Behind the Scenes at Correct Capital Wealth Management

Starting with a new financial advisor can be complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Whether you're preparing for retirement, managing investments, or simply seeking advice on your financial future, having a trusted advisor can make all the difference. At Correct Capital, we understand that your financial goals are unique, and we're here to guide you every step of the way.

In this episode of Capital Conversations, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional Colin Day and Investment Advisor Service Associate Marquita Thomas take a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes when onboarding new clients or working with existing ones.

For recent investment news and our take on the current market, retirement planning, and investment, listen to our podcast Capital Conversations or view our recent blog posts.

Below is the transcript for our most recent podcast, "Behind the Scenes at Correct Capital Wealth Management."

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Colin Day: Welcome back to another Capital Conversation. I'm Colin Day, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional, and with me today is Marquita Thomas. Marquita, welcome.

Marquita Thomas: Hi. I'm Marquita, Client Associate here at Correct Capital Wealth.

Colin Day: We're very excited to have Marquita today.

We wanted to do something a little bit different, than talking about the tried and true financial planning topics of the day. We want to talk a little bit more about what we do within our office, but maybe some of the things that aren’t normally visible in our office. Do you think that's fair?

Marquita Thomas: Yes, definitely.

Colin Day: You're more of the behind the scenes, I would say, in a lot of ways, until you're forced into the scene.

Marquita Thomas: Correct.

Colin Day: I think that's a pretty accurate way of describing it. Marquita, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you've been doing here at Correct Capital? Just so people can get to know you a little bit.

Marquita Thomas: A little bit about me, I have been in the financial industry a little bit over 20 years, closer maybe to 24, doing different jobs within usually operations. I worked at Wells for about 12 years in operations. Before that I worked at Smith Barney, not as a client associate, but actual senior operations. So doing a lot of operational duties that have changed now. So [that’s] a little bit about me.

What I do here at Correct Capital, client associate to our fine FAs here. When I come in the morning, I usually start out my day with behind the scenes stuff that clients don't see, like checking what we call our “notifications.” I go through our system that we use. Notifications tell me things like money that has come in as far as deposits, money that has gone out as far as us paying out checks or periodic scheduled payments. [It] let's me know if funds are running short for periodic payments. Also things that are not in good order, maybe some paperwork that we had submitted, something may be an issue. But I check all those, my notifications, and go through those and make sure whatever needs to be addressed is addressed.

I check my emails and address those or respond. I also do what we call our workflows. Workflows are typically requests that we have gotten from clients as far as sending funds, out or possibly setting up something to send funds out, or even bringing funds in as well. It could be opening new accounts. Any type of request that a client may have had, we typically are doing those through what we call our workflows now.

Colin Day: Yeah. And if I may, I would consider the folks in our operations group to be traffic controllers in a way. You're delegating when necessary. Making the outbound phone calls, making sure that the planes land, the places where they're supposed to land and not the places where they're not supposed to land.

Marquita Thomas: Yes.

Colin Day: And that's, when we say “back office” or we say “operations,” you are front facing with a lot of our clients. Most of our clients, of course, are going to know the financial advisor that they work with, because that's probably the person who they met the very first day that they came here.

But the reality is that our team is a lot larger than just some of the financial advisors here. Our firm in total, where we stand today, is 10 people. We have a few advisors, but then we also have pretty much the same equivalent in operations folks. So we want to celebrate those people that are actually doing a lot of the hand holding with our clients.

Marquita Thomas: Yes.

Colin Day: And, if there was a sensitive thing that I would say – and I'll let you provide your own opinion – if I was to say here's the most sensitive thing that our clients need to know about their funds and how we're handling things, it's that when we get a request for money, that is a incredibly time sensitive thing. It is a thing that cannot get messed up and needs to happen within the time period.

Marquita Thomas: Yes.

Colin Day: You would agree that that's probably the most of all the things that are sensitive that you're handling on a day to day basis. Would it be that or do something else in mind?

Marquita Thomas: I would definitely say when clients request funds, usually it's for a reason, so they're expecting to get it in a timely fashion. Time is important with that because obviously we know the market closes at 3PM, and sometimes the funds are not available. So we may have to do trades. So if you're calling in after three and funds happen to not be available, that would definitely put us on the next business day, as far as even doing trades.

