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Today, my assistant's main function is to prepare me for my reviews. She takes care of that whole process, checklists and forms I complete after I've made the appointments. She knows that this is everything I need her to put together in a binder for me to prepare me for my review.

She also does some day—to—day client service work—withdrawals and deposits, management reports, etc. She helps me with some client communications.

I have a lot of confidence in FocusPoint. In terms of transition and operations, they always lived up to their end of the bargain.

Oh, absolutely. Systems is the key.

There's no question that you have to have the systems in place. And it's easier when it's done under one model. It needs to be in one place.

That was the other thing about my previous situation. It was pretty common for me to have a client with an American funds account held directly at American funds, a brokerage account at my broker/dealer, a variable annuity account, and a managed account at a TAMP. Now you've got four different sets of forms, four different websites, four different 800—numbers, four different statements coming in, and so on. So from a staff—and client—standpoint, to become familiar with all of that is just impossible.

We've now simplified everything. We have procedures and policies manuals in place, checklists, everything. And all we had to do it for was one custodian, so that was helpful. This all gives me peace of mind when I'm out of the office as well.

Now, I spend more time with fewer clients, and I have more free time from the operations side. This model allows about as much free time as you want. At the beginning of the year my goal was to take six weeks of vacation, which is twice as much as I've ever taken, and I'll be able to fulfill that.

I think the biggest change is not having to make as many decisions about what to do with regard to each account.

I just don't have to think about all of that. Now, I have one thing to be very good at, and one way to get paid.

It's just streamlined and simplified things, but not at the clients' expense, which is a very important element. Clients are even doing better—they're getting better returns and paying less, and I'm more accessible.

That can't be bad.

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