How I fill my days.

Man, it’s been busy at work again. Getting lots of good questions from the brokers and it looks like all of them (including the ones who were giving my the Heisman for the last few weeks because they thought I was just an ‘insurance guy’) have warmed to me and started to see that there is much that I/we can do for their clients. This is cool.

Some of the students and friends of mine whom I speak with (I meet with a few students a month to see if I can add something to what they are doing on their own career planning) ask me what I do everyday. Really, I have no idea. Like the last 2 days: I get in at 6:45 everyday and leave at about 3:15…pretty much a full day. I work these hours because the brokers get in the office at about 6AM or so and many check out at 1PM (market hours here on the West Coast are 6:30 to 1PM). For the first hour or so I do email and make up my 1-pagers (basically very focused documents written for brokers on a specific topic). I do them on whatever they are asking about: trusts, wills, taxation, legal issues, offshore investing and insurance topics. I research throughout the day (Googling things and talking with lawyers, accountants and other professionals) then usually let the facts cure/bake overnight while I sleep so I can have a cohesive piece to get into Word in the morning.

On Mondays, and many other days, I have a morning meeting in another office (mostly on insurance stuff, it’s a little late: 8AM start) and various lunches and other meetings at law firms and conference locations around downtown. This way I get ideas to bring to the brokers, new developments and get answers to my questions from those in the know (more or less, figuring out who knows what is half the battle).

I also ‘do the rounds’ throughout the day. Basically finding a few minutes to ingratiate myself on the brokers and present my ideas to them. I like to show them two at once: yesterday was a trust structure whereby their trading profits (which are usually taxed as income because they are ‘pro’ traders) can get up to 50% lower tax treatment. I also left them with another 1-pager with a table: the left portion was what they saw (client characteristics), the middle column was what I would see (potential problems like creditors, estate issues, taxes) and the last one covers some of the possible solutions (estate, tax and insurance planning strategies). Meetings take 1-15 minutes, depending on how busy they are. If they get a call they ignore me…which is cool—I did the same thing when I was a broker (client first). If it goes on for a it I leave and come back later…otherwise I’ll wait it out for a bit—especially if we’re on a role.

Anyways, no real structure here. The thing I want/need to add in a big way is client meetings. Things are starting, but there is little use without meeting the clients and placing business and making money at this—so I’m going to be a little more draconian (and call in the sales manager on this so that they have his moral suasion as well) so that I can justify this little adventure to myself, my wife and the firm (pretty much in that order).

Well, time to get off the train.