The winner of WP's Advisor of the Year award explains how he learned the ropes
Most advisors would agree that the early years of the job will likely be the most difficult. Earning your stripes and building a book of business can take years, which means the average age in the profession continues to rise.
Often the difference between those that succeed and those that fall by the wayside is the right kind of teaching. For Mark McNulty, he had an obvious tutor, his father Barry was also an advisor. The paternal relationship extending into the office allowed McNulty to learn the ropes and become a specialist without the pressure of really driving business.
“He handled making money so I was able to focus on gaining technical expertise,” he says. “Most people that enter the business don’t have the time to become experts in planning. Not having to generate business right away was my greatest advantage because by the time I was generating business I really could add value.”
It was a formative period for McNulty as an advisor. Having his father located in the same office was also an advantage when clients sought the guidance of an experienced operator rather than a relative greenhorn.
“Initially you are speaking from textbooks – you don’t have that much credibility,” says McNulty. “It takes a number of years. Having my father around was a big advantage because if clients had questions they weren’t happy being answered by a 33 year old, they could talk to him.”
Now the novice has become the veteran and as president of the firm he is the one doing the teaching. In his opinion, it is only natural that certain clients prefer an advisor with some gray hairs. For young advisors starting out, patience will be needed.
“I have some young guys working with me now and I tell them they are coming along incredibly well,” he says. “But we can’t control the fact that a 60-year old dentist selling their practice doesn’t really want to hear the opinion of 30-year old advisor. It just takes a certain amount of time.”
In building the family business, McNulty decided the firm needed to specialize on one profession in particular. Dentists tend to have wealth, but don’t necessarily know how best to manage it and prepare for retirement. This has meant some have fallen victim to unscrupulous advisors over the years, which allowed McNulty to develop his practice as a place dentists could rely on.
“Dentists have been targeted by financial advisors for a long time,” he says. “Every second dentist that I meet, their initial reaction is they have a hard time trusting advisors because they have been screwed over so many times.
The more of those guys that are screwing them over are out of the business the better the business will be.”
The McNulty Group serves 100 clients, almost all of whom are dentists. By limiting the number of clients and focusing on just one profession, he believes he can offer a lot more for those that pay for his services. A jack of all trades isn’t what a financial advisor should aspire to be, believes McNulty; rather, like a dentist, it should be a specialist position.
“Because all my clients are homogenous I can apply their experiences to the next person,” he says. “If a client is making a life decision about selling their practice and retiring, it helps him that I have done that hundreds of times with the same kind of people. I really don’t see how all these generalists in our industry survive because each person is so different.”
Often the difference between those that succeed and those that fall by the wayside is the right kind of teaching. For Mark McNulty, he had an obvious tutor, his father Barry was also an advisor. The paternal relationship extending into the office allowed McNulty to learn the ropes and become a specialist without the pressure of really driving business.
“He handled making money so I was able to focus on gaining technical expertise,” he says. “Most people that enter the business don’t have the time to become experts in planning. Not having to generate business right away was my greatest advantage because by the time I was generating business I really could add value.”
It was a formative period for McNulty as an advisor. Having his father located in the same office was also an advantage when clients sought the guidance of an experienced operator rather than a relative greenhorn.
“Initially you are speaking from textbooks – you don’t have that much credibility,” says McNulty. “It takes a number of years. Having my father around was a big advantage because if clients had questions they weren’t happy being answered by a 33 year old, they could talk to him.”
Now the novice has become the veteran and as president of the firm he is the one doing the teaching. In his opinion, it is only natural that certain clients prefer an advisor with some gray hairs. For young advisors starting out, patience will be needed.
“I have some young guys working with me now and I tell them they are coming along incredibly well,” he says. “But we can’t control the fact that a 60-year old dentist selling their practice doesn’t really want to hear the opinion of 30-year old advisor. It just takes a certain amount of time.”
In building the family business, McNulty decided the firm needed to specialize on one profession in particular. Dentists tend to have wealth, but don’t necessarily know how best to manage it and prepare for retirement. This has meant some have fallen victim to unscrupulous advisors over the years, which allowed McNulty to develop his practice as a place dentists could rely on.
“Dentists have been targeted by financial advisors for a long time,” he says. “Every second dentist that I meet, their initial reaction is they have a hard time trusting advisors because they have been screwed over so many times.
The more of those guys that are screwing them over are out of the business the better the business will be.”
The McNulty Group serves 100 clients, almost all of whom are dentists. By limiting the number of clients and focusing on just one profession, he believes he can offer a lot more for those that pay for his services. A jack of all trades isn’t what a financial advisor should aspire to be, believes McNulty; rather, like a dentist, it should be a specialist position.
“Because all my clients are homogenous I can apply their experiences to the next person,” he says. “If a client is making a life decision about selling their practice and retiring, it helps him that I have done that hundreds of times with the same kind of people. I really don’t see how all these generalists in our industry survive because each person is so different.”
