Advisor Blog: Advisor Page
Christian Ramsey could be considered our industry’s first blogger. He has maintained an interesting web site called Advisor Page for about eight years, where he tracks industry news and makes short posts. If blogs had existed back then, I’ll bet he would have called it Advisor Blog, because that’s exactly what it is. Advisor Page was targeted toward investment advisors, not clients, and for that reason I asked him if he’d like to do some “guest posts” here on WealthFly. Christian graciously agreed so look forward to seeing another viewpoint soon.
Christian has an investment advisory practice, and a new blog called Real Estate Strategies Network. (I noticed he uses PHP-Nuke to host the site, a content management system I talked about a few posts back.) He is also the author of the newly published Land Rich, Cash Poor.
He responded to our advisor questionnaire:
1. How would you describe your advisory practice and typical client?
Fee-based, 80% managed annuities, 20% managed money. Average client size 200k, 80% of assets belong to high net worth trusts.
2. When and why did you start blogging?
2000 or thereabouts- mostly not to the public, to other advisors. 2006 I started a real estate strategy website.
3. How often do you post and how much time does it take?
1x per month, perhaps 30 minutes. about every other month I send email notices out to students of my classes referring them the the real estate website
4. Have your clients noticed the blog? What have they said?
yes, they like it but since it is real estate related it comes in odd ways. I usually get questions about gifting or reverse mortgages.
occasionally it is a referral into a trust.
5. What are some of your favorite blog posts? (with hyperlinks, please)
Old Blog @ Advisorpage , these are excerpts from a newsletter I did
1999-2001 :
http://www.advisorpage.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=listarticles&secid=10
New Blog : http://www.realestatestrategy.net (here I just collect other peoples articles and re-post them. Easier for compliance and still effective … helps me learn also)
6. What software do you use… For your blog? To run your practice?
Content management system. I like more flexibility than a static blog.
7. What websites or blogs do *you* read regularly?
Mostly newswires, direct @ source, and indursty pulication websites.
very few blogs have caught my interest as they relate to the financial biz. I enjoy developer blogs more.
Christian Ramsey said,
February 25, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Thanks for the compliment about being the first Blogger, not sure if I was but to illustrate the power of the internet to get qualified referrals for an Advisor, the Real Estate Strategy Network website has given me 4 qualified leads in the past 6 months. None of them turned into clients, but here are the specs:
#1Bay Area family selling a 35 million dollar hotel, 8 family members. Got to present to all 8 at a family gathering via recorded conference call and family strategy handout. Current Advisors kept the relationship, but being offered the chance the work with a $35 million transaction was fantastic. - Saw my website from an article I wrote in a niche magazine that mentioned the ‘Blog’ website and there were a few strategies they had never heard of.
#2 Restaurant Sale in Bay Area. This a Business Sale with a $4 Million dollar piece of land attached that qualified for a 1031 Exchange and the Seller wanted to do a TIC investment. Lost this deal due to my broker dealer havign pretty strict TIC offering guidelines and the inventory I had was not quite as good another rep from another BD. Was referred to my Blog by a Business Broker who attended a Class I taught for the CA Dept of Real Estate.
#3 Software Company Sale: $10 Million sale price, business sold was a C-Corp and was trying to avoid the Double tax hit at sale as much as possible. Turned out the owner was another financial advisor (fortunately I found out doign background checking on the deal before I invested more than an hour into the lead) Found my Blog by doign a Google Search for 1042 Exchange.
#4 1033 Exchange (Emminent Domain) - a local developer is selling a $6 Million piece of land to the city and was referred to me by a realtor that saw a Blog post I made concerning Related Party Sales and 1033 Exchanges. This fellow will probably become a client, at least for the $500k sep plan he has. (The $6 Mil Exchange if managed will only be less than 3 years tops)
So- getting good potential clients is very possible. With any one of these three opportunities I could have had a rare $1 mill + transaction. So they do work and it is a great idea to use the internet to help gather assets. I just try to be as specific and as detailed as possible regarding specialty transactions.