve RIA exclusively. He and his veteran team perfected their platform called Lead-Gen Formula, which is a unique multichannel approach to generating leads for advisors.

Christopher is a regular contributor to wealthmanagement.com and advisor perspectives. He also taught rhetoric and computer programming at Franciscan University in Steubenville and other liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. In addition to being president of the digital agency, Christopher likes to go hiking with his wife had nine kids, especially in the Smoky Mountains.

I coined the phrase “financial therapy” and it took off like gangbusters, the fact that it’s a therapeutic These digital efforts take some time. I just talked to a guy this week who just a year later was able to turn a lead, or prospect from Smart Assets into a client. Really, you have to have a bigger picture to understand what growing AUM digitally is like. It’s really about building an audience. And one of the ways you do that on your website is by offering a free checklist or guide. Whatever the issue is on retirement, investing, etc., we develop, you know, guides around that.