How RightCapital Increased This Advisor’s Closing Ratio

I wouldn't be anywhere I am without it, just because my focus is all on planning. I want to have an impact for clients. That's my whole goal—impact for my clients, make the biggest difference I can for them—and RightCapital has been the most critical tool that has allowed me to do that. The investments are hugely important, but that's not where life happens. It supports the life, and RightCapital allows me to show the life that is possible and help them understand what they need to do, or continue to do, or do less of, so they can make their ideal life possible. RightCapital makes that happen.

I was talking to these other advisors, and they're like, "I'm in RightCapital with my clients. We look at investments for five minutes, and we're in the financial plan almost the entire time." That's because the clients are asking, "What if I did this? What if I retired early?" It gets to the heart of what matters most for clients. That's been the biggest difference. RightCapital is the easiest way for me to demonstrate it, and more importantly, for the clients to understand it. That's what's so critical. I can easily demonstrate it—it takes some understanding of the software—but they can understand it, and that's absolutely critical.

There are a few different examples. I had a gentleman who hired me just as a financial planner. He wanted to know: Could he retire early? And if he could, how would he distribute his income? And thirdly, how could he save on taxes? I charged him just for a plan initially, and because of the work that I did in RightCapital—I walked him through it, like I explained earlier, beginning to end, the strategies and everything—he later became a client. He's one of my largest clients. It's all because of RightCapital showing the values and the impacts that, yes, retirement is possible, and this is what he can do.

I could show him why it's possible, and then I showed him how critically important it is for us to start and begin these Roth conversions prior to his pension beginning at 65. All of that was tremendously helpful in securing clients. By leading with financial planning—always leading with financial planning with RightCapital software—my closing ratio is so much better. Absolutely better. That's been tremendously helpful for me and for clients. For those who want to onboard with me, it's so much easier with RightCapital. My closing percentage is so much higher.

It's brought more money from current clients. Almost all of them have given me new assets because of the financial planning that I've done with them. I had a small client, maybe had $50,000, and now I have over $600,000 with them. Because I walked through—they had rental properties, they wanted to retire, he has a pension—and I could incorporate all these factors, and they were just blown away that I'm offering this. Compared to just investment management—I give investment management that's really sound, and then I also give the financial planning piece as well. They're so gracious and appreciative of the fact that I've helped them understand what's possible and brought that peace of mind.

So I'd say more than anything, it's brought more money from current clients and converted more prospects into good clients because of RightCapital.

That's why RightCapital has been so tremendous. I spend most of my time in client meetings in RightCapital, showing them what's possible and whether they're on track. What RightCapital does is provide peace of mind and understanding, but as an advisor, it shows really easily the impact that I can have.

For example, I had three prospects recently in the last couple of days. With two of them, I jump right into RightCapital with them. It's the best prospecting tool in the world, because I just put their information into RightCapital while we're talking, and we walk through the fields. I go through it, I enter it, and I explain why we're choosing this, and then we show them an understanding. Last week I had a different prospect, and they were so grateful at the end. They said, "This was so tremendously helpful." It wouldn't have been that case if I showed them some investment portfolio. Not that I really believe in that stuff anyway—it's more passive than anything, right?

I think the difference we're going to make is through the planning. RightCapital so easily allows me to articulate and show the impact of what I can do for them and the impact I can have. That's why I think RightCapital is so good. It's the most convenient and easy way for clients to understand. And once they understand, then they have buy-in, they have conviction, they have follow-through.

They really like when I can turn features on and off—like, "What if I bought a real estate property?" That's not with me; I'm not managing property. But I can show them what impact that's going to have on their overall picture, and that's what RightCapital allows us to do. It allows me to touch every aspect of their life. So wherever finances and life intersect, I can give them guidance. I can give them good advice on what that looks like, and it's been tremendously helpful.

It's broadened my impact, and that's the goal I have for my practice—to have the biggest impact I can for my clients. You want them to be so incredibly happy they're working with you. I'm so incredibly happy I have RightCapital, because it allows me to show them, "Hey, this is what we can do." Again, I'm not managing their rental property, but I can show how it's going to impact their goals, what they ultimately want. That's what's so beautiful about this. It shows our value more than anything else.

The future of this profession is advice. It's going to continue to go that way. I don't see that ever changing. Where the real value we can provide is answering the questions of what's possible given their plans, and that's what RightCapital allows me to do. From the property, to the goals, to taking vacations every year, to giving money to charity or what have you—I can model everything so easily, and they understand it. It's been awesome.

What really helps is the cash flows. When I dig in, I say, "Here's your income. This is what's coming from Social Security. This are the distributions." And if I can show the details—and I show them everything, I'm very specific—I've learned to answer questions before they're asked, which is, "Yes, everything's inflation-adjusted." I say, "If you notice, this is adjusted for inflation. We're accounting for long-term care for the last two years. We're accounting for these expenses in retirement. This healthcare is going to adjust. Yes, it says $60,000 right now for long-term care, but by the time you need it at 95, it's really going to be $300,000—but our system has that adjusted. We have a separate component for healthcare inflation, then another component."

So I'm putting them at ease, and their reaction is, "Yeah, he's accounted for everything." I always say, "We stress-test the plans, and we put it at maximum, so all the surprises are to the upside." That gives them the confidence and the reassurance, and clients really appreciate it, because most of them, before this, are just winging it. They have no idea. They don't have a clue whether they're on track. They feel like they're behind. I have clients come in and say, "Yeah, I feel like I'm 10 years behind. I don't have enough."

And then you can show them not only are you not behind, but you could retire a couple years early based on current projections. It really flips the script and their perspective on what's possible, because they see the numbers. I let them know, "Hey, this is showing probability of success, and you're going to be fine." And I say, "This is assuming we don't change any spending, like if there's a market turn." Clearly there's probably going to be some adjustments made, right?

So it's incredibly helpful for them, and it gives them a sense of security, a sense of understanding and peace about, "Yeah, okay, I'm on track, but there are some things I need to do to optimize." That's been tremendously helpful.