Unlike some of the other presenters, I’m a producer like you. I’m an advisor; I’m an agent just like you. So, a little bit by the numbers. I started my practice in 2010, so we’re here in my eighth year. I’ve qualified for MDRT every year, Court of the Table the last two or three years, and here’s the thing: 85 percent of my clients are physicians. Who works in the physician market? OK, so we’ve got a couple of hands. If I ask you what percent of your clients are actually physicians, what would that number be? Eighty-five percent, wonderful. That is someone working in the physician market. If you have five doctors, 10 doctors, even 20 doctors, you’re not really in the physician market. Eighty-five percent of my clients are physicians.

We run a fee-based practice. Because if you work with physicians, they want to pay fees, right? They actually expect to pay fees. So, we implemented a minimum fee just to work with us, to engage us, to hire us. I want these docs to have some buy-in. I want these docs to have skin in the game, to understand that in order to hire us, me or my partners, to work with you, to develop a plan, I want you to engage us.

Once they engage us, do you think they miss any meetings? No, right. Do you think they’re on time? Absolutely. So absolutely, we’ve evolved into this fee-based practice. We do a whole heck of a lot of life insurance and disability insurance. A lot of term, a lot of whole life. We’re a well-rounded practice. In terms of AUM, we’ve done AUM for the last three or four years. That is not our focus, but we certainly will not turn it away, and so that’s how we’ve developed our practice for the last couple of years.

Just recently, I’ve hired two partners into the firm. My job really is to be the marketer, to be the person who builds the brand, to bring the clients in because I’ve always told some of my partners, and some of you, that I am a good financial planner. I am not a great financial planner, but what I’m good at is marketing and branding and being different, and bringing the doctors in. That’s my specialty, and so that’s how we develop our firm.

I’ve got two staff, one admin and one associate financial advisor, who does all my planning. We use eMoney, but I don’t even know how to turn eMoney on, honestly. I don’t know how to log in. He does it all, so I don’t touch the plan. I develop it, but in the end, all the backend room stuff, that’s my guy Nate.

Here’s what you’re probably here for. Seventy-five percent of my meetings are virtual, 75%. Who does virtual meetings? Yeah, look at all these hands, right? It’s becoming this trend that if you don’t do it, you’re going to get left behind. I use GoToMeeting, and I would say in the last quarter, the best three or four clients, I have never met in person. So, when I say “virtual,” it’s all virtual. It’s not, “Hey, you’re my client, let’s do a virtual meeting. You live in Atlanta; I live in Atlanta; you don’t want to fight traffic. Let’s do virtual.” I do some of that too, but I’m talking, from the very beginning to the very end, I never meet this person. We don’t even use FaceTime. We don’t use video cameras. It’s all done online. I see some of you guys saying, “Oh no, that’s not me. It’s got to be face-to-face,” but I’m telling you, once you do it, once you try it, you’re never going to go back because it’s so efficient.

I’m not driving to someone’s house, to someone’s office. They’re not coming to see me. Atlanta traffic is legendary. It’s all done online. I can see five people in a day, be home for breakfast, be home for dinner, and never miss T-ball practice. It’s all about virtual. We’re going to get into it. We’re going to get into the iPad. We’re going to get into how I do the technology that I use and how I execute a good virtual meeting.

So that’s a little bit about my practice, but to really, really understand why I’m here, why I love what I do, why I think our job, our profession, our career is so noble, watch this video. [video]

Video

Yin: The knocking was a ... it was an eerie knock. It wasn’t a polite knock. It wasn’t a forceful knock. That knock seemed like the loudest knock in the world because in some way or some fashion or another, I knew that something wrong happened.

Mother: My husband, Paul, he started to parachute jump only for two years. He’s crazy about that sport. He loves that, and children, they feel so hungry, but they say they want to eat dinner. I say no, no, no, you cannot eat without Daddy. We have to eat dinner together. Then, suddenly, the door knocks so loud. I open the door. Suddenly, I saw some friend. I saw their face. They never smile, so suddenly I thought, Uh-oh, maybe something happened to my husband. So, I just ask him, I say, “My husband died?” And he nodded his head.

Yin: Then, all the sudden, all I hear are sobs and uncontrollable crying.

Mother: Oh, I was so shocked. I cannot believe. Suddenly, my husband died.

Yin: When she came upstairs, tears on her face, her eyes were swollen, she said:

Mother: My poor children, my poor baby. You never have father anymore. At the time, they were only 5 and 8 years old, so they don’t have father anymore.

Yin: I didn’t know how to react, so even a bunch of years later, it’s still very real. Still very raw. Then I think about my mom, 28 years ago and what she had to go through. She was left with a struggling Chinese restaurant. She was left with two young boys, in a country where she didn’t speak much of the language, and she had no family around.

Mother: Even if my husband has life insurance; the life would change. I cannot avoid suddenly he died, but I can’t handle, I can’t avoid the financial disaster. A lot of things you cannot control, but your financial destiny you can control by yourself, so this is very important.

Yin: My mom was always very ambitious. She always wanted her husband, Paul, my dad, to do more. She actually asked Paul to look into joining New York Life, and so September 29, 1985, is when my dad passed away, and October 1 rolls around, and the manager at New York Life calls my mom and says, “Hey, Karina, where’s Paul? He didn’t show up for training today.” She said, “Well, he died over the weekend. Can I come instead?”

Mother: So I joined New York Life because I want to tell people how important protection is. So I don’t want they suffer what I suffering before.

Yin: It was her sole mission to make sure what happened to her didn’t happen to anyone else. She wanted to use her personal story. She wanted to use her own testimony and say, “Listen, this happened to me. It’s real. There wouldn’t ever be another single mom, raising two boys by herself, without a husband and without the proper planning.” Now that I’m a dad, I’m so much more impressed at what my mom has accomplished and achieved. She’s raised three beautiful children on her own without ever giving up. She’s helped thousands of clients, and she’s a pillar in the community. She’s superwoman, and so that’s why I’m here. I’m here to continue her legacy, to help protect your loved ones and your business, to help prepare you for a lifetime of success and security, to help you prosper in this generation and beyond.

Yin: Four words from my mom that would change the path, the trajectory of my life: “Can I come instead?” What would you do in that situation? What would I do? What would my wife do if I passed away? “Can I come instead?” She had the courage to do it, to join this noble profession, this awesome career. Here’s something else that she said that really resonated with me. I hope it resonates with you: “There are a lot of things in life you can’t control, but you could control your financial, what?”

Audience: Destiny.

Yin: You guys were listening. Your financial destiny. That’s our job. That’s what we do. What happens when someone dies too young? What happens when someone lives too long? What happens if someone gets sick? What happens if someone gets disabled and their income goes away? That’s why we’re here, right? To help them plan and control their financial destiny. That’s why it’s just an honor to be up here, because I love what I do. I love what I do. I’m passionate, and I hope you feel the same way that I do.

So let’s move into the content, and I want this, again, to be very, very interactive. This is a workshop. This is not me up here just talking, OK? So, who can tell me the No. 1 reason why a client or a prospect picks you as an advisor? What’s the No. 1 reason?

Audience: Care.

Yin: Trust, they care. What else? They like you. More? Experience they can relate to, right. Those are all great answers, but after research and data, the No. 1 reason is because they know you work with people just like them. No. 1. All that trust, relationship, you care, experience, all that can be intertwined, fine, but the No. 1 reason is you work with people just like them. So here’s my website. [visual] As financial advisors, can we put testimonials on our website? No. There’s no testimonial here. These are bios, right? When a prospect jumps on my website, generationmd.com, when you’re talking about branding, they automatically will see that I work with people just like them: MD, MD, MD, MD, MPH, DO, MD. Oh, and look, there’s a Chinese guy. Allen Chang. My college roommate, he’s a cardiologist. You’ve got a Chinese guy; you’ve got a Korean doc; you’ve got an Indian doc; you’ve got a Caucasian doc. You have Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, you know? You’ve got everybody, African American. The whole thing, so it doesn’t matter where you are in your season of life, where you are in terms of your ethnic background or what type of specialty you are. I work with people just like you.

