Nick Reiland, a Certified Financial Planner in Lisle, Illinois, has learned the power of financial education—for himself and for his clients. In a recent conversation with Horsesmouth Executive Coach Chris Holman, Nick described how by advancing his own financial education, then sharing that knowledge, he has built his clients’ confidence in their financial plans and with his services.
Quick Overview
Guest: Nick Reiland, CFP, CHFC, CEPA
Lisle, Illinois
Years in business: 23
Firm: Vantage Point Financial
What’s working now: Educating himself then sharing his knowledge with clients to build a more resilient and satisfying practice.
Learning 2008’s lessons
The 2008 financial crisis served as a pivotal moment in Nick’s career. While his clients’ portfolios outperformed the broader market—dropping less than the overall market decline—he realized this relative success felt hollow.
Nick: “It doesn’t feel like a victory to them when they’re down 40% and the market’s down 50. We still took it on the chin pretty hard. And that really opened my eyes and I said ‘I have to do more.’ They could have gotten similar returns, and probably not payed an advisor fee. If I’m not adding value in a lot of other areas, then why should somebody hire me? So, I even took a step back and said, ‘I wouldn’t hire someone if this is all they’re going to do for me.’ I wouldn’t hire someone if this is all they’re going to do for me.’”
That set Nick on a path to learn how he could improve his services.
Nick: “They deserve more. I have to help them through tough times like this in case this ever happens again. But not only that, they should get more value for the fee they’re paying. And I felt like it was a way to probably differentiate myself from the industry.”
Building a new model
Reiland’s transformation began with his own education. He identified key areas where clients needed more than just portfolio management:
Social Security planning: “I started slowly looking at Social Security. Really diving into that. Horsesmouth has been a huge benefit over the years of learning that and teaching seminars from Horsesmouth,” he said. “So, really learning that it is a lot more complicated than it seemed on the surface. Especially observing other advisors that would have a blanket recommendation for everyone, which I knew wasn’t right.”
Tax strategy: Because many firms restrict their advisors from providing tax advice, Nick knew that by developing expertise in this area, he could offer more comprehensive service.
Estate planning: Nick built relationships with estate-planning attorneys and developed enough expertise to identify when clients needed these services.
Insurance analysis: Rather than simply selling products, he learned to help clients evaluate when they could self-insure and when they needed coverage.
The educational approach in practice
As he grew more confident in his own knowledge, Nick started sharing it with clients.
“I didn’t want to firehose myself, but slowly kind of building my knowledge base and rolling things out to clients,” he said.
Nick: “One of the Mastermind groups that I’m still a part of has a bucket planning approach, which is fantastic, makes a lot of sense to the clients. It helps them psychologically through rough markets because we’ve got money segmented based on when they’re going to need it. It’s really been a game-changer.”
Another key is his networking with other professionals, such as CPAs and estate-planning attorneys, bringing those experts “into the fold” when needed.
Nick: “I don’t care what level of wealth you have, you need estate planning. Most people need some level of insurance planning. You need income planning as you move into retirement. Social Security advice, Medicare. It all goes hand in hand and every family needs it at different levels.”
Seeing the results: The Covid crash
The results became clear during the Covid-19 market crash.
Nick: “It was a faster, not quite as severe of a downturn from peak to trough, but losing 30–40% in three weeks in the market was unprecedented. And it was crazy how our phones didn’t ring off the hook of people panicking like back in 2008. There were people nervous, of course, and we were very proactive to get communication out there, which was different than 2008, where it was kind of the mentality of, ‘Oh my gosh, we never saw this coming. Lets hide under our desk’ which is obviously not what clients are looking for.”
While clients were nervous, the financial education work Nick had done with them, including use of a bucket-planning approach that protected a portion of their portfolios from a downturn, paid off.
Nick: “A lot of them said, ‘I get it now.’…I get the “soon bucket” now. Thank you for building that for me because now I don’t have to change my plans. I don’t have to go back to work.’ And that just showed the proof, ‘Hey, this is working.’ Because sure, I questioned it sometimes too when we’re in this raging bull market for over a decade. But when clients come through and thank us for building the plan that way and sticking to it no matter what, it really showed that it was worth all that work over those years.”
Practical steps for advisors
For advisors looking to implement a similar transformation, Nick’s experience suggests these key steps:
- Start with your own education
- Identify knowledge gaps in your practice
- Join professional study groups or mastermind groups
- Invest in specialized training beyond basic certifications
- Build educational infrastructure
- Develop seminar content
- Create client communication systems
- Build relationships with other professionals
- Transform business operations
- Build professional networks
- Create systems for ongoing education
- Implement client education programs
- Regular seminars and workshops
- Structured client communication plans
- Educational materials and resources
The results
The transformation has led to several measurable improvements:
- Higher client retention
- Better client behavior during market stress
- More referrals from educated clients
- Stronger relationships with other professionals
- A more satisfying practice
Most importantly, Nick says this approach has created a more sustainable and enjoyable practice.
“I can sleep better at night knowing that we’re uncovering everything possible for a client, whether they take our advice and most of our clients do on just about everything, but not always,” he said. “And that’s OK. And we tell them, ‘Hey, we’re here to educate you.’”