Accepting new customers. 6. Official Info Here -year client retention rate. 7. Five-year customer retention rate. 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or nondiscretionaryclient properties administered. 9. Number of customer families served. 10. Education and professional classifications. The needed Eligibility Requirements are generally table stakes to even become part of the advisory profession. There's nothing brave about being accredited and not having pissed-off your clients.
And I tend to concur with Michael Kitces that it's currently too simple to get licensed as a monetary advisor. But that's an industry problem, not a 5 star program problem per se. The Assessment Requirements which 5 star states they consider appears to all be self-reported by advisors. How does 5 star examine accuracy and truthfulness? And what weighting does each item have in their factor to consider? They do not reveal that.
It appears they may offer significant weight to properties under administration, however they don't tell you how much. What I did find in the 2016 5 Star Wealth Supervisor Disclosure for Portland were fine print items like these:"Award does not evaluate quality of services supplied to clients."Naturally it doesn't.
That can't happen in this context for a variety of reasons."Once awarded, wealth supervisors may purchase extra profile ad space or advertising products."As suggested, that's the real factor driving the entire exercise."Wealth supervisors may or may not utilize discretion in their practice and therefore may not handle their customer's assets.
Now, there's definitely nothing wrong with being a Relationship Managerthat's an important role in many scenarios. Simply call it what it is and give up deceiving customers by claiming you're doing something that you're not. ********** So I'm calling out fellow financial organizers and investment advisors who've been granted as 5 star Wealth Managers.
You understand in your heart that a real factor of "5 star" would measure customer service and complete satisfaction, which is not even possible in this context. You understand this is mainly a marketing scheme developed to make you look good in the eyes of customers and potential clients who just do not know any better.
If you are the excellent Wealth Manager I hope you areone really worthwhile of five starsthen I challenge you to drop this suspicious award. Rather, sign up with the small however growing number of us who aim to advance quality, rigor, quality, and client service in the monetary planning and advisory profession.