If you jumped on LinkedIn right now, this is not my tagline, but this is the tagline of one of my colleagues in Atlanta. [visual] She’s pretty successful, a pretty good advisor. But it says, “Coordinating the financial decisions for a select group in greater Atlanta.” Who likes this tagline? No hands? You like this tagline, right? So, if I’m on her LinkedIn, if I’m trying to find a financial advisor, and I’m a successful business owner or a physician or a lawyer or high net worth, is this me? Do I fit in this select group in Atlanta? What if I’m in Charleston, South Carolina? What if I’m in Boston, Massachusetts? Do I now fit in this group? I don’t know that I would be talking to many people in this group, but here’s my tagline on LinkedIn. [visual] “Helping physicians plan for today, plan for tomorrow, and then plan for generations.” So, if you’re a physician jumping onto my LinkedIn, is there any doubt whom I work with? No doubt. You want to leave no doubt. This is my niche. If you’re a physician, I’m well-equipped and well-prepared to take care of your financial plan. There’s no confusion whatsoever.

Who here’s on LinkedIn? OK. You’re successful, and I’m sure that for everyone in this room, you guys are getting requests all the time from business coaches, right? Or “Hey, do you want to fill your pipe? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?” Right? Anybody? What do you do with those? Do you accept, do you delete, or do you decline? What do you do? You decline a lot of those, right? It’s because they’re not specific. These guys or gals — they’re trying to cast a wide net, but you know who got my attention? This person. [visual] “World leader in generating more affluent clients for financial advisors.” So that was his tagline, and I just happened to be in that moment where I’m like, “Huh, my interest is piqued. Let me look into this thing.” So now, I’m working with this guy in terms of marketing, in terms of generating the pipe, and they’re doing a great job. It’s because this person found a stir point for me. This person found a commonality with me, and they broke through the clutter.

That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to break through the clutter for all these docs. Listen, it doesn’t have to be docs. It could be attorneys, business owners, lawyers, accountants. Whomever you want to work with, whatever your niche is, all this applies. So this person broke through the clutter.

Now, this is a new design of my website. [visual] It’s going through compliance, which is awesome, but I’ve done a lot of research. I’ve done a lot of reading, podcasts, books, talking to advisors, and I want to make my website very, very accessible, very doctor friendly. So, if you look at all the research, because I’m a numbers guy, if you look at your website, where do you think most people spend their time?

Bios. You can have content; you can have white papers; you can have a blog; you can have insurance calculators; you can have all that. But if you look at the research, did you know that 84 percent of the traffic is on your bio and your bio alone? They don’t go anywhere else. They don’t care about anything else. They want to see who you are. They want to see your bio. The price management session yesterday, or two days ago, talked about the bio, the three paragraphs. Remember that? It’s all about the bio, all right? So here’s my bio. [visual] Here’s my new bio. I’ll just read it. It’s the story. My father passed away in 1985 in a tragic plane crash. That is my bio. I want someone to get on my bio and be compelled with my story because it’s such an impactful story. And yes, it was a tragedy. My dad died in a terrible plane crash skydiving, but it’s real life. It’s not fantasy. I want them to know that it matters. This stuff matters. In the blue box, my three promises. [visual] And this is part of every presentation, every conversation I have with prospects.

No. 1, I will always do what I say. I do not drop the ball, and if I do, you’ve got to hold me accountable to that. Promise No. 2, as your fiduciary — so all this DOL stuff, they want to ask if you’re a fiduciary. As your fiduciary, your interests will always be above my own, always. These are the foundations because if I say, “Hey, I think you should do this whole life,” we go back to the three promises. No. 3, anything I recommend, I’d recommend to my own family. It passes the what test? The Mom test. I love my mom. Like, she’s my hero. So, if I’m going to recommend it to her, if I recommend it to you, it’s probably in your best interest because I love my clients. Not as much as my mom, but I love my clients.

Then, if you look at the bottom of the screen — and this is great — what does the price management person say about the ages of your kids? [visual] That should be in there. We’ve got Matty, who was 7 yesterday. I missed his birthday to be here because that’s how much I love you guys. In that video, he was that little kid. I mean he was, gosh, 1, now he’s 7, so that was five or six years ago and 20 pounds ago, but it’s all good. But it’s important that when a client jumps on your website, they see not just you, but, yes, if they wanted to see your expertise, whether you’ve had your series seven, six, 63, 65, CFP, CHF, CCLU, fine, do it. I’ve got some awards in my bio too, underneath the description that you just saw. But at their prerogative, at their option, they can hop on if they want. They can see how experienced I am, but that’s not what I’m highlighting, and we’ll talk about that in a second.

Education, if they care. I went to Emory in Atlanta, got my MBA at Georgia State if they care. Community, I serve on two different boards, if they care how involved I am in the community, and then interests. People jump on this thing all the time. They want to know about me more than just as a financial advisor. They want to know me as a person. There’s nothing more important to me than my family, my two boys and my wife. I love them so much, and I want my clients to know how much I love them, because if they don’t love their kids and their family as much as I do, I don’t want you as a client. It’s got to be a good fit both ways, so I’m not embarrassed to say that. Listen, we go to a lot of theme parks. We go to Disney all the time and Universal, and I love “Hamilton.” I took my son to Chicago to see “Hamilton” this summer, and it’s one of my passions, but I want my clients to know who I am.

Let’s jump into the niches, unless we have any questions so far. OK. Who here works in a niche? Wonderful. What kind of niche do you work in? Doctors. What other niches do we have? Educators, like teachers? Wonderful. My wife was a teacher for eight or nine years before she stayed at home with the kids. What else? Who else do we have? Yes? Tech firms, wonderful. I love that we have niches in this room because, listen, if you’re talking to everyone, you’re really talking to no one. You can’t talk and be an expert with the tech firm, with the small business owner, with the physician, with the educator, with the lawyer, with the accountant. Can you really be good at everything and know their stir points and what they’re going through? No. You can’t. If you say you can, you’re lying to yourself because you can’t. Again, if you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one. So, the riches are in the niches. The riches are in the niches. Why?

Let’s talk about efficiency and simplicity. I take my clients, my doctors, through the same process every single time. Every time. It’s the same process. They think it’s custom to them, but it’s the same process. When I’m prepping for a client, how long do you think it takes me? Twenty minutes maybe? Ten minutes, right? Because physicians are all the same, for the most part. They have the same issues. They have the same problems, the same objectives, the same concerns. When I’m doing it, I’m like all right, here’s meeting 1, here’s meeting 2, here’s meeting 3. It’s so easy and efficient, and I can just crank them out virtually. Boom, boom, boom, done, home for dinner. It’s awesome.

In terms of process, it’s great. But what about prospecting? Because you’re like, “Aww, I’ve got to go to this networking event. I’ve got to go see the lawyers. I’ve got to go talk to the CPAs. I’ve got to go to this alumni group.” It’s exhausting when you’re talking about prospecting to everyone because if you’re in a room with someone, let’s just say they’re an accountant, or let’s just say they’re an educator, are you up to speed about what’s important to them? Do you know about their pension, because in Georgia it’s the TRS, the Teachers Retirement System. Are you an expert in that? What about the pension for WellStar? What about the pension for Kaiser? Can you really be good at all of it? And the answer is no.

So, it’s exhausting to think about going out there and trying to see all these people. You just can’t do it. You can’t do it. And branding and marketing is so important. Who has a marketing budget? We should all have a marketing budget. What’s your cost of acquisition of a client? Who can tell me that? You can? What’s your cost of acquisition for a client?

Audience: $385.

