Episode summary
Client Engagement Trap And Balancing Touchpoints Vs Rapid Responsive Service - Kitces & Carl Ep 195
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · 34 min · Hosts: Michael Kitces, Adam Van Deusen · Guests: Carl Richards
Summary
The discussion centers on how financial advisors should balance proactive client touchpoints with fast, human responsiveness. The host frames the tension as a choice between periodic outreach, meeting cadence, and “nagging” clients to get planning work done, while Carl Richards argues that some firms win by doing less visible marketing and more dependable service. He points to one adviser who skipped birthday cards and other extras but built a strong business through quick replies and a consistent client experience.
Carl also describes a second lesson from a client who said he wanted no contact, then moved assets after realizing he did not know what was being done on his behalf. That led Carl to conclude that clients often need some “theater” so they can see that work is happening, especially when the real value is hidden behind diligence, reviews, and not making unnecessary changes.
The pair land on a framework that is less about maximizing engagement metrics and more about creating trust. The host argues that a monthly or quarterly cadence can reassure clients that their advisor is watching their situation, leaving room for questions and making the advisor easy to reach when something real comes up. Carl adds that firms should simplify their touchpoints, standardize what they can, and ensure they still return calls quickly.
Key takeaways
- Carl Richards says rapid response to client inquiries can matter more than birthday cards, anniversary notes, or other “extra” touches.
- The host says clients often need visible proof that their advisor is watching their accounts, even when the right answer is to do nothing.
- Carl’s example of Dr. Terry shows that “never” contact can fail if clients do not see the work being done on their behalf.
- The host cites firms with standardized touchpoints—monthly emails, quarterly reviews, annual meetings—as higher-productivity than firms with highly personalized outreach.
- Carl argues that the real job is to communicate three things: the advisor is paying attention, clients can raise issues, and help is easy to reach.
Notable quotes
“I didn't ever want a client having an open loop”
“Some of this is just theater. Some of this they just need to know that you're thinking of them”
“what if the point of the portal is that it's there, not that they use it”
How the episode opens
Well, good afternoon, Carl. — Hello, Michael Kizes. How are you? — I'm doing well. I'm doing well. I'm I'm enjoying this like pending summer pending summer season as of our discussion. It will be summer by the time this episode is live. Do you have exciting summer plans? What do you What do you do in beautiful Utah in the summer?
Yeah, really. Yeah, summer's awesome. We have — We have a bunch of cool um you know, kids going to graduate school or in between school that are going to be around and that always makes things super busy. So, I I love
Love summer. So, yeah, it's super fun. It's It's fun. We had all these plans four weeks ago. — Yeah. It's always sort of like we talked a lot about this that like you know the old saying men make plans and God laughs you know
We had all these plans literally like — Probably six weeks ago I had my summer calendar scheduled out and then — A bunch of awesome things happened with kids getting into — Grad school maybe some relationships that are getting serious uh you know those sorts of things. Suddenly the whole summer has changed in very good ways. But just a reminder that like planning is a planning should be done with a planning should be done with a pencil not carved in stone.
Ah I thought you were going to give us like a whole this is why planning is a verb and not a noun. — It's exactly right. It's exactly right. So anyway, it's it's going to be a really remarkable summer.
Cool. Well, I I wanted to kick off today's episode with I an interesting question that came from an advisor.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- client touchpoints
- client communication frequency
- rapid responses
- engagement strategy
- client inquiry handling
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Financial Advisor Success (Kitces), this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Kitces. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
