Jerry, a financial advisor, was building a clientele of up-and-coming professionals.  He was always diligent about asking for referrals.  One day, one of his clients — an architect — offered to arrange a luncheon meeting to introduce Jerry to a prominent local attorney from one of the community’s oldest and wealthiest families.

Jerry’s initial surge of excitement and gratitude soon dissipated, replaced by a deep-seated feeling of dread.  Jerry had grown up on the “wrong” side of the tracks, and even though he’d been to college and become financially successful in his own right, he felt completely intimidated by old money and social standing.  Jerry has alluded to these feelings a few times in the past, but his manager always responded with the same pep talk:  “High-net-worth people put their pants on one leg at a time just like you and me.”

Paralyzed by imagined inferiority

Intellectually, Jerry knew what his manager said was true, but it didn’t help at all, because he was entrenched in something that we call “social self-consciousness.”  It’s one of the 12 types of Sales Call Reluctance that cause financial advisors to avoid prospects with wealth, prestige, power, education, or social status.

Financial advisors know that in order to succeed, they need to be prospecting and getting appointments with people who are the ultimate decision maker.  Often, though, financial advisors who come from blue-collar roots or have been indoctrinated into a psychological caste system have a tendency to elevate upscale individuals to exaggerated heights of superiority and influence.

Financial advisors with social self-consciousness excessively admire influential or very wealthy people and feel inferior to them, and when they are in the presence of such people, they regress into debilitating behaviors.  They swing between feeling admiration and feeling intimidated, conflicted, and even awestruck.  They may clam up or begin to fawn on the person, unable to find a healthy middle ground where they can prospect successfully.

Diagnosing the problem

What do you do if you fit this description?  All the intellectualizing in the world will not resolve this fear.  It needs to be addressed emotionally and behaviorally.

First, you must take responsibility for what you are experiencing.  This is not the most popular advice.  However, it is really the only way in order to overcome social self-consciousness.

Observe your behavior with service personnel or other people you may feel are inferior to you in some way.  Some people who experience social self-consciousness habitually intimidate those they perceive as below them on the social ladder.  They treat these people just as poorly and in just the same way as they believe their own social “betters” have treated them.

If you find that you are rude or even somewhat rude toward people that you rate lower in social standing than yourself, immediately start going out of your way to notice how they contribute to society.  Notice their value.  Everyone, even the homeless person on the street, contributes to society in some way.  (For instance, seeing a homeless person may trigger others to be more grateful or more compassionate.  This is a valuable contribution.)  Begin to treat everyone, regardless of their perceived social standing, with courtesy and respect.  Extend pleasantries to everyone you encounter.  You will be amazed at the result.

‘Zap’ to interrupt habitual thought

Now it’s time to work on the day-to-day thoughts and behaviors that are standing in the way of your success.

Step 1:  Document your negative thoughts. When you think about prospecting someone you view as upscale and find yourself feeling intimidated, write down the thought that is triggering the intimidation.  Perhaps it’s something like these:

• “People like her get prospected day in and day out by salespeople.”
• “He must already be working with a financial advisor he really likes.”
• “These people are well networked; calling on them is futile.  They only work with their friends.”

Notice the story you are making up that is keeping you from prospecting.  This awareness is vital.  It is not prospecting upscale clientele that is intimidating you.  It is your thoughts about prospecting upscale clientele that are intimidating you.

As simple as this may sound, it is very profound.  Once you recognize that making up stories is what is making you miserable and casting you into intimidation and self-doubt, you take back the power to stop feeling that way.  Your freedom from social self-consciousness begins with your willingness to write down these pessimistic thoughts, or what we call “negative intruders.”

Step 2:  Observe your emotions. Once you have identified a negative intruder, notice your emotional reaction.  Are you stammering?  Does your brain freeze?  Is your speech monotone or overly fawning or apologetic?  Become a scientist of your emotions and behavior.

Be careful:  Many financial advisors get angry at themselves at this point.  They brutally criticize and chastise themselves for having these feelings.  This is a trap of self-sabotage.  You must break the habit of self-criticism.  It is always destructive, never productive.  When you judge yourself, you lose the entire effect of the exercise.  So just notice, without judgment.

Step 3:  Zap your negative thoughts. Get a wide rubber band and put it on your wrist.  Every time you spot a negative intruder, zap yourself with a gentle snap of the rubber band.  This will interrupt the habitual thought that is holding you back.  Zap every single time you have thoughts of being inferior to or intimidated by someone of higher wealth or social standing than you.