Yin: $385, wonderful. Who else has one? Yes? $120. Listen, if you guys don’t have a cost number, if you guys don’t know your cost of acquisition for a client, you’re not running your practice right. Someone who spoke with me, I think, yesterday was like, “You’ve got to be a CEO first of your practice, and then an advisor.” The cost of acquisition for me is $226 and like $0.30 per client. That’s cheap. I think that’s what I heard, right? That’s cheap. Because I focus on this like niche. I’m not worried about anything else. I’m not worried about seeing everybody. I have one sandbox; that’s all I play in. I know how to market to these docs. I’m really good at it. We talked about my role. I’m the marketer, and each client that I bring on, average revenue. Do we know what your average revenue per client is? Whom do you take on? Whom do you not take on? My average revenue per client is about $17,000. So, if I exchange $226 for revenue of $17,000, that’s a pretty good mix, wouldn’t you say? All right. So, I think when we’re doing marketing, we’ve got to take a step back and realize how much are we spending. Is it working? Are we actually acquiring clients?

We talked about process, and then when you’re servicing clients, when you work with physicians, are they easy to get ahold of or hard to get ahold of? They’re impossible to get ahold of. Even when you’re my client, it is very difficult to get ahold of them, but I understand. My knowledge of their schedule has evolved. When they’re on shift, if you’re working with an emergency physician, if they’re on shift from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., when they get home, are they answering your emails? No. You will go seven or eight days without hearing from your clients, even if it’s important. You won’t hear from them. That’s just fact. That’s the life of an advisor working with physicians. Because some docs are seven on, seven off. When they’re off, that’s when you get them. That is when you say, “Hey, what’s your schedule this month? When are you on; when are you off?” Because if you get them while they’re on, you’re wasting their time. But when you get them when they’re off, that’s how you get “Hey, I know you’re off. Let’s do it. Let’s do all the service. Let’s do the application. Let’s do that rollover.”

What’s your conversion rate? I think the old saying is what? Ten calls, four appointments, two close. Is that still true? Pretty accurate. I would argue that your conversion rate when you’re working with a niche is at least double. At least double. So that conversion rate I gave you was what, 20 percent? I’d say that if you’re working within a niche, like truly working within a niche — because I spoke a couple of months ago at another meeting, and the guy was like, “Oh, I work in the doctor market” — what percentage of your doctors are clients? “Oh, I have like six doctors out of 100 clients.” Six percent — that’s not the physician market. So, once you are established in this market, I think your conversion rate, at least mine is, should be 50 percent if not higher when you’re working with these docs or lawyers, or whomever your niche is.

Then, when you’re working in a niche, you can really establish your authority as an expert. As an expert. If you have something going on with your heart, do you go see a PCP, a primary care physician? Or are you seeing the cardiologist? You’re seeing the cardiologist, right? For the most part, experts are always right. So, if you go see that cardiologist, and they say, “Hey, we need to put you on these drugs or these prescriptions. We need to put you on this exercise plan,” yeah, you’re probably going to Google some stuff, but for the most part, you’re going to think they’re right, correct? This is because this is what they do every day. Same thing with the physician when they’re working with me. This is what I do every single day. If you’re paying me a nice fee to engage us, if you don’t implement what I suggest or what I recommend, then that’s kind of on you. You paid me for my time. I am the expert in this field. You can go Google things if you want, but if we establish the relationship, and we establish that we care, the experts are always right.

Secondly, we are accessible. When someone Googles my name, when I get referred to someone, I am not hidden. You type in “Ben Yin doctor,” “Ben Yin MBA,” “Ben Yin financial advisor” — I want to be everywhere. Whether it’s content, whether it’s my website, whether it’s LinkedIn, whether it’s social media, I want to be on the first page. Without a doubt, hopefully, the second or third result because the first result is really expensive. I want to be accessible, so when they have questions, they can email me, and they can call me right away. Because when they’re on shift, they’re not going to call you, but when they’re on in that moment, you have to be accessible.

The experts always educate. This is what I tell my docs. Listen, I’m here to educate you, talk about the pros and the cons of each strategy. Whatever decision you end up making, it’s going to be fine. I’m OK with it. Because as long as I educate you, then you’re going to make a great decision.

Relevant content. Experts always provide relevant content. This is kind of a package of information that I brought to the meeting, but when you open it up — and I know that you guys can’t really see it — here are articles about physicians in the financial world. [visual] Let me read you one thing, which is from “Doctors Eyes Only,” Larson Financial. You guys heard of Larson Financial? They say this: “Unless you absolutely enjoy financial planning, you’re willing to make a daily commitment to continued financial education, your family will certainly miss out on maximizing its full potential.” Here’s the kicker: “Most physicians’ lost financial potential is not caused by poor investment choices. Rather, it’s a lack of coordination across all areas of their financial life.” That’s relevant content. What else is relevant content?

What to consider when navigating a job change for physicians. I get a lot of physicians who are switching jobs. Relevant content. Protect your assets before you’re sued for medical economics. Relevant content. Medical economics, how to find disability coverage that’s right for you. Relevant content. New life for life insurance for physicians. Relevant content. Or, five ways to partner with a physician-friendly financial advisor. Relevant content. There’s so much relevant content out there. Of course, go through your compliance and all that. Make sure it’s approved, but relevant content is going to be so important to establish your credibility.

Experts are published. You can see here on the graphic: Where’s Cynthia? [visual] Cynthia, what did you say to me when you just saw me a few minutes ago about this book? Yes, and your husband is a what? Your husband’s a physician, and she was eyeing this book. She was like, “Oh, he’s got to read that book, ‘The Myth of the Rich Doctor.’” Relevant content, but that’s not all. You probably can’t see it, but look who wrote the Forward. This guy, OK? [visual] Written by Vicki Rackner, MD, retired surgeon. Forward by Benjamin Yin, MBA, generationmd.com, wealth strategist for doctors. When I hand this to a physician, what do they think to themselves? Right? It’s credibility. It’s relevant content. They know that I know what I’m talking about, and I work with people just like them. It’s great.

Publicly speak. [visual] I’m here today to further establish my credibility. Last month, I was at a big conference at the ApolloMD Leadership Conference in Atlanta, and I spoke to a room probably with 250 to 300 physicians. I was on video, and I would probably say 20 percent of the room came up to me afterward to get my information because I’m out there promoting myself as an expert. In fact, one of the docs from that meeting said, “Ben, I would love for you to speak at the end of the month, in November, at the GCEP,” which is the Georgia College of Emergency Physicians. “Every emergency physician in Georgia should be there at the end of November. We would love for you to be the main platform speaker.” I’m in, right? It’s all about credibility. Here’s probably the best part.

Experts charge more. [visual] It’s my time we’re talking about. If you want to go to a generalist, or someone who just deals with insurance, or someone who deals with everybody, that’s just not me. But if you’re seeing a lawyer, you want a lawyer who does real estate closings, some litigation, some estate planning — do you want to go to that lawyer? No, you don’t want to go to that lawyer. You want to go to a specialist. You want to go to an expert who focuses on estate planning, focuses on real estate transactions, focuses on litigation. Same for us.

When I first started doing fee-based planning, I was scared. Everyone did it. I was like, all right, too many clients. I then moved up. Everyone did it. Ugh, still too many clients. Up again? Everyone still did it. Up once again, not everyone does it, but probably 80 percent of the people do it, which is still pretty good. I’ll take that ratio. In fact, I’m thinking about raising the fee a little bit more, but we’ll see. But experts absolutely can charge more. Who does fee-based planning? Who charges for plans? Yes, I love it. It’s just the evolution. I just used to be an insurance-based advisor, but I hated trying to push product all the time.

These physicians, if you don’t charge them a fee, they’re like, “How are you going to get paid? What product are you going to try to push on me so you can get paid? Is it a high-load mutual fund; is it a whole life policy; what is it?” But for me, there’s no pressure. The pressure’s off because they paid me. They’ve compensated me for my time.

