Prospecting Seminar for Financial Planners and Investment Advisors.

It covers financial planning, all types of risk, retirement planning, investments, asset allocation, portfolio optimization, and more. It has scripts that help tell you what to say for most slides.

Nothing is protected, so you can make any changes you want to it - you can hide/delete/edit/add new slides, insert clipart, and do anything you want.

PowerPoint Presentations are when you use a computer as the source of data for a slide projector, that projects the slides onto a big screen (or one-on-one from your computer).

Then you push buttons on a remote control or keyboard to move back and forth between the slides. You basically talk about a slide, and then press next, then talk about that one, etc.

This works much better than the old transparency systems, but can cost hundreds to buy the projector. Just the light bulb for an old transparency projector costs over $100. So either way costs money to get going to project onto a big screen.

If you have an old transparency projector, and want to keep doing things that way, then you can just buy blank slide transparencies from an office supply store, and most printers will allow you to feed them in and print right from the PowerPoint seminar. So in most cases, you can easily turn this PowerPoint seminar into an old-style transparency seminar.

This seminar has brought in about one-half-million of new managed money every time it's been used by a good team in a corporate environment.

It's been approved by three Broker Dealers in the past, so it should make through yours too, because there's little to nothing in it that would raise an eyebrow. So the answer to the question, "Is it FINRA approved?" The answer is that it was, but it was so long ago that we can't find the approval letters. You'll need to add/delete/edit/organize the slides, and then submit it for approval anyway.

If you want to do financial planning marketing seminars, you basically have five choices:

1) Buy a system from a large vendor like Emerald or whomever is still doing that these days. These are great, but you're going to spend over $1,000. Then they're going to ding you every time you have to restock your supplies (e.g., Fact Finders). And, of course, you can't modify anything to fit your way of doing business. Some still use outdated transparencies and have not moved to being computer-based yet. They say it's because you need to write on the transparency. You can do that with the newer computer systems these days too, so really there isn't a good reason to use the old ways anymore.

2) Buy from a smaller vendor. You can do this for under $1,000, but you won't be getting much more than what's in this financial planning seminar.

3) Hire a professional speaker with a pre-existing system. That's going to run you around $1,000 each seminar, on top of all of the regular seminar expenses. They won't be saying what reflects the way you run your business (unless you spend way more to get them to modify their presentations). Then there's the problem of people wanting to meet the speaker when they show up at you office, and then you'll have to tell them that he was just a rental. Some of their seminars are badly out of compliance, so if a spy shows up (from the Broker Dealer or FINRA, which is common), they're gonna get ya!

4) Make your own financial planning seminar from scratch. With MS PowerPoint, it's fairly easy, but it's going to take at least fifty hours of tedious manual labor. The $99 this cost of this system is a much better way to get started at making your own, unless you have this kind of free time. Then you're going to have to battle your compliance people on all the things you want to say, but can't.

5) Buy this financial planning seminar and edit it to fit your business. This is the only cost-effective way to get what you want to say across to people.

Here's a Summary of What it Has

· Intro

· Agenda

· Retirement defined

· Benefits of retiring (becoming financially independent)

· Drawbacks of being retired

· How your expenses may change when retired

· Options at retirement (if you won't have enough money)

· Pass out Retirement Fact Finder to do a free mini-retirement plan (you get this scaled down Fact Finder too for free. Explained below)

· Investments: What they are. What is investing?

· The financial planning and investment pyramid

· Effects of taxes and inflation on investments

· 25 investment mistakes

· 25 investment essentials

· The three ways to manage money (asset allocation, security selection, and market timing)

· Market timing introduced - advantages and disadvantages

· Security selection introduced - advantages and disadvantages

· Asset allocation introduced - advantages and disadvantages

· Four ways to do asset allocation

· The five factors that go into determining an asset allocation mix

· Portfolio optimization (lots of neat pictures to get the point across to anyone)

· Summary

· What they need to do now to move forward

· Questions?

· Seminar survey form (how'd we do?)

More marketing slides that are more geared toward one-on-one sales presentations:

· Why you and your firm?

· Promises and commitments on both sides

· Financial quarterbacking

· What financial planning is in a nutshell

· Mission statement

· What we do and how we do it

· The three phases of estate planning

· What's' in it for you and us?

· The Money Game - What it is and the tools needed to play

· Risks in detail

· Average American's lifeline

· Referrals

This also comes with an additional similar 50-slide investment management seminar. For a total of 175 slides.

For downloads, right click on a link below, then choose "Save (Target) As..." to save to a folder on your hard drive. Then open it with MS Word. Sometimes the WPP's server doesn't work well with weird browsers, or it just may not work if it's not configured right. Please send e-mail if you have any problems, and it will be sent to you. Answers to frequently asked demo questions, and instructions on how to use the demos.

Download the 1.2MB Word doc screen print of the slides. There are only the original 68 slides, and they're intentionally fuzzy to help preserve content. Increase your Zoom magnification number in Word (under the View menu) to see it better

Additional Money Tools Included with the Financial Planning Seminar

Some financial planners find that they can actually charge small fees to prospects to go to their seminars, if and when they can provide something of real value, as explained below.

