Ep 262: Asking More Questions In The Discovery Process To Deepen Client Relationships With Melanie Milam
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.7 • 719 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2022
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melanie Milam is an advisor with Gateway Financial Partners, a super-OSJ affiliated with LPL Financial located in Texas, where she oversees $150M of assets under management for her 110 client households. Melanie has a truly unique approach to connecting with clients by using a tried-and-true list of 34 questions that creates a deeper, longer-lasting relationship with clients.
Listen in as Melanie shares how she leveraged her knowledge as a CPA, as well as her husband's managerial experience and personal connections, to launch her firm - all while homeschooling her six children. We also dive into how Melanie weaves her faith into her financial work, how she builds deep and long-lasting relationships with clients, and why she believes that women can have it all (just not all at the same time).
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/262
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with financial planner, |
| 0:08.4 | speaker and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading financial advisors |
| 0:13.6 | navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight from leading |
| 0:19.2 | industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.0 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.3 | Welcome to the 260 second episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's |
| 0:34.6 | podcast is Melanie Milam. Melanie is an advisor with Gateway Financial |
| 0:38.2 | Partners, a super OSJ affiliated with LPL Financial located in Texas, where she oversees |
| 0:43.2 | 150 million of assets under management for her 110 client households. What's unique about |
| 0:48.7 | Melanie, though, is her approach to connecting with clients, mostly in the oil and gas industry, |
| 0:52.9 | through a tried and true list |
| 0:54.2 | of 34 questions that she's built specifically geared towards maximizing the amount of time |
| 0:58.5 | clients talk about themselves, to not only gain better perspective on their goals, but to create |
| 1:03.1 | deeper, longer-lasting relationships. |
| 1:05.6 | In this episode, we talk in depth about how Melanie or husband began her firm by leveraging |
| 1:10.2 | her knowledge as a CPA |
| 1:11.4 | and his managerial experience and personal connections in the oil and gas industry, which led them to |
| 1:16.4 | find her niche market. The way the Melanie's firm segments clients into tiers to align their services |
| 1:21.2 | and provide more specialized gifts and experiences for her top clients. And how Melanie's faith drove her to |
| 1:26.8 | obtain her certified |
| 1:27.8 | kingdom advisor, CCA designation, so that she can connect with her faith-based clients and give |
| 1:32.7 | back to her community. We also talk about how Melanie managed to begin her firm while homeschooling |
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