All right. So here are the sweet six, as opposed to the sweet 16, when you’re working with a niche. Who’s your audience? Are you focused on talking to a specific group of people, a specific profession? Who is your audience? Then, once you figure out who your audience is, what are their pain points? What do they care about? Physicians, what do they care about? What are their pain points? Who said liability, was that you? Liability, yes. Liability is one of their major pain points. Asset protection, OK. Disability. So, you’ve got to know their pain points right off the bat. In fact, watch this video. [video]

Video

Yin: Hey, everyone, it’s Ben Yin. Welcome to the Inner Circle where we answer your doctor questions one at a time so you can spend less time worrying and more time vacationing with your family in South Florida. Today’s Christmas Day, and we’re escaping the …

Speaker: We’re escaping what?

Yin: We’re escaping the cold, rainy weather of Atlanta, Georgia, and enjoying the beautiful, sunny weather of sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We Airbnb’d this beautiful house, and it’s got this really nice pool in the back, but I can’t help but think, man, this house has got to have a lot of liability. I’ve got two young kids who aren’t great swimmers, and so all it takes is one careless moment. That got me thinking about what every physician worries about, and that’s asset protection. Outside of your ability to earn a really healthy income, your biggest asset is probably your home. Believe it or not, one of the easiest ways to protect that home from creditors is to have a mortgage on it. No one wants to wait in line in order to have access to your assets. So if you get in that bad car accident, or someone falls off your roof when they’re hanging your Christmas lights, or, God forbid, there’s an accident in the swimming pool in your backyard, the best thing that you can do to protect your home, again, is to have a mortgage on it. Case in point. I had a business-owner client who had a shopping center, and as soon as he paid that shopping center off, he was sued by a creditor for a previous grievance — true story. So, the moral of this story is No. 1, enjoy the tax break and don’t be in a rush to pay off your mortgage. No. 2, you should probably get a nice umbrella policy from your insurance company, and No. 3, and probably the most important, is to go out, buy a vacation home in South Florida and let your favorite financial advisor borrow it anytime, for free. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, happy holidays, and try not to get sued.

Yin: All right, so that’s liability. That’s relevant content. That’s another thing that’s making me different. Are you guys providing that relevant content? No. 4, how are you specifically going to minimize their pain? What can you do about it? Is it helping these thoughts open up a trust; is it disability insurance; is it umbrella insurance? What are you going to do, or do you have to sit there and research it? Oh, let me get back to you on that, whereas it’s on the fly because this is all you do, every day. What are the emotional reasons why they’re buying from you? You guys think I keep my story a secret? Nope. That’s what I heard, right? Nope. Every client who walks in my door or who meets me online watches my story. I tell them to do it first so they can understand where I’m coming from, that they know that insurance isn’t just an intangible piece of paper, that insurance is real, that it’s emotional, that it’s something that you do to protect your family that you love. It’s very emotional. You’re talking about people dying prematurely, and it’s real life again. So, every time, I tell my story because it’s about emotions.

Yin: No. 5, what’s your ... yes.

Audience: My question is, Did you seek out a professional videographer to create these videos for you? How did you get these?

Yin: I went on Amazon and bought a camera and a tripod, and that was just me. I literally set it up, and I didn’t have time, but my guys Jesus and Barges in the front, yesterday during lunch, we went to Fenway Park, and I created a video. Did I have a crew with me? Just me, my tripod and my camera, a nice camera. A really nice microphone, because the quality was really good, right, in terms of crispness, in terms of clarity. I did one at Fenway Park, and I talked about the World Series, I talked about “Moneyball” and the Oakland A’s and how they used statistical analysis. The Oakland A’s, how they’re No. 28 in payroll, yet they made the playoffs eight times since 2001, where the Seattle Mariners, they’re No. 5 [RW1] in payroll but haven’t made the playoffs since 2001. So, we talk about value, on base percentage versus home run. That’s value. So, I kind of morphed it into: Well, then, how much of your portfolio is value versus growth? Did you know that in every 10-year period, value outperforms growth 84 percent of the time? That’s compelling — 84 percent of the time. We took baseball stats in front of Fenway Park, this beautiful, historic park, and we turned it into something financial.

That’s what I always do. Set a different location every time. I travel a lot; I speak a lot; and wherever I go, I think of these great video ideas and, again, it’s just me and a tripod. I set it up, and we can talk logistics if you want, but the way I had it is, you saw in the video there — I was looking off script, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t like my eyes off the camera. So what I do now instead is, on my camera, there’s like a small rig that has the microphone on one side and then something that holds my cellphone on the other side. I use my cellphone. There’s a free app where it can be my own teleprompter, so I add the script in advance, and when it goes, I just read it. You can’t tell I’m reading because it’s right where the lens is, and it’s great. It’s wonderful. Low budget. And I edit it myself. That video took me 30 minutes to edit.

Audience: How do you manage the compliance and your processes when you make these videos, as you do the books and articles?

Yin: Yeah, compliance is terrible. I was so surprised that this got through compliance. I was really, really shocked. The videos are a whole different story because my compliance guy is like, “Ben, you’ve got to send me your script in advance so I can approve it.” I don’t think of these ideas until I’m here. I’m like, “Ugh, I’m in Fenway.” Where was I? I was at the Lucky Strike thing, the bowling thing the first night. I don’t know if you all know this, but it’s right next to Fenway, literally. So, I saw Fenway and was like, “Oh my gosh, Fenway’s right there? That’s a great video idea, and ‘Moneyball,’ and the whole thing.” So I send these videos to the compliance people after the fact.

They’re like, “Ben, you can’t say that. You can’t say X. You can’t say Y.” So it’s been a little bit tough, but I’m getting much better at it. You’ve got to send it in advance, probably. But I think I’m going to make it funny, and the reason why I say that is when I say something that I’m not supposed to say via compliance, instead of editing it, I’m just going to bleep it out like I’m saying a cuss word or something on the video. It’s going to be funny. I work with physicians who are a little bit younger, and so they’re going to be OK with that humor. Compliance is a beast. It really is. Anything else on the videos?

What’s your competition doing? Who do you think my biggest competitor is? Who do you think?

Audience: White Coat Investor.

Yin: White Coat Investor. Who’s heard of White Coat Investor? Man, I love that guy, said no one ever. I hate that guy. White Coat Investor is my No. 1 competition, and if you don’t know what White Coat Investor is, it’s an ER physician who has started this blog, and he’s like knocked it out of the park. Every physician you know, under the age of maybe 55, goes on that website for financial advice, and he’s a doctor. He has no credentials; he has no licenses; but he loves to trash everything that we hold dear. Listen, I love equities, but I love whole life. Who loves whole life? He hates whole life like he hates, gosh, I don’t know, the worst thing that you could think of. That’s how much he hates whole life. So every doctor, after you recommend it, Googles whole life, boom, White Coat Investor. That’s my No. 1 competition. Whenever I don’t place a case, it’s because of the White Coat Investor.

What do you think I did? I took his course. He has a course. Again, he’s not licensed. He has a book; he has a course that you can pay money to. I was like, you know what, I’m going to attend your course. I’m going to see what you’re all about. I’m going to try to understand you and understand my competition so that when my doc, when my client, comes and says, “Oh, but White Coat Investor says this,” I’m like, “Yeah, he said this, but he’s using this assumption. He said that, but this is where he’s coming from.” I know what the White Coat Investor is saying. In fact, did you know that this year, for the first time ever, the White Coat Investor has a financial planning conference just like this in Utah? A financial planning conference for physicians. Yeah. White Coat Investor. Know what your competition is doing. Competition is not the Northwestern person, it’s not the Mass person, not the Guardian person. It’s none of you guys in here, I’m sorry. There’s plenty of business to go around. It is the White Coat Investor. Who is your competition?

