Ep 348: Building Your Own Planning Spreadsheets To Show Clients What They Need To See With Jeff Jones
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2023
⏱️ 104 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jeff Jones is the owner and founder of Cypress Financial Planning, an independent RIA based out of New Jersey that oversees $275 million in assets under management for 380 client households. Jeff stands out for creating custom financial planning spreadsheets in Excel that seamlessly integrate into PowerPoint presentations, an approach that not only crafts a compelling financial story for clients, but also ensures transparency in every projection.
Listen in as Jeff shares how he leveraged his engineering background at Lockheed Martin to craft unique Excel spreadsheets, which later inspired a FinTech company now catering to other financial planning firms. You'll learn why he decided not to partner with the FinTech venture (opting instead for specific equity agreements to motivate partners and plan for his exit strategy), as well as how the invaluable guidance from FP Transitions helped in valuing his firm. Jeff also opens up about his early mentorship experiences and his aspirations to contribute through pro bono financial planning.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/348
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:06.8 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.1 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.2 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:21.9 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.8 | Welcome to the 348th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:35.1 | Jeff Jones. Jeff is the owner and founder of Cyprus Financial Planning, |
| 0:38.9 | an independent RIA based in Haddon Heights, New Jersey that oversees 275 million in assets |
| 0:43.6 | on our management for about 380 client households. What to think about Jeff, though, is how he built |
| 0:48.8 | his own financial planning spreadsheets in Excel and has developed coding and integrations |
| 0:53.1 | that automatically populate |
| 0:54.5 | in a PowerPoint presentations, that he then shows to clients to help build a story for their |
| 0:58.7 | financial plans and give them motivation they need to achieve their financial goals, |
| 1:02.7 | while also still being able to know an audit where every single number in the projection |
| 1:06.7 | came from. |
| 1:08.1 | In this episode, we talk in depth about how Jeff leverage his early years as an engineer |
| 1:12.0 | for Lockheed Martin to develop the macros and visual basic code for his Excel spreadsheets |
| 1:16.3 | to create more customizable and in-depth financial plans than he could with the traditional |
| 1:20.8 | off-the-shelf planning software. Why Jeff felt compelled to build his own spreadsheets, because he felt |
| 1:26.0 | that would give him more confidence to be able to answer client questions about all the underlying assumptions and the details being |
| 1:31.0 | presented because he deeply understood the inner workings and the limitations of the planning |
| 1:35.4 | spreadsheets that he built. And how Jeff has spent time over the years iterating on spreadsheets |
... |
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