Building a top-notch intern program doesn't simply mean hiring a few planning interns. Top financial advisor David Armstrong took it much further and hires creative interns too. These are students who major in the creative fields and can build a portfolio of work at David's firm while David gets to stay on the leading edge of marketing and social media.

No two paths to financial services are the same, but David Armstrong's was particularly unique. As he served overseas in the Marine Corps, David couldn't spend any of his money. But he could invest it. So he taught himself the ins and outs of managing money, and by the time he left the service, his ROI was, “along with a few bucks in cash as a bouncer, good enough to pay for an MBA, a new car, and two years of living expenses.”

David also credits an internship with providing crucial real-world experience that eased his transition into our industry. So it's no surprise that his own company has a robust internship program that attracts students who, like David, might be approaching financial advisory from unconventional angles.

David Armstrong is the President and Co-Founder of Monument Wealth Management. In this conversation, David and I are joined by some of his team members and a current intern to discuss Monument's unique approach to its internship program, succession planning, and lessons from the Marine Corps that David has used to build a successful independent RIA.

How does jumping out of airplanes apply to managing clients' money? Listen to find out!

The AUM pricing model is prevalent in our industry but in many cases, the pricing is significantly disconnected from the real value being delivered.

Depending on your expertise and your client base, you might add value through tax management or estate planning advice. You might add value by fostering a positive attitude in your clients about investing, talking clients down from the ledge and helping them avoid a bad decision when volatility shakes the market.  If you're working in the life-centered planning space, you might create value by forging life-long relationships that make you indispensable to your clients. 

And that's the rub for our industry: we're pricing based on investing, and less so on the real value we're adding. Clients and prospects think they're paying for portfolio performance, so it's almost like we're giving away the planning and advice piece of the pie for free!

So how do we change this backwards structure? How do we price our value?

Matthew Jackson is a director in the financial services division of the pricing consultancy firm Simon Kucher & Partners. He specializes in the area of the psychology of value communication and digital presentment. He also has a Master of Arts degree in classics from Oxford University and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

In this conversation, Matthew Jackson and I discuss eight different pricing models and how to determine which one is right for you and your clients.