One Advisor's Experience

Hear from one advisor who uses FocusPoint about what makes our portfolio management offering different:

What makes FocusPoint's portfolio management offering different from the other money managers you've used?

ADVISOR:

Flexibility. In addition to the transparency

At the time I started working with another money manager, I couldn't move existing positions into an account. So if I had clients with low cost basis or investments they owned for sentimental purposes and so forth, my hands were tied. They couldn't try to work a model around them - FocusPoint could, which to me was a huge advantage.

FocusPoint's system also allows me to be able to work with some smaller accounts. I have a good client with a 700k IRA, but his wife has a 5k Roth. I don't want to have to say to them, "I can manage your account, but I can't do yours." With another money manager there were minimums, so it was not for everyone. With FocusPoint it was nice to have that flexibility of being able to work with small accounts when necessary. It wasn't that I was going to out prospecting for 5k accounts, but when you have clients who have smaller accounts in addition to their larger accounts, you want to be able to accommodate them.

And I also have much more involvement in the investment process - being able to move positions in and hold them. Yes, I outsourced the investments in the first place to not be involved, but I think at some level you want to have some control. I never want to have to tell my clients, "They did this" or "They did that." I now can honestly tell my clients, "This is what we did" when we made a strategic decision to move out of high yield bonds, or trimmed back on real estate, for example.

With typical money managers you don't have that luxury. You can't delay changes to a client's account based on what you think is best. It's whatever they decide to do - even if you don't agree with it. You don't have the choices you have with FocusPoint. I can opt out of or delay recommendations based on what I think is best for my clients.

What's interesting is that when some FocusPoint partners talk to other advisors about their investment process—and what makes us different from a typical money manager advisors might be used to - often times it appears that the advisors who work with FocusPoint are spending a whole lot of time on investments simply because they have so much knowledge about it, when in fact they're not spending very much time on investments at all. How much time would you say you need to spend on the investments piece of your business in order to feel comfortable?

ADVISOR:

At this point, I do a little of my own due diligence, but no more than 1-2 hours a week - and that might be a lot.

When a change or recommendation is being made, that's when I go into my mode of doing a bit of research on my own. For example, FocusPoint proposes that we sell XYZ fund and use two new large cap positions. Okay, now it's time for me to do a bit of research on my own to help me make that decision for clients ultimately, but I definitely don't do this regularly. I'm not looking for "better" options out there than what is recommended by FocusPoint's investment committee, because I have complete confidence in them, but I do think it's important that when I speak to my clients, I can do so intelligently about why I made those changes.

It's what works for me.

I can run any type of performance or management reports I want, but as far as being actively involved in the investments process, I'm relying on FocusPoint almost totally.

Ideally that's how it's supposed to work - so that you have some time to step back and consider any recommendations the investment committee might make - which really puts you in a position of being in control and being able to talk to clients very knowledgeably about what's happening.

ADVISOR:

Definitely.

The agreement my clients have is with us, not with FocusPoint.

I looked really closely at some other turnkey asset management programs and just decided I didn't feel comfortable with any of them. I just knew there had to be an option better out there which would give me more control.

The discretion on the accounts falls to us, not to FocusPoint. Ultimately it helps me to feel better that I've done everything I could to make sure that these are suitable recommendations for my clients and I'm on top of things.

I know I'm doing what's best for my clients and that's why I continue to stay involved at that level. I'm comfortable with that responsibility.