Then, No. 6, minimum expectation versus differentiation. [visual] Who knows what I’m talking about here? Most of us flew from our city — mine is Atlanta — to Boston, and we flew in an airplane. What’s the minimum expectation for riding in an airplane?

Don’t crash. That is the minimum expectation for an airplane, to not crash. But you don’t see that on the Southwest Airlines website, “We don’t crash. We never crash. How many times did we crash in the last 10 years?” Minimum expectation, right? What do they feature instead? “No change fees. Transparency. No bag fees. This is why we’re different.” Minimum expectation versus differentiation. So you jump on my website. If I jump on your website, and you say, “I’m a trusted advisor. I have this experience. I have this license. I care for my clients,” who cares? That is the minimum expectation for you as an advisor. So, if I’m reading your website, none of those words matter to me. How are you different? How are you different? If we’re in this room, we all have success, but I can tell you, and you know this, the world is changing. This industry is changing so fast that if you’re not evolving, if you’re not adapting, you’re getting left behind by me because I’m adapting quickly.

Robo advisors, Vanguard, whoever, there’s room. Clients can go there if they want, but if we’re a different advisor, if we give them a different experience, if I know your kids’ birthdays, if I know their hobbies, if I care about you in a certain way, I will never be replaced because I am different than the robo advisor. I am different than almost anyone out there because it’s what you need to do to really serve a niche well. Minimum expectation versus differentiation.

So what happens now? When I get a referral — and I’ll tell you I get a lot of referrals. I don’t do much marketing. When I say “my marketing budget,” it’s like client-appreciation events. It’s certain things where I’m seeing my clients and spending money, but I don’t do much advertising.

I get a referral. I have a doctor on the phone, and I’ve got 10 minutes. That’s all you have. You have 10 minutes, and within 10 minutes, that person, that doctor, lawyer, accountant, whoever, educator, business owner, they’re going to know if they’re going to do business with you within 10 minutes. That’s all you’ve got; don’t mess it up. Don’t screw it up. In 10 minutes, I’ve got to do all these five things.

No. 1, in order for you to do business with me, you’ve got to like me. Not everyone is going to like me. Some people in this room: Ben’s a pretty good presenter, but some of you hate me. That’s OK. It’s not always going to be a good fit. But you’ve got to like me. So, in advance of that conversation, I am Googling you. I am Facebooking you, I am LinkedIn you, I am doing everything. I know enough about you where I’m like, “Oh, so how many kids do you have?” I know how many kids you have. “Oh, they’re 7 and 4? I’ve got kids who are 7 and 4. Isn’t your life crazy? My life is crazy, right? What kind of sports are they in? Mine love T-ball. Soccer? That’s a great sport too.” Boom. Commonality. They like me; I like them; we have a bond already. Step 1. That’s easy. He’s got Google; you’ve got to stalk people.

No. 2, credibility. Oh, let me tell you a little bit about my practice. I’ve run my practice since 2010. I would say that 85 percent of my clients are physicians. Whoa, he works with people just like me. I’m a fee-based planner, boom, boom, boom. You start talking about credibility. I work with a lot of independent contractor physicians, W2 physicians, K1 physicians, whatever they are. Credibility.

No. 3, disturb, disturb, disturb. That’s the No. 1 rule in selling, right? Disturb enough to have action. Here are the things that your doctors and your clients need to understand. Three levels. The things they know that they know. The things they know that they don’t know. And then what’s the third? The things they don’t know that they don’t know. That’s where you hit them. That’s where you get them. The things they didn’t even know that they didn’t know. They’re like, holy shoot, I didn’t even know that. I didn’t even know that I didn’t know that. What is that? You disturb them enough where No. 4, “Ben, you’ve just opened up my eyes. I can’t do this without you. How do we get started; what’s the next step? Because your value that you just brought to me was tremendous. This 10-minute conversation has been more valuable than 30 minutes or 40 minutes with my Merrill guy.”

Then No. 5, if they don’t ask me this question at the end, I’ve lost them; they’re not going to be a client. Maybe I took a shortcut somewhere unintentionally, but if they don’t say, “Ben, how much does this cost? How do we get started?” they’re not going to be a client. It’s a systematic process every time. Don’t take shortcuts. If you do it the right way, you’re going to get them as a client. That’s why my conversion rate is probably around 60 percent. How do I know all this stuff? How can I have such a concise, 10-minute conversation with these docs and hit them where it hurts really, really quickly? How do I do that? Yes, I know them. I know them before I know them.

I don’t care if you’re a cardiologist, you’re an ophthalmologist, you’re an ortho. I know you. I know what hurts inside. I know that you’re 35 when you finish fellowship and you have to catch up. I know that you have $500,000 of student debt that you’re just dying to get rid of. I know that you’re worried about asset protection. I know that you’re worried about liability. I know that you’re worried about your nest egg. I know that you’re worried about all these different things because all physicians have the same worries. I’m so good at getting them disturbed that they’re going to want to sign up and engage our firm, because I know the niche intimately. That’s what we all have to do in this room. Find that niche and dominate it.

All right, so a lot of people ask me, “Well, Ben, how did you first get into the physician market?” Disability insurance. This is the gateway drug, vehicle, whatever you want to call it. This is the gateway. Disability insurance doesn’t have to ever be sold; they want it. They need it. They crave it. They come up to me seeking it. So, I’ll tell you how I got in the physician market. One guy came up to me and was like, “Hey, Ben, do you do any disability insurance?” I’m like, “Oh, yeah. I do tons of DI. I’m an expert.” Right, I’m an expert. How many policies do you think I’d sold at that time? Zero, none. But then I got really, really good at it. He’s like, “Oh, well, let’s meet tomorrow.” I’m like, “Oh no. Can’t meet tomorrow. Let’s meet in a week,” and so I studied it. I reached out to more seasoned agents and advisors, and I got really, really good at it in a short amount of time. Here’s the thing about working with niches. Who are the friends of doctors?

Doctors. Cynthia, does your husband have a lot of doctor friends? Absolutely. I got invited to a BBQ last summer, and I thought it was just going to be a huge BBQ with one of my clients. Like, “Ben, why don’t you come to the BBQ? Bring the kids.” Oh, great. So, I get to this BBQ and it’s only seven people, me included. Every single one is a physician, and they’re like, “Oh, Ben, what type of specialty are you?” I’m like, “Financial advisor.” They were kind of flabbergasted. They were like, “Are you taking on new clients?” I’m like, “We’re a little full, but let’s talk later.” He was instantly, “Man, I’ve got to work with this guy.” Steve invited him to his BBQ? It’s a different type of relationship. Once you get into the doctor market, once you get into your niche, it’s so much easier because if you’re a business owner, an educator or a tech firm, you’re going to know all the other people in that niche. The doctor world, especially, is really, really small. They will refer, refer, and refer, and refer, and refer. Refer well. So, disability insurance was the first thing.

But here’s what you all need to know. You can’t just decide to be in a niche, like hey, I want to be in the doctor market; I want to be in the physician market. Let’s go, let’s do it. It takes years to plants seeds. It takes a long time to nurture those relationships, to nurture the processes and to really cater to these docs. So engagement — whether you’re talking about social media, webinars. I do a lot of webinars. Everything is virtual. Residency dinners. You want to get these residents before they have established relationships. They make $55,000 a year. That’s fine, but that’s why they’re partners, to handle and to hold the hands of these residents so when they become fellows and attendings, we’ll be ready to swoop them up, when they’re making from $55,000 to $550,000.

