Coaching Program Focuses On Divorce Issues

By Cyril Tuohy
InsuranceNewsNet

Advisors who wish to specialize in financial planning related to a divorce can take advantage of a proprietary coaching program.

Dynasty Financial Partners has announced that Michelle Smith, co-founder and CEO of the New York City-based registered investment advisory Source Financial Advisors, has launched the program, “Anatomy of a Specialist.”

“If you have a medical issue, you Google a specialist, not a generalist,” Smith said in a Dynasty Financial Partners news release. “In order to grow your practice exponentially, you much find your niche and specialty.”

Dynasty Financial is a member-based network of financial advisors to which Source Financial belongs.

Smith, herself a divorced mother, launched Source Financial in 2012 after working for Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber and Wachovia Securities. The RIA has $414 million in assets under management and employs six people, according to BrightScope, which tracks advisors.

“At Source, we put a premium on coaching and advising financial advisors,” Kristen Niebuhr, president and chief operating officer of Source Financial, said in a statement. “The ‘Anatomy of a Specialist’ coaching program has made a significant difference to advisors in expanding their businesses.”

Nearly one out of every two marriages ended in divorce, according to 2011 numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 2011 there were about 877,000 divorces and annulments for a rate of 3.6 per 1,000 population, CDC numbers show.

In 2011, there 2.1 million marriages, for a marriage rate of 6.8 per 1,000 population, according to CDC.

But no matter how far divorce rates rise or fall, 100 percent of divorces involve financial settlement, according to the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, which confers the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst designation.

With men dominating the financial advisor field, women seeking advice in the wake of a divorce have received counsel from the opposite sex — mostly by default.

Smith said the “age of the generalist is over” in an interview published on wealthmanagement.com with Mindy Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants.

In the interview, Smith said that in the past 30 years she has seen a “major shift of wealth” to the younger generation where “there’s a female demographic rising.”

“You have to specialize in order to help these groups of people and a lot of times things center around financial transitions, the money in motion,” she said.

Smith said her coaching program will help advisors stand out and “become the go-to expert in their unique space.”

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Writer Cyril Tuohy has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. Cyril may be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.

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Cyril Tuohy is a writer based in Pennsylvania. He has covered the financial services industry for more than 15 years. He can be reached at cyril.tuohy@innfeedback.com.