▪ For doing corporate seminars: It comes with a scaled-down investment risk-tolerance category finder for determining which of the three most commonly used risk tolerance categories they fall into (Conservative, Moderate, and Aggressive). This is just a small Word document. This is so you can use a group of Model 401(k) Portfolios to give people free advice on how to allocate their 401(k) plans, right on the spot, in the seminar.

You can try to get them to come into your office to get their free 401(k) asset allocation, but we found that so few people actually do this, that it was a failed marketing idea. Basically, people feel that they're smart enough to asset allocate their 401(k)s themselves, or with online tools, they have an ego about all that, they feel it's not that important, and then they're just going to space it out because they have short attention spans.

So charging for this, and/or making them come into the office to get it, won't work. We've tried it and the only thing it's good for is doing it on the spot to help make coming to a seminar worth the time. We've done seminars a lot, and basically if you don't give people anything of value (other than a free meal, which we never did), they won't show up, poor people will show up just for the meal, they won't do any business with you, and if you're working a corporation, they won't invite you back (because they'll tell their HR benefits person your seminar was lame and useless, and next time they'll have your competitors do it because they can give their employees something of value).

You'll need to make these 401(k) Investment Models before you do the seminar, so that all you'll need to do is follow the slides on how to use the Investment Risk Tolerance Calculator, and then pass out the 401(k) Investment Model page one at a time.

For example, you'd walk around and look at how they scored (you don't want to have people reveal their investment risk tolerance), and then give them the one page of the Model that fit's their risk tolerance. Then you use the slides to talk about how to shuffle their options around to match their 401(k) Model.

You can make money on this later by telling people that the investment options always change, they crap out and you'll need to move to others every so often, and that they'll need to rebalance the allocation quarterly. If you gloss over this just fast enough to both give the information and confuse them at the same time, then they may be ripe for getting them to come into the office do handle this later (especially if you call them at the right times - like whenever there is a change in the 401(k)/or any of the investment options).

Planners that study and keep up with the firm's benefit plans do better than those that don't, because if they speak the same language, then the employee will feel comfy enough to let you do more work for them. And if you can call them whenever there is a major change in the plan, then you have a good shot of getting them to come into the office.

If you don't know what any of this is about, the Asset Allocation Models are explained here, 401(k) Models are explained here, and if you don't know how, or want to make 401(k) Portfolio Models, then you can get us to make 401(k) Asset Allocation Models for you just by giving us the firm's 401(k) investment option choice list, and some money.

▪ Attendee booklet to follow along and take home (so they'll remember what they learned).

▪ Scaled-down Retirement Planning Fact Finder. This is one of the marketing ideas that we've tried that actually makes money. You basically use the slides to talk about the retirement planning software, and then tell them that if they fill out and return it, that they'll get a free mini-retirement plan (which takes about ten minutes to prepare, including printing, and has more value than most retirement plans that they've paid for in the past).

About half the people actually fill it out and return it, either at the seminar or they'll mail it to your office later. Then most of them will come into your office to get it, and to hear your sales pitch. They know that if they come into the office, that they'll have to endure your sales pitch, so some try to weasel out by making up some excuse to get it mailed to them. Just say no!

Explain the basic concepts of capitalism to them, that they've heard most of your sales pitch already in the marketing seminar, and just say that the cost of getting your free retirement plan is having to come into the office to hear the rest of the sales pitch. Most will come in. If they don't, then you've just successfully screened out of your life a time-wasting person that will never do anything, which is very valuable in itself.

About half of those that come into your office will turn into clients of some kind. So it all boils down to this - are you willing to spend another 10 minutes preparing a mini-retirement plan, and then sit down and take time to explain it to them, then tell them what you do, for someone that may have money and may become a client, or not?

If not, then marketing seminars are probably not for you. Actually if not, then the financial planning business as a whole is probably not for you too, because this whole business is all about risking time/money/work on things that may or may not be profitable. Those that make it have found things that work, and they stuck to it, and those that don't make it usually fail because they didn't stop doing things that didn't work in time.

Another tip is here: If you have the RP retirement planner, use that to do the work. It's quicker and easier, but you'll have to delete the tax rate question on the retirement fact finder. Then tell them everything in the plan neglects all taxes, so everything is gross. Then tell them that to get a real retirement plan, made with RWR that accounts for taxes in great detail, they'll have to hire you, come into the office to fill out the real retirement fact finder, or whatever it is you want them to do.

If you think doing another ten minutes work is a risk you can accept, then you're going to have a way of building your client base that's effective and doesn't just waste tons of time, work, and money.

The whole point of the financial planning seminar is to get real living people to come into your office so you can sell them on what you actually do in your financial planning practice.

▪ Sign-in and attendance sheet.

▪ A sample (newspaper) ad is included, and is used to get people to call you to sign up to go to the seminar. You put ads in the local newspapers, and if you're working a corporate market, then you'd paste them all over the coffee makers and bulletin boards (after you get the okay from HR of course).