So you’ve really got to nurture it. Appreciation events are so key. Every holiday season. I’m planning one now; we’re doing an appreciation event. Last year was great. We rented out a brewery. This year, we’re going ax throwing. Who’s ever been ax throwing? It’s a thing. It’s a legit thing, like just what you think it is. You’re wearing your flannel shirt, and you’re throwing an ax, drinking a beer. And these doctors are so excited to go ax throwing because they’ve never been ax throwing. Plus, if you cut off your arm, a bunch of doctors, easy, right? But it’s great. I say, “Hey, bring a friend.” This is a part of my marketing budget. Bring a friend. These doctors, they’re not dumb. They know when I say, “Bring a friend,” they know what that means. I’ve trained them enough. You’ve got to train them a little bit. They know that I want to meet people who are just like them so they can become my clients, so I can work with them and build more clients. I probably get, gosh, maybe five referrals a week.

My buddy Jesus over here asked me last night, “How many referrals have you gotten since you’ve been here on Monday?” What did I say? Three. Three referrals since Monday. Well, today’s Friday, so maybe I only got three this week, but I get maybe three to five a week. A week, and look at the conversion ratio. So that’s why I had to hire more partners, because of the capacity. Once you build a niche, the fish are jumping in the boat. We’re not fishing anymore; they’re all jumping in.

This is from a great referral source. [visual] I get five of these a week. “Hey, Dr. X. First paragraph is whatever. Second paragraph, I want to introduce you to Ben Yin. He’s terrific at assisting our doctors with taking advantage of the IC (independent contractor) status. There’s no cost to speak with him, and he will send you a link to set up a call.” I get five of these a week. What do I do? I send the doctor a Calendly link. If you guys remember from before, the technology presentation — Calendly. Instead of going back and forth to this doctor six or seven times: “Can you do this day? Can you do that day? No?” You send them a link, they hop on your calendar, boom, it’s on your calendar. You’ll be surprised. These doctors, remember, are busy. I’ve got some docs who I sent this first Calendly link a month ago, and, all the sudden, it’ll just show up on my calendar. Wonderful. I have to go back in my emails like, “Who is this doc that’s on my calendar?” but it’s great. They put their phone number, their email on it. It’s a wonderful tool. Five of these a week.

Before we jump into the second section of this presentation, we have about half an hour left, and we’re going to get into virtual. Are there questions about niches, and why you should be in it, or anything about my practice?

Audience: Just kind of some advice on somebody looking at how do you get started. How do you identify a niche? How did you do that?

Yin: Yeah. I kind of just fell into it. That’s why I told my disability insurance story. Before that, I wasn’t working with any doctors. I think the most important thing is, once you see an opportunity, what are you going to do to seize it? Once I saw that opportunity, I kicked that door down, and I haven’t left the house. That’s the key; when you’re trying to identify a niche, the most important thing is, don’t stop what you’re doing. You’re all in this room; we’re all very successful at what we’re doing, so it’s trying to handle both. Planting those seeds. You’re always planting seed. You’ve got to plant, plant, plant. But then, when the opportunity comes, what are you going to do with it? So let me tell you a story.

This is when I first, early on, was establishing this niche with this big group in Atlanta. I was going to Dallas for a work meeting, a conference. It was more than a conference; it was an educational thing where I was required to be there. This group calls me and say, “Hey Ben, last second — we’re doing an intimate leadership conference in our office. There’re going to be about 12 or 15 docs there. Can you come in and present real quick about kind of the pitfalls, the pros and the cons, of being an independent contractor physician?” I’m like, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m in Dallas. I can’t do it this time.” She’s like, “Oh, no worries, we’ll get someone else.” I’m like, “Uh-oh, no.” I was like, “I’ll be there.” So, literally, on a Monday, I flew to Dallas, did the session Monday, did the session Tuesday. I flew back to Atlanta Tuesday night, did the session Wednesday morning, flew back to Dallas Wednesday afternoon, and they didn’t know I was gone. But you lose out on that opportunity.

If they got someone else, would I still be in there? Would I still get these referrals? I don’t know, but once I seized it, once I saw it, once my foot was in the door, seriously, I kicked it open. I have such a firm grip on this big group that I do an appreciation event just for them as well, because I want to tell them how much I appreciate them, our partnership, our relationship. They’ve never paid me a dime, but they don’t need to because I get referrals, tons of them.

This summer, I sent out a Kona Ice truck, snow cones, to their office. It’s like 95 degrees in Atlanta, super humid. Just a snow cone truck. “Hey, man, love you, appreciate you, let me know what I can do for you.” So, continue to plant seeds, and once you see it, once you get that in, don’t let it go. Anything else?

Audience: I had a few questions about the webinars. I try to make them succinct. How frequently do you do them? What are the subjects of the webinars? And are you mentioning pricing at the end, or is the sole purpose to set the appointment?

Yin: So the webinars — I don’t try to set appointments through webinars. When I do webinars, I can do them for clients, and I can do them for prospects, and I can do them for groups. With this big group in Atlanta, I say, “Hey, why don’t I do these webinars for you on asset protection?” I do them once a quarter — asset protection, on investments, on disability insurance, on these things, you know, defined benefit plans. Because these docs, a lot of them are independent contractors, and they don’t know what a DB plan is. They don’t know the difference between a solo 401(k) and a SEP IRA and life insurance and occupation disability insurance. They don’t know any of that. So I just try to provide value to Apollo. Sorry, I shouldn’t have said the name, but that’s the group in Atlanta. I try to provide value to them as much as I can with nothing in return. I say, “Listen, there’s never any expectation that any of your clients or any of your doctors that you send me will become my clients. There’s no pressure. I just want to provide value to you.” What do you think they’re going to do when they have a doc? Because I’m always there providing value. They always send clients to me happily, just like emails, just like that. Continue to provide value. It’s all about giving, giving, giving. If you give enough, they will give in return, without a doubt.

Audience: How do you say no to clients or prospects who are not in your niche, and then obviously clients before this, what’s your language for that, and how do you stay on your course?

Yin: That’s such a great question. The filter to say no, right? The filter to say no is so important. I just realized this in the last year or so because, like you, we run on activity. We just want to run. We make ourselves feel better when we’re running, but the essence of slowing down to ramp up is so key. I’ve had my best year ever, and that’s because I’m saying no more. I’m slowing down, so I have this buffer time. In my calendar, we talked about management. Every Monday morning, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., no appointments, it’s my time. Prep time, staff time, buffer time. If I need to run an errand, I can. It’s buffer time. Same thing with Friday afternoon, buffer time. So recently, I gave up a client who said, “Hey, I’ve got a couple million dollars, and I want to do retirement planning, and I would love your help.” It was actually the parents of one of my physician clients, and I turned it down. Now, I turned it down the right way. I said, “Hey listen, I would love to work with you, but my roster is currently at capacity. Would you be OK with working with one of my partners?” One of my partners, and I get a cut on it.

It’s great to wake up one morning, and your ledger and the money’s just there. You didn’t even know it was going to arrive, but it’s just there because I said no. It gives me the filter to say no, and here’s the thing. I took on a business-owner client probably about two months ago, and I wish I didn’t because it is taking me, I kid you not, maybe three times as long to prep for this case. They’re asking me about things that I’m just not very good at. I know what I’m good at, and this business owner is like, “Hey, I need your help.” It’s hard for me to turn down business, but the better I get at it, the deeper in this niche that I’m in, I get better at saying no. We all have to say no to be efficient and to be better and to ramp up. Does that answer your question?

Audience: My question kind of dovetails on that. I specialize in working with dentists, and dentists really talk to other dentists. So how do you say no to a dentist you don’t want when you’re worried about that dentist telling all the other dentists, “He doesn’t want to work with me” or “It wasn’t a good fit,” and you’re still going out there to meet with other new dentists?

