How to partner with lawyers and accountants

Strategic partnerships with accountants and lawyers will grow your practice, says Brett Van Bortel, director of consulting services at Invesco’s Van Kampen Investments.

Van Bortel is the author of Rainmaker: Strategic Partnering with Attorneys and Accountants to Create a Pipeline of New Affluent Clients, he spoke yesterday at the HNW Client Engagement Conference in Toronto.

Advisor.ca live-tweeted the event and we’ve put the best tweets below:

As many as 89% of high-net-worth clients find their advisors through their accountants or lawyers, he says.

These professionals interact all the time with wealthy individuals who trust them.

In the U.S., estate lawyers work with 60 to 80 wealthy clients a year on average, while accountants see more than 100. With a strategic partnership, you could access their clients and make them your own, he explains.

Super-successful advisors have recognized the potential of these relationships, which can “make your career,” he adds.

Read more: Closing the gap: five easy steps to realize COI referral potential

A true partnership with an accountant or lawyer isn’t based on a round of golf. Get to know partner attorneys and accountants as well as you would know a client.

Brainstorm together to come up with ways to be mutually beneficial at a deeper level, rather than sending each other the odd client. Instead, frame your relationship with the lawyer or accountant as a joint venture you are providing services to their clients that they can’t.

A simple client referral model, even if it works well, is problematic, says Van Bortel. It will encourage lawyers or accountants to find other advisors—your competitors—to trade with to grow their own business.

Instead, show your unique value by offering your education, practice management and marketing expertise, he says. He once helped an attorney generate $80,000 in one year by helping him put together a simple email campaign to get clients in to update their estate plans, he says.

How do you find a partner?

Van Bortel says an ideal partner may be one of your clients, or someone already in your network you loosely know.

Read: Diversify your network

Lawyers and accountants are constantly approached by advisors pitching partnerships, so set yourself apart by understanding them and listening to what they need, instead of going in with a hard pitch.

Make it clear that a partnership will bring them business, and not take away from their clientele. And ensure they know your business and process are rock-solid—they’ll hold back if they’re worried your firm might get into financial or legal trouble and take out a number of their clients.

Of course, before you get serious about a partnership, ensure their clientele’s net typical worth above your account minimum.

But if you go into your meeting and you don’t have an immediate rapport with the attorney or accountant, don’t waste your time—you need to trust and like each other for your partnership to be effective, says Van Bortel.

Read: 11 ways to use LinkedIn effectively