Frequently Asked Questions: Hiring and Delegating
The community was active during this series about hiring and delegating as I received questions via email and DMs on Twitter and LinkedIn. This post is a list of a few of those questions listed in a FAQ format. Any other questions? Send ‘em my way.
How did I handle actually finding a full-time admin?
I got lucky, as I hired my mother. But that wasn’t the expectation upon starting the hiring process. I started with an intro call to a local recruiting firm that helped me detail what specific role I was looking to fit. It wasn’t until working with them that I realized my mom was the perfect fit. From there, I had a series of conversations with her to ensure we were on the same page regarding job duties and expectations. We also absolutely discussed, “what if this doesn’t work out?” prior to her starting, too.
Did Veronica have industry experience prior to starting at Drost Financial?
No, Veronica had zero industry experience, which I preferred. The negative of hiring someone without industry experience is the learning curve is longer as she didn’t know what an ACAT transfer was or the different settlement dates for ETFs and Mutual Funds. The advantage is she learned my way from day one. I didn’t have to break any bad habits from prior experience and was able to train and educate how Drost Financial operates. To me, this is a huge advantage.
To aid in her industry knowledge, she completed the FPQP exam during her first three months on the job. This was her backburner project that she completed during work hours when we were not meeting or she didn’t have normal work to complete. I’d highly recommend an administrative assistant completing the program. Also – I wasn’t very concerned about her passing the end test (even though she did on her first attempt) as a lot of the content isn’t applicable to her job. I was more concerned about her learning the information that was relevant to her roll.
How did I draft the employee contract and other legal items?
I work with the same estate attorney for a majority of my clients. He’s local and does great work, and is a member of a team of attorneys with other areas of expertise. I simply called him and said I was looking to hire and asked if he could point me in the right direction to ensure I comply with all federal, states and local rules. He ended up providing me with basic document templates for free. From there I just needed to fill them out.
How do I handle payroll and W2 items?
Just like I called my attorney right away I also called my accountant. They already had access to my QuickBooks and already handled my payroll (I file S-Corp) and this just added one more item. They handle all payroll, W2, unemployment insurance, S-Corp, and any other item. I pay $100 per month and it’s completely worth it in my mind.
What compliance issues do I need to be aware of when hiring?
In my opinion, there are two things that can put me out of business: being a crappy planner leading to clients firing me or me upsetting my regulators. I can control the first item but the second item, compliance, is not my area of expertise. I use Synergy RIA Compliance Solutions as an outsourced Chief Compliance Officer. I told them I was hiring and they handled the rest, including telling me what job functions Veronica can and cannot perform.
Does Veronica work remotely? If so, how does that work?
My firm operates completely remotely. I do not have an office and I do not meet clients in person. Everything is over Zoom, the phone, or email. Veronica works from her home. Upon her starting, I got her a business credit card and added her as an authorized user to our Amazon account. We then spent an hour determining what physical items she needs. We spent around $1,500 getting her fully set up with a laptop ($500), second and third monitors ($150 each), printer ($400), calculator ($30), keyboard and mouse ($100), and then a handful of miscellaneous items such as a white board and company swag.
Once she started, we met every morning via Zoom as she essentially shadowed me as we completed tasks. I was very inefficient in the beginning, as I mentioned last week that we struggled for a while figuring out our Learning Management System. But once we got in a groove, we decreased our meeting cadence to twice per week and now we meet once per week or ad-hoc as needed. We only meet daily during Surge. The only time we meet in-person for work is after Surge we go grab breakfast and discuss anything that could be improved and reflect on how it went.
If I were to do it again, we would still have met daily from the beginning but we would have immediately started recording every task we completed and building out the Learning Management System.
What tasks have you delegated to Veronica?
Veronica completes just about any task that does not involve financial planning or investment management expertise and is not client facing.
· Completes all custodial paperwork and activities
· Sets up clients in eMoney, Black Diamond, and Quivr
· Weekly Investment drift reporting (anyone deviate from targeted allocation)
· Monthly compliance questionnaire
· Watches my children on Thursdays when my wife works
· 95% of all Value Adds (Beneficiary Reports, Stewardship Report, etc…)
· QuickBooks categorization (except payroll)
· Meeting Prep and Meeting Follow-up excluding writing the Meeting Summary
· Dozens of other smaller, less frequent items
Can you give me the high-level process (and order) of how you hired/would hire if you had to do it again?
· I would immediately call Veronica and pitch the job to her, skipping talking to the recruiting firm
· I would then call my attorney, CPA and compliance consultant (see below)
· Then, before she starts, I’d create the Learning Management System
· I’d enroll her in the FPQP class
· We’d meet daily and record every single task that I’d expect her to complete so we start building the LMS.
· After 2-3 months we’d drop down to meeting 2-3x/week depending on workload
Next week we will start a new series covering the Client Onboarding Process. We will review Data Gathering, the process of actually completing the 100+ items to successfully onboard a client, and the process of transitioning a client to a “normal, ongoing” client that participates in regular meeting surges and the standard service calendar.
Until then,
Steve