All of these add-ons to the marketing seminar have been approved by three Broker Dealers so far.

Financial Planning Marketing Seminar Basics

If you've never done financial planning marketing seminars before, then here's the deal in a nutshell:

Some of the objectives in conducting a marketing seminar to attract new financial planning prospects are:

▪ Give just enough valuable information to disturb people into realizing they have unresolved problems, but don't give them so much information that they won't need to engage your services.

▪ Display your competence to build trust in the firm and the financial planners.

▪ Motivate prospects to set in-person appointments in your office.

▪ Bring in qualifying prospects without having to use the phone.

Financial planning marketing seminars are the most popular way for people without an economical source of leads to get people into their office to see them, to hear their "Dog & Pony Show" (sales pitch using a sample financial plan - download the directions from this page), and ultimately to get them to do business with you.

There's no easy way to do anything in the financial planning business. Whether you want to charge admission to come, is up to you, but most people do it for free, and at great expense to them, in hopes of getting the elusive first appointments with people that may end up being great long-term profitable clients.

They work because it sets up an informal atmosphere that allows people to discuss their concerns in non-threatening environment where people aren't going to try to sell them anything. It also attracts people that are seeking answers to specific questions.

If you use free meals to get people to come in, then you're just going to end up feeding poor people. A few will become clients, but the money you'll make from them will rarely make up for feeding everyone else. Some people can make this work, but most don't. We recommend not providing free meals, but small snacks and beverages are a must.

If you already have a book of business, then you can invite existing clients, in addition to new prospects, and charge them just enough to cover the costs of the room and your other expenses. Some do it at no charge, and call it a "Client Appreciation Party." They do it like this in hopes that their clients will bring their friends and family, and let them manage more of their money.

First, you have to make an ad for use in the media, like local newspapers, and get it approved by your Broker Dealer's compliance department (if you have a BD). This seminar comes with a sample ad to help you get started. It may look too simple, but it works.

Next, you have to do a lot of research on where and when you want to have it. This entails calling local hotels and similar places that cater these types of events. They do this all the time, want and compete for this business, and will typically offer two prices - one with food and one without (having food usually produces better turnout results. Be sure to say there's food in your ad!). Once you have the time and place confirmed, you can make and place your ad.

Next, you have to find a way to get people to see your "ad," like buying space in the local media, sending thousands of letters from mailing lists you can buy, getting hooked up to a big local company where they provide financial planning seminars to their employees, hanging them on bulletin boards, etc.

The ad should run no sooner than two weeks before the retirement seminar and no longer than a month. Too soon and people will flake because of schedule interruptions, and too late, they'll forget.

Try no to have your investing seminar when major events are happening, like elections or the Super Bowl.

There is no magic bullet that will make this all happen for you - like everything else, it just takes hard work, time, trial and error, money, and sometimes just luck.

Once you do all of that, you'll get calls of interest when people see your ad. You'll have to collect and organize their contact information somehow. Then you'll have to call them all back the day before the financial seminar to confirm (some planners call the day before, and a few hours before on the same day of the seminar). If you don't confirm, then they won't come, it's as simple as that!

Most big cities have services that will do the mailings, calls, and other mundane seminar-prep work for you. Do a search using the keywords ("seminar marketing" mailing lists direct marketing mass mailing) to find them in you local area. Some are very good, do it full-time, and will do most everything for you.

Then when people show up, get their contact info again with a sign-in list, which is the point (to get their contact info so you can contact them later).

Then do the retirement seminar. Don't be shy! Meet and greet as much as you can.

Schedule enough time for questions and answers. If you can answer investment portfolio management questions well, then this will be the most profitable part of the whole deal.

Send a "thank you for coming" letter to the people that look like good potential clients (you'll know because of the questions they'll ask and talking with them before, during breaks, at the closing Q&A, and after it's over). Then call them, if they say it's okay, or you'll be stuck hoping they call you (few do).

One of the main points is to provide some free "teasers" in the investment seminar that provide some value to them, so they'll think that seeing you in person (and giving you money) will provide even more value.

The freebies in this system are a quick RWR retirement/mini-financial plan and allocating their 401(k) in class. Then calling and saying, "Your free mini-retirement plan is ready, c'mon in and get it!" has worked great.

This investor seminar was used mostly in Seattle with a consistent Boeing and Microsoft audience, so most of this hard work was resolved already. We always brought in about $1 - $2M in new managed money, which at an average of 1% brought in about $15,000 in annual fees.

Good financial planning seminar systems will pay for themselves, and allow you to hire an assistant, buy needed office supplies/computers/software, redo your office, etc. It may take a couple of tries to get it down though, which could set you back some time and a significant amount of money.

If you're just starting out, and have no other source of leads, then seminars are the quickest and best way to build your book to a point where you can stop prospecting and just service good clients (everyone's goal).

When you think about it, there isn't much else you can do these days except cold call - and the Do Not Call List will get you if you don't watch out!

Why aren't you taking advantage of this? Send e-mail and if you have an interesting reason, then you may get a freebie.

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