Merrill advisor Mary Jo Harper offers this suggestion for how to become a top advisor: Listen, take copious notes and share those notes with clients.
The clients will love you for it.
“We have everything documented and it gives us an action list. It is a tremendous best practice for advisors,” Harper said, noting that nothing gets missed. “When we meet with clients we always pull up the notes and say this is what we’ve talked about.”
Harper added: “It gives clients a chance to see exactly what we are doing. They read the notes and feel like they have been heard.”
This approach has helped Harper, 61, build a successful 4-person team in suburban Philadelphia. Harper and her team manage $400 million for 155 households. Harper’s husband, David, was part of the team for 16 years until he retired in January.
So, what is Harper’s secret?
“I approach everyone with a sense of curiosity. And I always want to know what no one else has talked to them about.”
Harper is both a Forbes | SHOOK Top Women Wealth Advisor and a Forbes | SHOOK Best in-State Wealth Advisor.
Harper said her mission is to help clients learn about saving and making investment decisions. “Some of our clients are not sophisticated investors. They often need to have the concepts explained in very simple terms.”
Harper added: “We see our role as helping set expectations about what is likely to happen when markets are a bit turbulent. And we help people become wiser about money.”
Harper noted that about one-third of every client meeting is focused on offering market perspectives and explaining the economic backdrop. Time is also spent explaining the rationale behind investment decisions.
“Because I’m the sole FA on the team, they’re mostly talking to me. They’re getting my expertise. I know this is not always the case with bigger teams. And I am fortunate to have an excellent team that’s allowed me to be able to spend my time doing what I am best at — working with clients.”
“We always look for ways to make our clients’ lives better, even if it is just small things,” Harper said.
When one client was approaching her 90th birthday, Harper decided to do something special. “She had outlived all her siblings, and she never married or had any children, but she was still very mentally sharp,” Harper said.
“We reached out to her friends and threw a 90th birthday party for her at the retirement home,” Harper said. “The best part of it was SiriusXM radio had just come out. It had a ’40s music station. We played it during the party and she just loved it.”
Working with families has its challenges, Harper said.
One 20-year client in his late ‘80s, who was also a concentration camp survivor, was ill in the hospital. His wife had passed away. The couple had a daughter who had married a doctor from New York City.
“Well, the doctor started telling his wife, [the client’s daughter] if he did not have control of her sick dad’s assets, he was going to divorce her,” Harper said. “When she told me about this, I said how can this be so? I checked and it turned out that the father had signed over control to his son-in-law.”
“The father insisted he had never done this and I showed him the form. ‘Are you aware that your son-in-law is in charge of your assets?’” I asked.
The father told me, “No. No. That was never my intention.”
“I quickly got a form drafted that removed the son-in-law. The father signed it,” Harper said.
“The son-in-law was furious about what I did. He called every boss in my region trying to get me fired. I think I did what was the right thing to do. The daughter’s husband was trying to take advantage of her. When the father passed away, the money went into a trust for the daughter as the father had intended.”
Harper has many stories about how she has helped clients, dating back to when she first started as an advisor. “I had just flown to Hawaii for my honeymoon when I got a call,” Harper recalls. “One of my clients had been diagnosed with brain cancer. I was told she might not be alive by the time I got back.”
The client was worried that her ex-husband would attempt to take control of her estate, depriving her two children, aged 10 and 12, of what she wanted to leave them. “I remember sitting in my hotel room in the middle of the night talking to her lawyer. We quickly drafted a trust document protecting her children. The attorney got the document to my client and she signed it.”
“I am pleased to say that was almost 30 years ago. Her boys are married and they have their own children,” Harper said. “She was right to be worried about the ex-husband. He would have tried to tap into that trust for everything.”
Harper says clients trust her with their financial lives and she values these relationships.
“I have built this trust over a long time,” Harper said. “During my career, I have learned a lot about people and building relationships. I think what my clients want most is to make sure I am listening to them and that I am helping them hit their goals.”
Harper added: “I am always trying to figure out how I can make my relationships a successful experience.”
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