The thought-zapper rubber band is not to be used for punishment. It does not need to hurt, just sting slightly.  The purpose is to add a physical component to changing your habits of mind, your thinking habits.

Make no mistakes:  Feeling intimidated by important people is a habit.  No one is born socially self-conscious.  It is entirely learned.  The zapper will actually work on rewiring the neural networks in your brain that have been hard-wired to make you believe that upscale prospects are intimidating and that you are not worthy of their business.  A habit’s worse enemy is interruption.

If you are the type that would use the thought zapper as painful punishment, you are advised to not employ this technique.  It would be counterproductive and actually cause more self-sabotage.  (Go back to Step 2 and try to work on being nonjudgmental with yourself and others.  This will help you move on.)

Step 4:  Neutralizing the negative. Now that you have zapped, replace the negative intruder with a neutral thought, such as:

• “He probably gets lots of calls.  That means timing is everything.  I will be the first to call him today.”
• “Even if she is working with someone else, she may be looking for a second opinion on that new tax law, and I can provide potentially valuable information prior to her filing income tax returns.”
• “As well-networked as some people are, they can be open to meeting new people who have something interesting to present.”

The more you zap the habitual thoughts that trigger negative feelings about prospecting influential or wealthy people, the more you’ll break the hard-wiring in your brain and replace it with new neural networks.

Step 5:  Change your behavior. When you do eventually make the call, remember that many high-net-worth people employ assistants, or gate openers.  Notice my choice of terms:  gate openers.  Many salespeople think of these assistants as “gatekeepers” and get into defense mode prior to making th  eir prospecting calls.

Instead, think of them as gate openersand treat them just as you would treat the high-net-worth client.  Tell them exactly who you are and the purpose of your call, using an engaging statement that piques their interest.  Don’t go off on an internal campaign about receptionists and administrative assistants and how rude they are to salespeople.  This is a great time to practice treating everyone with respect and noticing their value.

When you attend events of any kind, seek out the people in the spotlight, introduce yourself, and initiate a conversation.  You do not need to think of yourself as prospecting at this point.  You are simply conditioning yourself to meet the people who used to intimidate you.  And you just may find out that they are pretty cool people who are more open — and more human — than you thought!

Be patient

There is no overnight fix for social self-consciousness.  After all, it didn’t develop overnight.  It has been with you a long time.  But the sooner you start with these types and techniques — all of which have been proven to break the logjam of call reluctance — the more quickly you will start to feel comfortable with all types of people, regardless of their wealth or social standing.

As Rudyard Kipling reminds us in his famous poem “if”:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none to much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And which is more you’ll be a Man, my son!

It’s build on an Aesop fable that goes something like this.

A farmer’s son, is daydreaming as he walks to town with a pail of milk balanced on his head. His thoughts: “The milk in this pail will provide me with cream, which I will make into butter, which I will sell in the market, and buy a dozen eggs, which will hatch into chickens, which will lay more eggs, and soon I shall have a large poultry yard. I’ll sell some of the fowls and buy myself a handsome new suit and go to the fair, and when the young ladies become amorous, I’ll puff my chest and toss my head as I pass them by.” At that moment, he tossed his head and lost the pail full of milk. His father admonished, “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.”

As children and young adults we take countless uncalculated risks.  As we mature and grow wiser, we learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others, and we become increasingly risk averse.   Since the beginning of time — well at least since Aesop in 600 B.C. — the wise and mature sentiments have been “look before you leap”, “once burned, twice shy” and, “don’t count your chicken before they are hatched”.

If you think about that, it becomes easy to understand why those of us who are prepared to take risks — calculated risks — are the ones who are most likely to reap fortunes.

The financial fiasco of 2008 and 2009 are quite literally behind us.  Some of us will choose to batten down the hatches and never put ourselves in a position to have to deal with that again.  Others will look into the future at the opportunities that are presented while so many are shaking in their boots.

The time may never be better invest in your future.  If we go back to Aesop’s fable; the chickens are hatching and it’s time to do something with them.

Here’s a generic example first and we’ll apply it to financial services a bit later on. Think about toothpaste. Its basic function is to clean teeth. Pretty boring stuff right? NOT! Through our ever increasing need for choices, toothpaste’s purpose has expanded over the years to: prevent cavities, freshen breath, whiten teeth, desensitize to heat and cold, brighten smiles and even heighten sexual prowess.