And then of course we have to have the funds settled before we could send them out. And depending on how we're sending the funds, of course, that could take a couple more days to, as far as ACH clearing their bank accounts, versus wires, of course, the same day transaction. So definitely one of the top. Important requests.

Colin Day: And also communicating that to our clients is incredibly important so that they understand the timeline. Because, again, like you said, people don't call willy nilly for funds just for the sake of putting money in their bank account. They have a concern. They have a contractor that they have to pay. A tuition bill is coming due, just to use some examples.

In terms of your communication strategy then, so thinking about how you get a request, maybe [it] comes from the advisor, maybe an advisor forwards on a request for funds or something where you're the master of that domain. What do you think is most important for our clients to know about? And how are you communicating that to them through that process?

Marquita Thomas: Good question. I actually had a great example yesterday. I got a phone call or rather I should say an email, actually from Brian that he forwarded on to me –

Colin Day: Brian’s a financial advisor here. You may already know, but I'm just going to say it out loud. Go ahead. Please.

Marquita Thomas: Yes. The client actually forgot to pay their child's tuition that was due on the 15th of this month, August. So there was urgency within the request. It did happen to be after 3PM that they called in, and he put a note that said, “Just get it there as quickly as possible.” So I did my due diligence, called in, got the gist on how we can get this process quickly.

We had two options. Earlier in the day, a little more expensive by $2, which I didn't think the client would care, to get an overnight versus maybe later in the day for $10. However, again, it was after 3PM. So I made the call to get the request going and got the gist on, “Hey, when can we expect the funds to land?”

So, I was told that, unfortunately, obviously we were on the next day, which meant that today is the day they're processing it. So since today is processing, unfortunately, Monday – being that today is a Friday – Monday is actually the day that the check will be sent out and it would arrive Tuesday. So once I confirmed all that got the gist on how much it would cost to do the overnight, I Made sure everything was processed, got back in touch with the client by email. Just letting him know. “Hey, we've requested it. It's going to be a $2 charge for the overnight,” and he was fine with that. So expect the funds to land Tuesday.

Sometimes I go a little extra. So I asked them if there's a way I can call them back to get the tracking number. And I will do that as well just to follow through and make sure the check actually gets there on Tuesday.

Colin Day: Yeah. Great. I think that's a really good example of what we try to do from a client service perspective. “Hey, something happened, and now we need to expedite.” And then, what are the things that we can do where we can coach the client on, “Here's the reality of the situation, here are the options that are available.” We're all about options here. They choose the best one for them. And then we act on it. And not only do we act on it, but we make sure that they're aware of it throughout the process. I think that's really important.

Something we've been working on with other members of the operations team are the workflows that you mentioned. We use a software that helps us arrange when something happens that a client has a need. So whether it's as complicated as creating new accounts, trades, bringing somebody on board, all types of things, we have a system in place so that it goes to the right parties so that it's done well. And throughout those workflows there are touch points with the client to make sure that they're aware of things.

Not to change gears too much; I want to talk about what you've been tasked with more recently, which is onboarding.

Marquita Thomas: Yes.

Colin Day: So some of the things that we've been working on internally is trying to raise the level of our onboarding.

And so what we mean by that is that when we identify an individual or a family that wants our services, we need to bring them in and we want to “wow” them immediately. And so we're trying to figure out exactly what that looks like. And Marquita has been our person that's been the go-to on all of our onboarding recently.

So, one, I'll ask you, how's that going? And two, do you notice some areas – not to challenge you a little bit – but [do] you notice any areas where we can improve our onboarding experience so far?

Marquita Thomas: Definitely. So far, so good overall. We're definitely at the beginning. So we're still working out a few kinks here and there. As we come across those situations, we just discuss them and say, “Hey, this is how maybe we should, or could change this to better fit the scenarios.”

Ways that we can improve [the onboarding process], I would say, the process is pretty good overall. Again, because it's fairly new, we're working on ironing out kinks when those come up. And we've got our new associate with us, Jordan, who is also front-facing with our clients. So he's usually the first person that the clients are communicating with and he's gathering most of the information that's required for us to get the process started.

