Ep 404: The Evolution Of Specializing In College Planning To Work With Mid-Career Professionals Who Save with Ann Garcia
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2024
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ann Garcia is a partner of Independent Progressive Advisors, an RIA based out of Portland that oversees approximately $115 million in assets under management for 120 clients. Ann has distinguished herself by developing a nationally recognized expertise in college financial planning, a specialty that has grown alongside her advisory business, now focusing on mid-career professionals who balance saving for their children's college education with their own retirement planning. This dual focus reflects the evolving needs of her clientele as they navigate significant financial milestones.
Listen in as Ann shares how she developed her reputation as a college planning expert by transforming client queries into a specialized blog that gained national attention, eventually leading to the publication of a book on college planning and the creation of an online course. She also discusses how her expertise has attracted mid-career professionals, to the point where her firm is nearing capacity in its current form, how purchasing a retiring advisor’s practice laid the groundwork for the firm she desired, and how she refined her sales skills early on by taking meetings with all prospects who approached her, even if they were not a good fit for her firm. Ann also emphasizes the importance of initiating early discussions on college affordability within families and describes her decision to leave a prominent firm to create one that aligns with her values, allowing her to serve clients she truly understands and appreciates.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/404
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:07.1 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.4 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.4 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:22.2 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.0 | Welcome to the 404th episode of the Financial Advisor's Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:34.7 | Anne Garcia. Anne is a partner with independent progressive advisors, an RAA based in Portland, Oregon, |
| 0:39.8 | that oversees approximately $115 million in asset center management for 120 client households. |
| 0:45.7 | What's unique about Ann, though, is how she crafted a nationally recognized expertise in college financial planning, |
| 0:50.8 | and the ways that specialization has evolved as Anne's advisory business itself |
| 0:54.6 | has evolved its focus on serving mid-career professionals balancing the competing priorities |
| 0:59.8 | of saving for college and their own retirements. In this episode, we talk in depth about |
| 1:04.9 | Anne's path to becoming a recognized college planning expert, which started by becoming the |
| 1:09.6 | in-house expert within her own |
| 1:11.3 | firm by researching answers to common client questions about funding college for their children. |
| 1:17.3 | How Anne leveraged the emails that she had already been sending to clients to answer those |
| 1:21.5 | college funding questions to compose the initial articles of a blog on college planning, |
| 1:27.1 | and how the blog's singular focus on college |
| 1:29.2 | planning specialization allowed Anne relatively quickly earn acknowledgment and hyperlink traffic |
| 1:34.0 | from national publications like New York Times. And how Anne has further leveraged this expertise |
| 1:39.2 | in media exposure to publish a book and build an online course on college planning, allowing her to serve families |
| 1:45.1 | that she knows need her help but aren't necessarily a fit for her advisory firm's core wealth |
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