You can walk into most department stores and be faced with an entire mind-numbing isle of selection on shapes, sizes, flavors from this list: Aim, Aquafresh, Arm & Hammer, Colgate, Crest, Darlie, Doramad, Elmex, Euthymol, Gleem, Ipana, Kolynos, Lion, Mentadent, Oral-B, Pepsodent, Sensodyne, Signal, Sozodont, Stomatol, Therabreath, Tom’s of Maine, Ultra Brite, Zendium.

That’s just toothpaste. Imaging being sent to the store for toothpaste, salad dressing and cereal. Essentially, you would be faced with more than 2,000 choices. And, the choices are getting bigger every day.

The common misconception is that choices make things better, they free us up and we are more satisfied as a result. In truth, the exact opposite happens.
Here is what selection and choice does: (Start thinking of these in terms of your practice.)

1. Too many choices can create paralysis to the point of no decision being made at all. Or, more specifically, the decision to make no choice and simply put the decision off. It has been shown repeatedly that when the anxiety and risk of making the wrong decision exceeds possible benefit, then the go-forward decision is simply postponed to tomorrow, then tomorrow, then tomorrow and eventually the decision never happens.
2. When faced with a variety of choices, after a decision is made, people are more easily dissatisfied with their choice. This is because it is easy to imagine the benefits and rewards we might have achieved had we picked something else. Buyer’s remorse or regret are more prevalent when there are a multitude of choices and the most minor malfunction, or lack of performance is quickly compared to the utopia that would have been provided through a different decision.
3. Given hundreds or even thousands of choices for a product or service, our expectations increase significantly when it comes to the rewards of our decision. We believe that surely, with so many choices and options, the decision we make will meet our exact need. In reality, that is rarely the case. Our expectations increase in proportion to the number of choices we have and as a result, the product or service rarely meets our excessively high expectations.
4. We blame ourselves for bad decisions. Surely, with all the choices out there, there is a product or service that is perfect for us. As suppliers push decisions onto consumers, the consumers take ownership for “betting on the wrong horse.” As a result we are even less satisfied with our decisions and even more reluctant to make a decision the next time.
   

   So what does all mean to people in the financial services industry — an industry where clients have access to an almost infinite array of choices?

   You need to balance your client’s need to be informed and be part of the decision with their need to feel comfortable with the decision to the point of not even thinking about it again after the decision is made.

   There is really only one way to do that. With full disclosure in mind, inform them in the simplest terms possible and help them make the decision. Take ownership for the decision whenever possible and keep them informed as to the results. The more work you do in assisting the decision, the less work they will be compelled to do and the happier they will be in both the short and long term.

   Reducing choice to increase satisfaction, retention and even referrals seems counter intuitive. Speaking of choices; simplifying decisions for your clients is a choice only you can make.

DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT MAKEOVER MINDSET?

Making over your business is not for everyone, especially those who are timid or complacent. If you’re okay to continue doing what you’ve always done and getting what you’ve always gotten, you can stop reading right now. This article will not interest you or serve you. But, if you truly want to make a lasting change in your business, this article will be that wake-up-call you’ve been waiting for. It will challenge you and point you in the right direction.

A makeover should mean more than just dusting-off and tweaking what could be.  It should mean “If I could do this all over again the right way, what would I do?”

For most people, starting over can be exciting at best and intimidating at worst. It’s all a question of perspective.  To achieve greater results, by an order of magnitude, means taking risks and being passionate about the rewards.   It also means going through a mental makeover before the physical makeover starts. One thing is very clear, if you want to move forward to bigger and better, getting more of things you want and doing less of the things you don’t want, a positive mental attitude is the only answer that will serve you.

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” -Thomas Jefferson

A Makeover Mindset (MM) is how we describe the frame of mind of someone who knows with clarity and certainty that the thinking that got them to where they are today is not the thinking that is needed to take them to the next level of success and happiness. MM is the “aha” moment when you know for certain that you need to STOP dusting-off and tweaking.  MM is only achieved when the understanding is clear that something very different needs to happen.  Something big.  Something worthy of being called a makeover.  Unfortunately,  “aha” moments are often fleeting inspirations for most of us unless there is focused and sustainable action.

