Celebrating 25 Years:
What Makes Shakespeare Unique
Written By: Brian Ellenbecker, CFP®, EA, CPWA®, CIMA®, CLTC®
For 25 years, Shakespeare has been committed to helping our clients pursue peace of mind. We sat down as a team and talked about what made Shakespeare unique compared to other financial planning firms. As advisors, we believe Shakespeare is set apart by:
1) Developing and maintaining deep, long-lasting relationships with our clients.
2) Being a collaborative team with a high level of expertise.
3) Offering big firm technology with small firm, specialized delivery.
4) Building our succession plan to secure your legacy.
Why do we think these things are important? How do they help us provide better advice and guidance to you? Let’s take a deeper dive into each of these unique characteristics of Shakespeare.
Developing and Maintaining Deep, Long-Lasting Relationships with Our Clients
Our relationship with our clients is the most important thing to us. We value each and every one. When we start working with a client, we expect to work with them for the rest of their life, and probably with their kids and other heirs, as well. It’s about more than just finances and investing. Building a deep, long-lasting relationship is critical to be able to provide the best advice and guidance for your situation. The better we know you, the more customized the advice is. Knowing you, your family, your values, and your dreams are critical components of the relationship we build.
These relationships extend beyond just the clients we work with directly. We often have relationships with their children and other family members. We attend client’s funerals when they pass away and we are there for our client’s families in both good times and bad.
Being a Collaborative Team with a High Level of Expertise
Each Shakespeare advisor has spent years developing a high level of expertise in the many financial planning areas that impact a person’s life. We also appreciate that one person can’t know everything. Building a team where each individual has a deep level of expertise in different areas of the financial planning world that impacts a high-net-worth family allows us to collaborate. This ensures we are providing accurate, timely advice to the clients we work with.
Offering Big Firm Technology with Small Firm, Specialized Delivery
Like it or not, technology plays an increasingly important part in all aspects of our lives. Your financial life is no different. That’s why it is critical the financial firms you work with are able to provide you with the technology for your financial plan to succeed.
We work with state-of-the-art software for financial planning (including outside account aggregation), tax projections, Social Security, trading and investment monitoring, and performance and other client reporting to name a few.
We have the technology and expertise to provide the services world-renowned financial companies do, but keep our household count low to create a boutique feel and custom experience for each person that meets with us, regardless of where they are located.
A great example of how our technology benefitted us and our clients was when COVID hit. Our technology allowed us to continue business as usual. We had everything already in place to work remotely, have online client meetings and perform our usual duties without missing a beat. If we would not have had that technology in place ahead of time, it’s possible business could have been disrupted.
Building Our Succession Plan to Secure Your Legacy
Because we are committed to the long-term relationships we build with clients, it’s important we also secure a strong succession plan. Six of the nine Shakespeare employees are now partners, including all four of the firm’s financial advisors. Having an ownership stake in the firm goes a long way towards ensuring we’ll be here when you need us most.
Over the years, we have had clients come to us after their advisor was no longer able to help them due to a lack of succession planning. In some cases, their advisor retired and there was no one to take over. Sometimes their advisor’s firm is being sold and the service levels change due to the acquiring company’s policies. There have even been cases where the advisor passed away unexpectedly. Regardless of the reason, the lack of succession planning left that client in a tough spot. Shakespeare has taken the steps to avoid these issues.
The combination of these four unique characteristics makes Shakespeare a premier wealth management firm. We care deeply about each and every client and are able to provide expertise, technology and stability on an ongoing basis.