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The Admired Advisor Podcast


Jan 24, 2022

According to Ernest Clark, three things have contributed to his professional success: hard work, critical thinking, and three major career risks. While Ernest may have landed in wealth advising by accident, his work ethic, intentionality, and bold decisions have hardly wavered. 

Ernest began his career as an accountant in Alabama’s oldest CPA firm. At just 29, Ernest made the risky decision to start a new office 100 miles from the firm’s central hub and essentially became the firm’s rainmaker. Forced to grow his practice, Ernest learned how to close business. The move also inched him toward portfolio management.

By 1998, his firm began the process of launching a portfolio services business. In need of a successor, Ernest studied and passed three exams in less than a year to become a registered investment advisor and take the reins. 

In 2007, Ernest took his third major risk: retiring from a successful firm and making a major career change. Today, Ernest serves as Advanced Planning Advisor at Buckingham, providing complex client solutions and acting as an invaluable resource for advisors everywhere. 

In this episode, Ernest talks with Steve about his career evolution, expanding into portfolio services, the importance of finding your voice, and what advisors so often miss when it comes to legacy planning. 

 

Key Takeaways

  • [01:39] - An introduction to Ernest and his journey to Buckingham. 
  • [05:10] - How Ernest transitioned into wealth management. 
  • [10:09] - What Ernest calls the biggest mistake of his career. 
  • [12:43] - Why critical thinking is a game-changer. 
  • [14:38] - What the driver was behind Ernest’s firm’s expansion into portfolio services. 
  • [17:21] - Why Ernest believes there are still opportunities for CPAs and wealth advisors when it comes to integrating tax and finance. 
  • [24:14] - What’s holding most advisors back. 
  • [30:01] - Why advisors shouldn’t stress about their lack of universal expertise. 
  • [33:05] - How to handle clients who won’t do their part. 
  • [41:38] - The major risks advisors face today.
  • [47:53] - How Ernest gauges success. 
  • [48:20] - The importance of values-based legacy planning. 

 

Quotes

[17:52] - “In 15 years, I think the biggest change that we’ll see from where we’re at today, is that the wealth advisor will be a family’s lead advisor that helps the family capture as much value from the attorney as possible and as much value from the CPA as possible, but they will be the lead.” ~ Ernest Clark

 

[28:17] - “We always hear that in this industry we need to listen to clients and talk less, and that’s true, but once you listen to the prospect, you’ve got to process the information and you’ve got to speak back to them, resonate to them, connect to them based upon what you’ve heard. And that’s the art of our business.” ~ Ernest Clark

 

[30:36] - “Your job is to know the client and understand the client and communicate to them and connect with them. You don’t have to know all the solutions to the client’s issues. You just need to understand what are the concerns or the issues that the client has and that’s it. You can get the solution to it from other experts.” ~ Ernest Clark

 

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