A MM can only be achieved when there is a realization, a revelation if you will, that there is a third “M” – Madness.  Madness is the depletion of energy and expenditure of time and resources on repeating the same thing we’ve always done to just maintain the status quo.  Madness is working harder and longer just to maintain your current success – your plateau.   Most every successful business owner and entrepreneur has gone through long hours and heavy lifting, working hard and diligently to achieve that success. The Madness is continuing to do those same things just to maintain the current level.

It’s worth spending a moment on inspiration.  At some point, most successful business owners have been caught in a moment of inspiration to make a huge change, and yet, nothing came from it? Think about a great book you may have read where you were consumed by the storyline and potential, feeling like change was necessary and paramount.  Then what happened?  Many entrepreneurs sleep on it, consider it and move on to “more pressing matters”, the “day to day”.  The fleeting infatuation with MM ends and the Madness lives on.  To escape it, you need to seize the moment and take directed action.

In my career I’ve had many “aha” moments, many of which I’ve not been able to embrace and sustain. It’s a deflating experience when your next “aha” is that you haven’t been able to sustain the greatest “moments” for change in your business and your life.  I’m speaking from experience.

But I finally understand it, how to escape the Madness forever and never look back. It’s been one heck of a journey. The quest for magic solutions for achieving extraordinary success is a tiring, expensive journey. It’s a road paved with promises and compromises. Although there have been exhilarating moments, I wish I could have done it differently. Although I’ve gained incredible insights from my failures I’d much rather have know how to do it right many years ago.

I WANT TO SHARE THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS WITH YOU

Success is about vision, focus, awareness, accountability, starting and quitting. Yes, I said quitting. Quitting the right things will free you to pursue only that which drives you towards achieving your vision.

Here’s my challenge to all of you who are either immersed in the Madness or have flirting relationships with the “aha” moment that will catapult you. Here’s the juice!

Define your Vision.  Then, quit anything or everything that doesn’t clearly move you in that direction. Embrace highly focused activities and your greatest leverage points. Seek new thinking. Take action. Begin with the end in mind. Find the right partners to help you focus and hold you accountable. Build momentum every day, every week, every month, and every year until your vision of success becomes your reality.

TAKING ACTION IS A DECISION ONLY YOU CAN MAKE.

Here’s what starting looks like:

1. Take the free SuQu Mindscan Assessment. Understand your thinking strengths, leverage points and areas for improvement. Take the MindScan at www.freedomarketing.com/MS.
2. Find a coach and/or mentor to help you find a sustainable mindset and someone to hold you accountable. We’ve worked with some amazing business coaches and tactical referral coaches who we’d be happy to introduce you to.
3. Create a SuQu Map with your business coach. Begin with the end in mind and work backwards so you know exactly what is needed to move towards success. Focus on sustainable momentum. The coaches we know will guide you through the SuQu process.
4. Make sure you have the right partners to help you build systems and processes, define your message (brand), identify your ideal client, develop your marketing, and generate an endless flow of ideal prospects through introductions.

If you need helping putting this all into perspective call me at (905) 579-7724. I’d be delighted to talk this through with you. But don’t call until you’ve taken the Mindscan.

Here’s to YOUR LIFE – BEYOND THE MADNESS!

In Leading Change, Kotter outlines eight necessary steps to effective change. This article deals with the first of these. We’ve all heard some rendition of the saying, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Kotter points out that the very first step to making any significant change is the recognition that change is necessary. He highlights the point by stating unequivocally that change will fail, or not even be attempted, if there is an absence of a visible crisis.

There’s the rub. Recognizing the crisis is not pleasant or easy. It can actually be painful. We plug along, we do what we’ve always done and things just happen. We tweak things, we try this, we try that, we learn along the way and we somehow get a little better and a little stronger.

Real change, the type of change that catapults us to significant success requires a sense of urgency, a sense of crisis. As humans we are pre-wired to look for comfort and to avoid conflict and crisis. By our very nature, we don’t notice subtle changes that happen over time – even though those very changes, if they happened all at once, would accumulate to alert our natural instincts that a crisis had developed.

Here’s an example. Watch this short 12 second video. Be advised up front that there is a change happening. Press the play button now and watch for the change.



Did you spot it? Not likely. Now try it again – this time, Drag the timeline arrow on the bottom of the video to speed it forward and backward quickly and the change will become obvious. If you still can’t see it, try pressing the double arrows to jump to the beginning and the end.

Now play the video one more time at regular speed and look for the change. Wonder how you missed it the first time?

