Gradient Is An IMO For Today’s Advisor

By Brian Lucius, Chief Distribution Officer Sponsored By Gradient Financial Group

Advisors today face more demands than ever. You must keep up with an ever-expanding array of products while serving a greater variety of clients. You must maintain an efficient back office, adhere to compliance regulations and stay on top of today’s marketing and prospecting trends.

Likewise, the demands of the consumer are evolving — revealing a savvier, younger and more knowledgeable clientele that have a wealth of information at their fingertips. These consumers view technology as a benefit rather than a roadblock and require a top-of-the-line tech suite. At the same time, your competitors continue to find ways to expand the breadth and depth of their offerings.

The demands of the daily grind prohibit you from keeping up with today’s tasks or tomorrow’s vision. It’s information overload, with no end in sight and no plan to get you there. To the rescue comes Gradient Financial Group, a Minnesota-based full-service IMO that’s built a business around helping advisors build a business they never imagined possible, freeing up time to work on the business, not in the business.

“Today, it’s about running a successful small business and delivering on consumers’ expanding expectations. They want a financial professional to be a fiduciary with all the available tools and technology to meet their needs,” says Brian Lucius, Gradient’s chief distribution officer.

TECHNOLOGY BENEFITS

Custom fashioned after nearly two decades of serving advisors, Gradient offers a proprietary software suite comprising a dozen different planning tools. “We built it to be the best for advisors,” says Lucius. “It’s easy to just string a bunch of tools and technology together. That’s not us. Data seamlessly passes among our solutions, which provides real value to your office and, in turn, your clients.”

If you’re not seeing the added value from your current IMO, now is the time to turn to a company like Gradient.

NEVER A HARD SELL

Gradient has helped many advisors build multimillion-dollar practices. This isn’t through quick fixes, trendy marketing or a hard sell. Rather, it works holistically. “We don’t push any one solution, one program or one product. It’s not a one-size-fits-all business anymore,” says Lucius. “At the end of the day, Gradient has some of the most diverse and exclusive products on the market.” Working with Gradient ensures that you are one of the first to get those products from the insurance carrier to your clients.

Offering myriad integrated solutions for practices of all types and sizes means Gradient can help with commission-based insurance products and fee-based retirement planning, as well as financial handholding and a lot more.

“Having one or more product lines that offer a recurring revenue stream has benefited many advisors, as it gives them the opportunity to invest back into their business, hire employees and explore new marketing outlets so they can bring in more clients, capture repeat business, receive more referrals and generate ever-greater profits. We help advisors build that model,” explains Lucius.

BUILD SCALE AND STABILITY

Gradient is uniquely equipped with the breadth and depth of expertise required to build scale and stability into an advisor’s business. “We ask our advisors to begin with the end in mind,” says Lucius. “And then we help them get there by implementing their plan right away rather than when it’s too late.”

Gradient provides world-class back-office operational support that takes the burden of costly overhead off the advisor. The Gradient platform offers traditional services, such as case design, new business and transfer processing, as well as a dedicated team that can hire and onboard employees, navigate compliance issues, create brand enhancements, and support succession planning. Everything is coordinated and available under one roof and via a single toll-free number.

“Our business has shifted dramatically over the past 10 years. A decade ago, advisors may have used an IMO for a single product category such as annuities,” says Lucius. “Today, advisors are more sophisticated — their businesses are more complex. The upside to this change is that the potential gains for advisors can be unprecedented.”