Yeske Buie in the Media: Financial Advisor Success Podcast
Elissa recently spent time with fellow Financial Planner and educator, Michael Kitces, as a guest on his “Financial Advisor Success” podcast. During the podcast, the two discussed everything from Yeske Buie’s approach to creating financial plans and serving our Clients, to our desire to leverage the next generation of talent, to Elissa’s career, and more. In this space, we highlight a few excerpts from the podcast that we feel shed some light on Yeske Buie’s passion for serving our Clients through financial planning.
Yeske Buie’s Approach to Financial Planning
“In my opinion, and in Yeske Buie’s opinion, Financial Planners have to be good with the numbers, with the calculations, with the results, and with the output of everything in order to do good planning.” Additionally, Elissa adds that another aspect of good planning includes “the high-level, big picture recommendations that consider who matters to the Client and why, what the key drivers, choices, and consequences are, any outstanding challenges and questions, etc.” And lastly, there’s also “the follow-up afterwards, including a very detailed email that outlines who’s going to do what, when, how, and what are the other outstanding items that haven’t been decided yet or have been tabled.” In summary, our belief is that financial planning should focus on “building the relationship, the interior dimension, knowing the what and who matters to these Clients and why, [and be] backed up by good calculations.”
Elissa’s Advice to New Financial Planners
Elissa’s advice to new advisors is to “really put some thought into [the Clients you want to work with], get mentors to help you, and have conversations with your peers about your value system around financial planning. And then stick with that value system! If your value system has to do with people truly living an exquisite life, seek out Clients who want financial planning to help them live an exquisite life. If your value system is ‘more money is better’, great, go for it. Seek out Clients who want to accumulate as much money as possible. But just know what your value system is and stick with that. Aim to work with clients where you go, ‘Oh, I’m so excited, so and so is coming in today. I can’t wait. I always have such a great meeting with her.’”
Elissa’s Thoughts on the Growth of the Financial Planning Profession
“If you think about where the profession has come over my 35 year career, there’s just been a lot of change. 35 years ago, we didn’t even have computers in the office, so I did return calculations with my HP-12C and a yellow pad and a pen! In terms of the profession, growing the CFP marks and making them ever more rigorous and really enforcing the Code of Ethics has been incredible and it’s what the public needed. It would have been really easy for the profession to go a different route, so the fact that it happened the way it did is a testament to the kind of people who were in the business. And now, coming fully to the fiduciary standard at this point for all CFP licensees is something to be proud of. I would say it’s a shame it took this long, but I’m happy we’re there.”
Reflections on Elissa’s Career
Talking about the hardest point of Elissa’s career…
“There was never a time when it felt bad except in late 2008 and early 2009 when I was honestly walking around pretty much nauseous. And I’m really not exaggerating, my heart was in my throat all day every day. The Clients were in so much pain, and it was so frightening. It was taking every ounce of energy to stick with our absolute fundamental belief that it’s all going to be fine. I’ve got to laugh about somebody who was saying, ‘Well, should I buy gold?’ And we’d say, ‘Well, if things get bad enough that you actually need gold, men with guns will come to your door and steal it from you. So that’s probably not a good idea either!’ So, there have been plenty of challenges, but that’s the risk/reward paradigm, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Talking about how Elissa defines success for herself…
“I was raised by two wonderful parents, one of whom grew up in the Blitz in London, and so she had a serious scarcity mentality and it rubbed off on me. While finances are certainly not the only measurement (by any stretch of the imagination!) of success, I feel that I have everything I could possibly need financially, and that to me is a huge success. It’s nice to feel that there’s enough. I am also grateful to be in a position where I get to spend so much time giving back. We have a wonderful team, three of which are transitioning as new owners, and they work together to run the place which gives Dave and I the opportunity to spend our time as we desire. So that’s huge success, too, that I just have this firm of young people who are just freaking amazing.”