Just like this video, changes are happening around us all the time. They are subtle but they are there. To “create” a crisis, take a look back at how things were just two or three years ago. The unique economic situation aside, what has changed? How has your business reacted to the cumulative changes that have taken place to: client expectations, compliance regulations, subtle product changes, technology, staffing, your personal life.. etc.

In aggregate, had all these changes happened overnight, they would have created a crisis. Because they were gradual, we pretty much rolled with the punches, tweaked and adapted.

What does all this mean? It means that if we want to achieve unsurpassed success, we need to “see the writing on the wall” now! Create your crisis. It’s there, you just need to see it.

Most Canadians helplessly and with resignation, overpay their taxes every two weeks when their employers withhold personal income taxes remittances. The good news?  You can stop those bad financial habits! Options are available to reduce taxes paid at source for most people. You just have to make an effort to know the tax credits and deductions you are entitled to—don’t glaze over, this is important–and begin filing of a series of what I call “sister forms” used to reduce source deductions.

To put more of the first dollar you earn into your own pocket, sooner, here are four common forms to get to know before the end of the year to really make a difference in your cash flow:

1. The federal and provincial TD1, Personal Tax Credits Return, upon which tax credits such as the Basic Personal Amount ($10382 in 2010), spousal amount, amount for eligible dependant (equivalent-to-spouse), the child amount ($2101 for each child born in 1993 or later), the age amount, pension income amount, tuition, education and textbook amounts, disability amount, caregiver amount, amounts transferred from spouse or dependant and deductions for living in a prescribed northern zone. Make sure you complete this accurately if any of the above will be claimed on your tax return in 2010.
2. The T1213, Request to Reduce Tax Deductions at Source, mentioned below, which takes into account the tax benefits resulting from year round RRSP deductions, child care expenses, support payments, employment expenses on Form T777, carrying charges and other tax reductions like charitable donations, significant medical expenses, rental losses and so forth. That makes year end a very good time to do some tax planning in advance for 2010. If you understand the time value of money, and can budget your spending and savings, Form T1213 can ensure more of the first dollar goes to the right place—your pocket instead of the government’s.
3. The TDIX, Statement of Commission Income and Expenses for Payroll Tax Deductions, which will take into account expenses commission sales employees have in earning their commissions. These employees will deduct last year’s commission sales expenses calculated on Form T777 or this year’s estimated commissions from their salaries plus commissions to have tax deducted only on the net amount. It is really surprising how few people actually use this form.
4. The TD1-IN Determination of Exemption of an Indian’s Employment Income, which allows employers to exempt employment income from income tax deductions at source altogether in the following circumstances:  when the employee performs at least 90% of the employment duties on a reserve, both the employer and the employee reside on the reserve or in situations where the employee performs more than 50% of the employment duties on the reserve and the employee or the employer resides on the reserve. Finally if the employee’s duties are connect the employer’s non-commercial activities carried on exclusively for the benefit of Indians who reside on the reserve source deductions will be waived if the employer is an Indian band, tribal council or Indian organization controlled by one or more such bands or reserves.

Remember:  it’s your legal right and duty to pay only the correct amount of tax. When you begin your tax and financial planning for 2010 now—starting with paying only the correct amount of income tax instalments or withholdings–you can indeed make the moves to pull ahead and win financially.

Make it your mantra to keep more of every first dollar earned starting January 1, 2010. Happy New Year!

Evelyn Jacks is President of The Knowledge Bureau and the author of three new books available now from www.knowledgebureau.com: Essential Tax Facts 2010, Master Your Taxes and Make Sure It’s Deductible.

Link to Bio: http://www.knowledgebureau.com/Faculty.asp?tab=Meet&ID=1

To take control of the first dollar earned is easier for the self employed.  They pay taxes on the dollars left after the costs of earning revenues are deducted. Then quarterly tax instalments are remitted (the 15th of March, June, September and December); or in the case of farmers, once a year on December 31.

Instalment tax payments are required when net taxes owing at tax filing time exceeds $3000 in the current year or either of the immediately preceding two tax years. Therefore many seniors or even divorcees receiving spousal allowances can be required to make instalment payments. For those taxpayers, an accurate estimation of the current year’s taxes payable will result in a reduction of the final two payments of the year.

For the employed, however, the key is to minimize taxes required to be withheld by their employer at source.  With the average tax refund being in the vicinity of over $1400 per year (or close to $120 a month), the benefits of vigilance over required source deductions are exponential.

