5 Minute Read
Posted by Michael Bradburn on March 17, 2017

Clearly, that is a trick question that has plagued the uber-intelligent across the span of time. It is a subjective evaluation and one, for which, you are uniquely ill-equipped to answer for yourself.

According to Social Psychologist Heidi Grant Halvorson's seminal article published in the Harvard Business Review about what makes financial professionals successful,

“Even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail.”

There are many heady clichés that speak to this conundrum.  Amongst my favorites are:

  • “Strong people have a strong sense of self-worth and self-awareness; they don’t need the approval of others.” - Roy T. Bennett
  • “There is no limit to what a man can achieve or where he can go so long as he does not care who gets the credit.” – Ronald Reagan
  • “Physician…Heal thyself.” – Author unknown

It is an endeavor in courage and unimpugnable self-belief to be a financial advisor. To not only accept, but aggressively solicit the trust of your investor clientele that “I am the best steward of your financial security you will ever know,” and hold yourself to that standard, is intrepid.

I believe that to be even more true for a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) because of the depth of your self-belief and entrepreneurial spirit. You see yourself as indispensable to those that have entrusted you to grow and protect their most valued asset and insulate them from their greatest fears…their financial security.

According to Halverson’s work, these are your most prominent characteristics that drive you to succeed…whether you know it or not:

  • You have a “CEO” state of mind
  • You know your limitations
  • You are an exceptional listener
  • You are a world-class communicator
  • You know how and when to take risks
  • You are a client advocate, first and foremost
  • You are a contrarian
  • You have a passion and a vision for your lifestyle

OK…now that the psychiatric community has provided us with a functional definition of how our brains work, what do you think? Agree? Disagree?  Whatever!

Albeit interesting and hopefully sincerely useful in your quest for self-discovery in some meaningful way, I find this analysis to be irrelevant. When we walk in the office tomorrow morning and set to task to do what you do…regardless of why…all that matters is what you can monetize for your client’s benefit and consequently, your own.

The nature of your existence is to be the SME (Subject Matter Expert). By virtue of the RIA’s mandate and I would suspect to some degree, why you chose to be independent over drinking your former employer’s Kool-Aid, is your self-belief that you can do it better. But here is the rub. You, agnostically and holistically, pride yourself on allocating client assets based on monetizing your experience and acumen. But your clientele, despite the fact that your heart is in the right place, judge you on performance and that is an algorithm dependent on making the right choices. At the end of the day, you are not 100% in control of your client’s perception because the metrics by which you are judged, are defined in a very narrow scope and a dependence on others to do their jobs…well.

Well here is an idea you can use. Senior Life Settlements are an alternative asset class that derive their value from the contractual obligations of highly rated US Legal Reserve Life Insurance companies. There is no other investment, at least that I have ever seen, that plays a predictable role in growing capital on a risk-adjusted basis like this asset class does supported by an industry that has a flawless track record since its inception…including the Great Depression.

For all the reasons you courageously chose to take the road less traveled, there is now a tool at your disposal to add to your arsenal that offers intrinsic value that is important to both you and your clients:

  • Predictable, above-market, risk-adjusted returns
  • Low correlation coefficient to markets and geo-political turmoil
  • No volatility
  • Intrinsic principal protection characteristics
  • Performance is not dependent on market or asset manager results

Senior Life Settlements are an idea that’s time has come. You and your clients have aspirational goals that are not being met by the options you have available. There are simply too many headwinds you fight every day in our current economy. Senior Life Settlements are a logical way to demonstrate and differentiate your individuality and give your RIA firm a competitive advantage.

There is a lot more to this story how Senior Life Settlements can help your RIA firm grow by adding value to your client relationships. Call Jason Bokina at 404-504-7006 or email contact@capaltstrategies.com and Capstone will prove to you how you can do well by doing good for your clientele. 

Michael J. Bradburn 

Michael Bradburn started his career as President and General Manager of a small automotive sales conglomerate, where he oversaw and managed several domestic and Asian manufactured retail dealerships. After selling the dealerships, Michael then worked with Prudential Preferred Financial Services in life insurance and annuity sales. He later advanced his career in private wealth management at Morgan Stanley-Dean Whitter and subsequently Merrill Lynch. Following that, Michael served as Chief Financial Officer of a metals manufacturing and distribution startup, where he was instrumental in securing patents and developing a completely virtual, vertically integrated, manufacturing and distribution technology serving the global powder metallurgy industry. At Capstone Alternative Strategies, he oversees marketing and advisor development. Michael attended Indiana University where he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and later earned his BS from Ball State University.