Add a personal touch to mass communications

Name:

Carey Vandenberg

Occupation:

Financial planner and investment advisor, IPC Securities Corporation

Location:

Vancouver, B.C.

Age

55

In the business since:

1987

Fee model:

Percentage of AUM (embedded or direct)

Typical clients:

Professionals making more than $100,000 annually

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This article is part of the Advisor’s Edge 20 Ways to Be a Better Advisor feature package, published in the June 2018 edition of AE. Click here for more tips and to learn about our 20th anniversary.

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On Jan. 17, Carey Vandenberg sent “Mutual Gains,” the newsletter he’s been writing since 1987, to about 500 readers. The title of that particular bi-monthly edition was “A Market Running Too Fast Will Stumble.” It warned clients to expect a 5% to 10% dip in the red-hot stock market, which he reassured them would be a welcome reality check.

“In terms of timing, that was pretty darn lucky,” he says, as markets peaked Jan. 26 before dropping 10% in early February. “It could have happened a year from now.”

His prescience—or, as he puts it, his “pessimism” when things are too good—paid off. He didn’t get any panicked phone calls or emails from clients during that correction, he says.

Vandenberg credits more than his timing for his success in connecting with clients. The personal nature of his newsletter also helps, he says. “Mutual Gains” has a 43% open rate. A client once brought a binder full of hard copies to a meeting.

The newsletter allows Vandenberg to demonstrate his personality at a time when many firms send out generic market updates.

“People appreciate something that comes directly from me, that’s not canned,” he says.

In its 30 years, the newsletter has evolved from mail to electronic-only, and Vandenberg has moved to covering more topics in shorter, concise sections that force him to write in a straightforward way.

“I’m trying to pull different stuff that not everybody’s talking about,” he says.

Location, location, location

His approach to getting to know clients has also evolved. When he started, Vandenberg says he would meet with roughly half of his clients outside his office. That’s more like 90% now.

“I get much more information,” he says. “Some people say they don’t know if they have all their client’s money. That’s not even an issue—I know everything.”

Sometimes there’s temptation to have clients come to the advisor’s office in order to “create some feeling of bigness,” Vandenberg says, but the opportunity to get to know them where they’re most comfortable is more important. He now commits one “road day” every week to house calls.

“It benefits both of us in terms of what type of information is shared,” he says. “You see what kind of house they have: Is it an opulent house or is it bare bones? You see what type of car they have if it’s sitting in the driveway; [you see] where they’re spending their money. You get to know a person best from the environment they live in. You can’t get that in an office.”

Is it possible to get too close to clients on these visits, or learn something you wish you hadn’t? “Like when you meet people and go, ‘Oh, gee, they’re messed up?’” he says. “No, not at all.”