If you understand the time value of money—it’s worth more in your hands today because of its potential to earn money for the future–you will be poised to make better financial decisions all year long because you get to work with more money, first, and use it longer to accumulate and grow your savings. You will accumulate more wealth, faster, especially if you invest in a tax preferred vehicle such as a TFSA or RRSP.

However, Canadians are notoriously complacent about their source deductions, preferring to receive that “windfall” tax refund when they file their return. But, remember, providing an interest free loan to the government at the expense of compounding investment growth is not smart, for the reasons mentioned above. 
Worse, most taxpayers forget that income taxes paid are the largest revenue line item for government, and will be your largest lifetime expense for two reasons:  they erode income earned along the way, and they will erode accumulated capital too, at actual disposition or at death, in the absence of determined tax planning.

In short, your purchasing power is reduced both now and later, when you give up control of your precious hard earned, pre-tax dollars.

Next Time: The Good News!  How to keep more of every first dollar earned starting January 1, 2010.

Evelyn Jacks is President of The Knowledge Bureau and the author of three new books available now from www.knowledgebureau.com: Essential Tax Facts 2010, Master Your Taxes and Make Sure It’s Deductible.

Link to Bio: http://www.knowledgebureau.com/Faculty.asp?tab=Meet&ID=1

Situation:

Agent X has been selling P&C insurance for 5 years building a strong book of business that has annualized commissions of $60,000.

A successful, self motivated entrepreneur, Agent X is looking to double her market share within 2 years.  She realizes that by acquiring another agency, this would be the quickest way to gain clients without incurring marketing expense.  After evaluating her financial situation, Agent X determines she is ready to purchase an agency. She learns through a colleague that an agency is available for sale within her desired location and price range.

The agency’s annual commissions are $67,000 making it a perfect fit for doubling her market share. The owner of the agency wants to sell the agency for 1.5 times the commissions resulting in a $100,500 price tag.

Problem:

Agent X does not want to go out-of-pocket to acquire the agency. Because of her low credit score and high debt-to-income ratio, she researches many different financing options. Because this is her first time acquiring an agency, she is looking for a company that is also able to educate her about the acquisition process.

After seeing a video featured on CNBC about TWG Capital – a leading financial provider exclusively for the insurance industry since 2000 – she contacts them for a free consultation.

Solution:

Agent X is only willing to use a third of her book of business as collateral in order to get a loan to buy the agency. After providing Agent X a free valuation on that portion, TWG Capital qualifies her for a loan that will net $16,750 at closing – which does not cover the total needed capital of $100,500.

Because Agent X is acquiring an agency with annualized commissions of $67,000, she is able to use the book of business of the agency she’s purchasing as collateral for the loan.  After TWG Capital completed the underwriting and due diligence process, the loan to Agent X increased an extra $83,750, creating a combined loan amount of $100,500 – enough to cover the cost of the agency.

Benefits and Results:

Agent X acquired the agency within 10 days of contacting TWG Capital. Not only was she able to double her market share within 2 years, but she was also able to increase profitability by cross-selling to the newly acquired policy holders. With these new renewals, she is able to comfortably make the debt service payments on her new commercial loan and deduct the interest on her taxes.

Due to the significant increase in her book of business, Agent X was able to leverage herself with her carriers to increase the commission percentage earned and receive additional production bonuses as well.

In summary, Agent X was able to acquire an agency with no out-of-pocket expense and the seller was able to receive a lump sum cash payment in exchange for the business.

Interested in a loan for working capital or to purchase an agency? Click here for a free valuation or email me at Stephanie_Simmons@TWGCapital.com.

Everyone in the securities industry will want to give Superior Court Justice Thomas Lederer a big hug after reading this article describing the March, 2008, decision in which he dismissed a client’s claim when he sought to have his advisor (Leach) and investment dealer (Merrill Lynch) reimburse him for losses after seeking high returns in a risky investment strategy.

pull text from http://www.casselsbrock.com/docs%5CLandmark_Verdict_on_Trading.pdf

James Smith, Jim Smith and Jimmy Smith are all born on Aug. 27, 1962, and they are all engineers, but only one has been tried and found guilty of drug trafficking. How can advisors and dealers identify their clients and report any potentially politically exposed foreign persons (”PEFPs”) to FINTRAC pursuant to obligations under the new Bill C-25 amended regulations to the Proceeds of Crime and Money Laundering and Terrorists Financing Act?

pull text from http://www.casselsbrock.com/docs%5CDiligence_Helps_Combat_Fiscal_Fraud.pdf