So that's great to have everything already ready to go versus we’ve been told that we have a new client, but we don't really have anything to start with. So gathering the statements, the pertinent information, birthdays, social, address and all those good things are definitely a positive and a plus to the onboarding, versus chasing paperwork if we don't have it, and trying to figure what exactly type of accounts we may be opening.

Colin Day: Yeah. And if you're or watching this and thinking, “What is Marquita referring to?” If you've never had to onboard somebody, or to move your financial advisor even, it can be a thing. Unfortunately, it's not something where firms play nicely, they move everything all at once. We get all the information the first time. Unfortunately, there's a little bit of legwork that needs to be done by the new client because we need account statements. We can't just call them up and say, “Please send this over to us.” They won't do that. We've tried. And for security reasons, of course. But ultimately we have to do some handholding with the client.

So a question back to you then, Marquita, would be in terms of, if an individual is interested in coming on board or is changing advisors, what do you think is important to communicate to them up front so that you're setting their expectations?

Marquita Thomas: Up front, just letting them know that it is a process. And, of course, different firms have different turnaround times as far as how quickly things may happen. In my experience, some go really fast versus some drag a little bit more and may need additional paperwork, and things like a signature guarantees, and things like that. Just depending on what type of account it is versus sometimes we just have a clean cut, in kind transfer. You open an account, submit it, and within a week everything may be here. Again versus some firms, it requires a little bit more paperwork, may require a three way call with the client, depending on the type of account. More so for 401(k)s. Usually we can never just move that over. The client always has to be involved in some way, shape, or form.

Colin Day: Yeah. I think setting the expectations up front that, “Hey, you're making a big decision by coming on board with us. And we take that very seriously. And because this is a very big thing to do, it's not something that you could just do. It's like buying a car in some ways, and I don't mean that to disparage the car dealership community.

But rather just to say, if somebody's interested in a car, you're still gonna haggle, you're still gonna talk to somebody, you're still gonna have to go through financing, you're still gonna have to do the title and the registration. There [are] many steps that need to be done.

Marquita Thomas: Yes.

Colin Day: And we haven't even gotten into insurance contracts or annuities or things like that, and that process takes even longer. We're not even going to talk about that today. I'll save you there.

Marquita Thomas: Thank you.

Colin Day: But I think maybe we'll wrap up there Marquita.

Is there anything else from a communication side that you would like to talk about with individuals?

Is there anything on your mind that, if you could say one thing on this podcast today to our clients or to individuals that are interested in financial planning, or even for those people that are interested in our industry and want to join a firm like ours in the future. Any words of wisdom that you have to share? And I know that's a huge, completely open ended question that you're probably weren't prepared for.

Marquita Thomas: Words of wisdom, I would say just always keep an open mind, remain positive. Sometimes the situation may not be as bad as it seems.

Colin Day: Good life advice in general, I would say.

Marquita Thomas: Yes. But for me, I'd say I'm just learning a lot in my processes as well. Once I've experienced something, I'm usually a little bit more at ease versus my first time around. So, I may get a little excited when something doesn't happen as quickly as I think it should, but [that] doesn't mean that it's a bad thing.

I'd say just keep an open mind; patience and positivity.

Colin Day: That's awesome. I love it. And that is the perfect demeanor to have, I think, in a role like yours.

Marquita Thomas: Thank you.

Colin Day: All right. Well for Marquita, again, I'm Colin Day. Thanks so much for joining us on Capital Conversations, and we'll see you next time.

The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

As always, please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. Please seek advice from a licensed professional. Correct Capital Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered.

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At Correct Capital, behind every successful financial plan is a dedicated team working tirelessly to ensure every detail is handled with care. Whether it’s managing urgent requests or streamlining onboarding, our operations team plays a crucial role in keeping your financial journey as smooth and stress-free as possible.

If you’re considering starting with a financial advisor, or are looking to change who you work with, contact Correct Capital today. You can schedule a meeting with a member of our advisor team, contact us online, or give us a call at 877-930-401(k). It only takes 15 minutes to understand if we’re a good fit.