Written by: Grant Wilburn
Many of our clients and all of my coworkers here at Agili have something in common: we live in constant fear of beer trucks.
As I’m sure some of those reading can attest, the length of time someone has been a client and the probability that they’ve heard Michael Joyce tell a “beer truck story” are directly – and positively – correlated. For the uninitiated, these stories start off with, “If you were to get hit by a beer truck tomorrow…” and end in a what-if scenario; what if you don’t have sufficient life insurance, don’t have an estate plan in place, or both?
While the fateful storyline is always brought up in jest (and may soon have to reference “beer drones” instead), the prompt is a great way for clients to think through how they might prepare for a worst-case scenario. It’s so effective, in fact, that the proverbial beer truck is also one of the main drivers behind the team-based approach we take with client relationships.
At Agili, our clients are serviced by a team consisting of six roles:
- Client Services Administrator
- Portfolio Administrator
- Financial Planning Analyst
- Investment Analyst
- Financial Strategist
- Senior Financial Strategist
While each role comes with its own unique responsibilities, they’ve also been designed to overlap in some ways. Having a number of people on each client team, each offering their own expertise, allows us to be both efficient and thorough in servicing our clients, and further provides a “checks and balances” system to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. Even more importantly, however, is that it guarantees multiple people at Agili are aware of our clients’ situations and can assist them at any point in time – even if their Financial Strategist is on vacation or, God forbid, is unexpectedly hit by a beer truck.
Internally we use several tools and methods of communication to ensure that each team member can assist with requests or refer clients to another team member who has a deeper knowledge of the topic at hand. While we don’t necessarily recommend calling your Investment Analyst to discuss Social Security strategies or your Portfolio Administrator to discuss market performance, we are confident that everyone on your team can get the ball rolling to answer your questions or fulfill your requests. Let us know if there are any members of your team that you haven’t had the opportunity to meet – we’re always happy to make the introduction!
If you suddenly thought of your own “beer truck scenario” while reading this post, please don’t hesitate to discuss it with a member of your Agili team. Not yet a client? Complete our initial questionnaire to speak with someone about your beer truck scenario.