Financial advisors spend their careers helping clients plan for retirement. Yet many reach their own retirement years with more questions than answers. Iron Oaks Wealth Advisors approaches advisor longevity differently—by building the infrastructure for a sustainable, successful career from day one.
What Matters Most
Financial Advisor and Managing Partner Thu Saunders, CRPC™, has thought deeply about what she needs to retire comfortably. Her answer is surprisingly simple.
“All I need to retire is to know and have the confidence that my clients and my team members are in good hands. It's really that simple,” Thu says.
Private Wealth Advisor and CEO Rick Saunders, CFP®, ChFC®, APMA®, explains how Iron Oaks supports these transitions: “We help advisors sunset—we're doing two transitions right now from a parent to a child of their practice. The most important thing for most advisors who care about their career is they want to make sure their clients have a great home. They want to make sure their clients are taken care of, that they're going to get the best possible advice.”
Building a Legacy Practice
Thu describes how the partners' thinking evolved from creating a lifestyle practice to creating a legacy practice.
“Years ago, we thought about working as hard as we can, retiring and selling our practice,” Thu explains. “Now, it's about working with clients generationally. How do we make this sustainable? How can Iron Oaks Wealth Advisors be a name that's known for decades and generations?”
Larry Minogue, CFP®, APMA®, Iron Oaks Financial Advisor, joined Iron Oaks specifically with succession in mind.
“Somebody that's been in the business for 35 years, eventually I'm going to have to transition out. I want to make sure my clients are taken care of. By moving over to this team, that's a younger team, I know there will be a smooth transition,” he explains.
Stability That Compounds
Thu explains what provides the foundation: “The systems and structures that really helped me build towards my personal retirement is my team. With being a sole practitioner for so many years, it was hard to delegate. Now I've got this amazing team—everybody's like, ‘what can I do to help?’”
Rick notes this takes a balance of both the emotional and economic aspects.
“A lot of your clients are your best friends, your family, and you want to make sure they're cared for, he says. “Of course, economics come into it. We want to help as many people as possible—that's our driving motivator, not to have the best bottom line. But it's important to make sure advisors get a good economic package when they sunset, too.”
Growth That Builds Value
Rick describes the growth philosophy: “I'd love to say there's one magic bullet, but I believe it's doing a lot of little improvements over time. Each quarter, we focus on three to five processes, systems, or client experience points to improve. If you can improve 15 to 20 per year, and do that year after year, you wake up three to five years later running a much different practice.”
Larry's results demonstrate the impact. At his previous practice, “we probably grew 10 percent a year for four or five years,” he explains. “But here in the first year, probably 20 percent. We really attribute that to the team that's handling the everyday operations.”
Legacy Beyond the Practice
Larry describes what he's most proud of building.
“When you've been doing it for 35 years, really it's my legacy,” he says. “I want to leave a legacy. I want to imprint on my clients, imprint on the other advisors in this office, but more importantly, my son. He's a freshman at Auburn, and he wants to be in finance. I'm building a practice for him to join. When we joined Iron Oaks, I felt that, hey, this is a place that he'll be able to come in and take on his career.”
At Iron Oaks Wealth Advisors, advisors get to build their own legacies while helping clients build theirs. That's what retiring well really means: knowing that your life's work mattered, that your clients are cared for, and that you've built something that lasts.
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