For Financial Advisors, Hosting Holiday Parties Is Out. Here’s What’s In:
t’s beginning to look a lot like the holiday season, and many next-gen advisors are skipping festive client shindigs this season for smaller gatherings throughout the year. Their approach may point to a new trend in client appreciation and business development.
James Plaskey, Jr., a partner at EP Wealth Advisors in Brighton, Mich., likes to organize activities for clients. They tend to be smaller gatherings that take place at different times throughout the year, rather than holiday parties. An avid fisherman, Plaskey takes clients on five-to-seven-hour walleye fishing trips on the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair in the spring and summer. They discuss everything from Detroit sports teams to grandchildren. “You learn more about them than you can in a one-hour client meeting,” says Plaskey, 36. “We really have time to bond.”
Other next-gen advisors share the same philosophy when it comes to client appreciation and holiday events. Instead of holding, say, a big cocktail party in December, they may opt for smaller gatherings at other times of the year. Some use the event to support business development and ask clients to bring potential prospects. Others prefer a one-on-one approach, turning activities into occasions to deepen existing client relationships.
Holiday-adjacent months
For his part, Todd Perry, who ran a firm with Plaskey that they sold to EP Wealth Advisors in January, holds events during holiday-adjacent months, “before everyone gets too busy,” he says. Perry hosts a Thursday night sit-down dinner in October, which also provides an opportunity to introduce clients to one another. The advisor says he puts a lot of thought into creating a seating chart. “We pair clients with other clients who we think would be a good fit,” he says.
One reason these advisors opt for activities outside of the holiday season has to do with clients’ time. “A lot of people want to be with their families,” says Scooter Thomas, a financial advisor with Savant Wealth Management in Birmingham, Ala. “With so many things going on, unless I’m doing something special, I’m just taking people away from what matters most to them.”
The pandemic affected clients’ appetites for events, according to Kelly Mould, an advisor at Johnson Financial Group, a wealth management firm that’s part of Johnson Bank in Milwaukee. While the firm holds holiday gatherings, including a Friday night supper with Santa in December, Mould finds that, especially among younger people, events—at any time of year—need to be out of the ordinary. “People are more protective of their personal time,” she says. “When you’re going to attract younger clients, you have to offer something they wouldn’t get anywhere else.”
She points to an evening for women held at the Women’s Club in Milwaukee last year, which featured a presentation from a poker instructor about strategic Jonathan Thomas, a private wealth advisor at LVW Advisors, held an event that combined retiree health insurance information with a golf clinic. PHOTO: DREAMSTIME decision-making. Professional poker players worked at stations where they discussed such strategies as bluffing and assessing probability. It was a hit with both younger and older clients.
Mixing education and fun
Some advisors find their clients enjoy functions that are focused on financial topics—but that also include an enjoyable activity. “We’re combining education and something fun,” says Jonathan Thomas, a private wealth advisor at LVW Advisors in Pittsford, N.Y. “The best experience involves the opportunity to be social,” Thomas believes. For example, last year, he had a Medicare specialist give a presentation to about 12 clients in their 50s and early 60s about health insurance options for early retirees. Afterward they had a chipping clinic with a golf pro.
Or consider events planned by Sam Diarbakerly. A year ago, he founded Generation Capital Advisors, which he describes as a “multigenerational firm,” with the goal of serving three generations of a family. Part of his tactic for reaching younger cohorts is to tap into their interest in both learning and connecting with other likeminded individuals.
Diarbakerly’s firm runs a “financial empowerment series” for women which includes education courses on six topics, as well as more intimate catered events —for example, networking gatherings for women in the same profession. For early next year, he’s planning on having an expert in family dynamics hold a The Interview Take some time Friday afternoons to see what’s on the minds of our top-ranked advisors and senior industry leaders in our weekly Q&A. Plus a round-up of the top wealth management news of the week. Preview Subscribe READ NEXT Zoom call for no more than 10 clients, “that will allow them to share their realworld experiences.”
Many of these activities have the added benefit that clients tend to reveal information that is relevant to the work of their advisors, but that they might not have otherwise mentioned. EP Wealth Advisors’ Plaskey sometimes brings up issues discussed during the fishing trips in subsequent meetings with the client. One person, for example, had recently become a grandparent and feared that his adult child’s student loan burden would make it hard to save for the new baby’s college tuition. Plaskey discussed gifting strategies the client could use to set up a college fund.
Planning tips
About a century ago, etiquette expert Emily Post advised event hosts to “put those together who are likely to be interesting to each other.” Savant’s Thomas follows a similar principle today. He is planning a golf event with putting lessons and a putt-putt game to be held around Masters Tournament weekend in April. “We like to take clients who have really helped us in our business,” he says. “But we also want clients who really are golf people.”
Advisors in bigger firms typically can call on the marketing department for help with budget and planning. When he wants to hold an event, Thomas, whose firm has around $37.1 billion in assets, submits a ticket to marketing, which takes care of tasks like designing an invitation and creating an email that will capture RSVPs. Other advisors will need to get approval to plan events. Jonathan Thomas of LVW —who held the Medicare talk for early retirees—simply asks his boss for permission. “Then it gets approved or it doesn’t,” he says.
As seen in Barron's.