Yin: I think that’s a good problem to have, but then you’ve got to have another resource for him. Just like the person yesterday was saying, “Hey, we can either give you the bank, we can give you the … ,” whatever they said. So, for me, I had that. I was like, “Well, shoot, what do I do?” So, I hired two partners to the firm. I said, “Hey, we’re at capacity right now, or I’m at capacity right now. Would you be OK with working with one of my partners? These partners are vetted by me. These partners run through the same process as I do because I’ve trained these partners. They know exactly what I do.” When you walk into a Starbucks, it’s pretty consistent, right? The cups are the same, the app is the same, the flavors, everything the same. Same thing. If you’re not working with me, if you’re working with someone within my firm, it’s the same type of relationship. It’s the same three promises; it’s the same process. Boom, boom, boom. And they’re typically very OK with that. They understand that you personally are at capacity.

Audience: That’s the thing. I don’t even want them in the firm is more the problem. These are going to be problem clients for anybody in the firm. I don’t know if you’ve had any experience dealing with that.

Yin: Yeah. How do you know in advance if they’re going to be a problem for the firm, I guess?

Audience: We do an interview, and I just feel this is not good. We always do a values meeting first, and then we get to talk. We ask a whole bunch of nonfinancial questions, and there’s been occasional ones like this person is going to be a problem client for anybody. I wouldn’t want this person.

Yin: So it’s got to be a good fit for both sides. So when you do that values meeting, it’s always about: “Listen, this has got to be a partnership. It’s got to be a good fit for both sides. If I’m not a good fit for you, I’m not going to be offended, but if you’re not a good fit for me, please don’t be offended.” You’ve got to have at least someone to send them to, whether it’s not your firm but a colleague of yours that you don’t like. But you’ve got to have someone that you can send them to. You can’t just say, “Hey, we’re not a good fit. Thanks, but no thanks.” “Hey, we’re probably not the best fit, but I think this person can handle your situation better than I can, and I think you need to go see that person.” I think that’s probably the way to go.

Audience: Can you just share with us a little bit more about your team and how you vetted your team members? Did you use a personality test? How did you find that match?

Yin: We used the, gosh, what was the test we used? It was Kolbe. We used Kolbe to determine if we’re a good fit or not, and staffing is always an issue for all of us. I’ll tell you, these are great questions, but I want to make sure I leave enough time for the virtual stuff. These are great questions.

I lost my main staff person in February this year. She got a better offer, and that’s fine, but the way she did it, she didn’t tell me she was looking. She said, “Hey, Ben, I’m gone by the end of the month. I got a better offer. I’ve got to go.” It was like a week. We’re a small firm. We all probably run pretty small firms. And she left me in the lurch, and I spent — this was a Friday —the weekend really, really pissed off, really upset at this person who was leaving. That was a Saturday that I spent really mad. Sunday, I sat down and, practice management, I wrote down every single process. What do we need to do? And I just narrowed it down, and I got really good at a process.

So, I brought in my other two people, and I sat them down on that Monday, and I said, “Listen, I had a moment of clarity. We are not going to hire someone else to replace this person. We’re not going to do it. We all have a job. Let’s get better at our job. Let’s get more efficient at our job. Let’s pull a little bit more weight, and we’re going to be fine.” I gave them a little bit of a raise because this person is leaving now, so that frees up some cash flow, and we’re going to be great. That’s been the best thing, my most profitable year ever — it’s because I lost a main staff person, but we got so much more efficient. I just never challenged the status quo.

It’s like, oh, we’re working; we’re doing great; we’re successful; we’re making some good money. Why change? Why fix what’s not broken? I didn’t have any motivation to change, but when she left, man, we got just so much better.

I did use a Kolbe test. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes you just don’t know until you get in there, but I will tell you that the two people who work for me now, amazing team. They were friends of mine before. So it’s a tough challenge to be the boss of one of your friends, but we’ve made it work. We have a great time. We do Spartan races together as an office. We go ax throwing. We go eat dinner. We do things, and we have a great camaraderie in the office, and they go to bat for me when I need it.

Audience: What percent of your clients were physicians before you changed your materials and said, “I want physicians”?

Yin: This is probably four or five years ago. I would say that once I hit like 20 or 30 docs, I said, “Man, this is really a niche. I’m getting really good at working with docs. I’m getting a lot of referrals.” So probably 20 or 30 docs in, I was like, all right, let me concentrate on what I need to do — marketing, branding. I have two websites. One is planforgenerations.com, which has always been my website since 2010 because my company is Generational Financial Partners, Plan for Generations. But then, as I started working with these docs, just more and more doctors, I’m like, “I need a second website.” So now, all my doctors — generationmd.com. So there’s no mistake, generationmd.com — that’s an easy website to remember, so I’m able to cater to that niche. But once you kind of figure out these docs are profitable, you know how to deal with them, the process is so much easier, and it’s time to be in the niche.

All right. Let’s get into virtual, OK. What I have in front of me is all that you need to run a virtual meeting: iPad, Surface, whatever you want, and a laptop. [visual] If you had to, you could do it just with this, but I use both. I’m going to show you my iPad right here. [visual] There’s a reason why my family is on the iPad. Everything is intentional. When you’re doing virtual stuff, everything has to be intentional because we’ve got to have that common bond. You’ve got to like me; I’ve got to like you. Oh, these are my kids: This is Matty; this is Arty; this is my wife, Jennifer. [visual] It just softens the relationship from the get-go. There’re no icons, no apps, just easy.

I use GoToMeeting. The reason why GoToMeeting is so great is I can throw my iPad on the screen, and they can see me drawing, charting, graphing as if I’m sitting right next to them. Crystal clear audio. Now, if they want to see me, I’ll let them see me for a couple of minutes, but I think it’s distracting. So, if they want to see that I’m a legit person, sitting in my office, wearing a shirt, then I let them see me. But for the most part, what they see is the computer. They’re going to see this iPad screen. I also use this app called Notability, which is second to the right with the microphone pencil. [visual] Notability. I don’t think it’s on Android. I don’t know if it’s on Microsoft or not, but that’s what I use. These are some of the things, some of the tools that I use.

Now, I always talk about this. I always tell them, “Listen, financial planning doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be intimidating. It’s really easy; just follow the financial-building process.” When you’re building a house, what’s the most important thing you can do? What’s the most important? Foundation. So, I put, in really big green letters, “foundation.” Because if your foundation is shoddy, do the walls matter? Does the roof matter? Does anything else matter? Nothing else matters. It’s the foundation that’s most important. I always circle this: “defensive planning.” Any sports fans? Finish this sentence: “Blank wins championships.”

Audience: Defense.

Yin: Defense wins championships, and this is the exact language that I use. Defense wins championships. Because if you’re not playing defense, then it doesn’t matter how much offense you play because on offense, you can’t control win conditions. You can’t control field conditions. You can’t control if one of your wide receivers is just having an off day, running a bad route. But you can always control how hard you play on defense. Which is what? Controlling your financial destiny. So playing defense is what we always talk about.

What are the couple of things? Life insurance. No. 2, disability insurance. And this is exactly how I do it. This is what I do every day. No. 3, umbrella policy for liability purposes. No. 4, establish wills and trust. It doesn’t have to be in this order, but No. 5, we’re talking about emergency cash. If they don’t buy into this, if they don’t agree with me on this, then we’re not a good fit.

So, after the first meeting, each and every time, I’m getting life insurance and a disability insurance application. Every time, because I’ve yet to meet a physician who has enough. It is our job to make sure that they’re adequately covered. Who has read that Medical Economics article about life insurance? Raise your hand. OK. What times their income should they have in life insurance — what’s the number? Who said 20? Someone said 20. Jesus said 20. It’s not me saying it. I go to the iPad, and I show them this article from Medical Economics, “New Life for Life Insurance.” Listen, 2009. It’s an oldie, but it’s a goody. This is not me saying you need X amount of income. You scroll down to the bottom of this: “As a general rule, the economic replacement value for a physician under 40 is 20 times income.” Twenty times, so if you’re making $500,000, you need $10 million of life insurance. I say it just like that. That’s not me saying it. This guy doesn’t sell life insurance, this guy right here. It’s Medical Economics, a very reputable magazine, telling you, the physician doc, that you need 20 times, so I show it just like that.

We, without a doubt, establish the need for life insurance. If they forget, if they don’t agree, I bring on the emotional story, and I talk about my dad and how we didn’t have life insurance and how when I lost my dad, I lost my mom too because she was working double duty. Because if you love your family, if you close your eyes, what do you envision for your family? For me: I close my eyes, and I want to see Jen, Matty and Arty living the life that I always dreamed of providing even if I weren’t here. That to me is the core of what I do, and if you don’t agree, we’re not a good fit, and I end the conversation there, essentially. Everyone agrees. If you phrase it the right way, it’s an easy step. Application, day one, meeting one, every single time.

Then, after I play defense, we get the ball, and then we talk about offense. College education and retirement and major purchases like homes. We take it that far. Now, when we’re talking about offense, this is what I use. [visual] It’s what we call the “Financial EKG.” Listen, it’s not my idea. I stole this idea from someone else, so it’s not a Ben Yin original. You can have whatever document you want, but this is the back of the napkin math that actually proves pretty accurate at the end of the day, how much money your doctor, your client, your whoever is going to need at retirement. When you ask a physician, “Hey, how much money do you need at retirement? What’s your nest egg?” they have no clue. They have zero idea. They just don’t know, so I always kind of show — remember the ING commercial, like, what’s your number, you’re walking around? I like to ask them that: “What’s your number?” These docs are like, “I don’t know, $2 million.” How much money is $2 million to a doctor at age 65? Squat. That’s like nothing. So we break into the EKG, and we say, All right, Dr. Smith, you make $500,000.”

Remember, this is all virtual. They’re seeing this stuff in real time. “You make $500,000, you are 35. You want to retire. When do you want to make work optional?” What you have to understand about the young physician is, they don’t want to work clinically forever. They’re not lifers like the older generation. They want side hustles. There’s something called Physician On FIRE. It’s a great website, but it’s all about side hustles. So, understanding your niche. “When do you want to make work optional? Sixty-five, OK. Well, we know that you have 30 years to reach that goal, right?” Sorry. Did that a little bit wrong. “OK, desired retirement age is 65; we know you’ve got 30 years to get there.” Then you say, “Hey, Dr. Smith. How much money do you want to have in retirement? What percentage of your income today do you need at 65 when you retire?” Do you think anyone knows? No one knows. These doctors, they do not know. We give them too much credit. They’re really, really smart, but they don’t know squat. They don’t know jack, and that’s our job, to educate. But we know. What percentage do people need in retirement? How much? About 75 percent, right? But, again, they don’t know.

So, what I do is I say is that there’re three schools of thought. The first school of thought is, “Give me a beer, a beach, a hammock, I’m good. I’m good to go.” The second school of thought is, “Know what, Ben? I want to maintain my lifestyle. My house is paid off, but I’ve got projects around the house; I want to spoil my grandkids; I want to travel. I want to do all these different things, and I’m worried about health care.” That’s the second school of thought. Then the third school of thought is, “Every day’s a Saturday. I’m traveling with friends all day. I’m living up life and just going all out.” Three schools of thought. Which school do you feel like everyone falls under and they choose? Right? It feels like I gave them an option, but I didn’t really give them an option the way I phrased it, the way I tell them. It’s always the second school of thought.

So, 75 percent of your income. What’s 75 percent of $500,000? $375,000, maybe? Is that right? I don’t know. I’m going to say $375,000; it might be wrong. Whatever it is, in terms of hypothetical return, a lot of these docs don’t even know what rate of return to expect during their working years, so we have to do a lot of coaching. We have to do a lot of educating, but eventually, we’ll fall around 7 percent — 7 percent preretirement, and then we talk about the concept of when you’re working, and when you’re actually retired, you can no longer take on the same amount of risk, so we move it down to 5 percent. We have a lot of conversations about this. It depends on how educated about the markets they are. Speaking of risk, we go back, and we look at the risk pie. We look at the risk pie, and we’ve gone through a risk tolerance test. We know how risk averse they are. Let’s just say this doctor is 80/20, and we spend time talking about what 80/20 means.

Another thing that I want to mention at this point in time is, we have figured out their cash flow. You can’t skip cash flow. How much can they actually save? How much are they spending on their mortgage, their student loans, everything? Because if you’re saying, “Hey, you need to save $100,000 a year,” and they can’t even get close, the conversation is kind of over. So, in this case, let’s just say this person makes $500,000; they need to save 20 percent, whatever the case is, $100,000. We talk about if you’re 80/20, what does that look like? Does that look like $80,000 on the left-hand side, and something as easy as $20,000 on the right-hand side? [visual] Absolutely, so we’ll get back to that, but we spend time talking about risk. As you get older, you can no longer take on that same amount of risk.

So, we go back to this EKG. We know that someone needs to save $375,000; we’ll talk about pensions. For a younger doc, we’ll talk about Social Security. I’ll say, “Hey, what do you think about Social Security? You think it’s going to be there by the time you retire?” And we have this conversation. We kind of laugh about it, but we always end up saying, “It’s icing,” as in icing on the cake. Here’s the math. This is nothing more than a 10 V2 app: $500,000 times .75, yeah, $375,000. That’s what they need. Then, if we go back to the EKG, we know you need $375,000.

Assuming that your nest egg can produce 5 percent, what’s that math? $375,000 divided by .05 is $7.5 million. So, this doctor needs a nest egg of about $7.5 million without inflation, non-inflation adjusted. If you talk about with inflation, using 3 percent, what is that inflation adjusted? $375,000 divided by .03 — this doctor actually needs $12.5 million at retirement. That’s like holy shoot, I need $12.5 million at retirement? Like, “Yeah, Dr. Smith, you actually do.” But this is not to discourage you. This is to encourage you. What we’ll do then is we’ll say “$12.5 million is your FV, your future value. We know that you have 30 years to get there. Assuming 7 percent rate of return, if you want to get there fully, you need to save about $123,000 a year. Can you do it?” I should know if they can do it based on cash flow.

Then we go back to the EKG, and we say, “What’s your commitment? Is it $100,000 a year? Is it $80,000 a year?” I’ll get a commitment from them; then when we do their plan at the end of the day, I’ll say, “OK, if you save $80,000 a year, that’s OK, but you’re not going to be able to spend $375,000. Maybe you spend $325,000. Or maybe you work two more years, until you’re 67.” Whatever the case may be. We get a commitment right then and there. Once we get that commitment, we break it down in terms of the different buckets of money. I love to break it down into these three buckets. [visual] How much your money is in Bucket No. 1, taxable? How much your money is in Bucket No. 2, tax deferred, which is your 401(k), your SEP IRAs, your SIMPLE? Then No. 3, how much of your money is tax-free? I circle in big, old, green letters, “1099 never.”

How much money do you want in that tax-free bucket? I want all of it in that tax-free bucket, but we’ve got to stay tax-diversified. We’ve got to make sure that they have money in all three buckets. What type of vehicle fills Bucket No. 3? Life insurance, yes, but it’s not me saying it. It’s this really famous CPA named Robert Keebler, who really breaks it down, in a much more sophisticate manner than me — the three buckets. Here’s Bucket No. 1, here’s Bucket No. 2 and here’s Bucket No. 3. I just educate, educate, educate, because if I go to Bucket No. 3, there are only really three options that you can have: immunities, life insurance and Roth accounts. Those are the only three. Even if you do a backdoor Roth and you’re a married couple, the most amount of money you can put in is $11,000 a year. How else are you going to fill Bucket No. 3? For that 20 percent of your portfolio, if we can fill it with 1099 never dollars and have money that’s uncorrelated with the market, how much would you want? The doctors give me an answer, and if you educate, they will not say no, and they will implement your recommendations.

Benjamin Yin, MBA , is a seven-year MDRT member with three Court of the Table qualifications from Norcross, Georgia.