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NPA - The Financial Services First Mover

Those familiar with The Motley Fool have probably encountered its First Mover philosophy where companies it assesses as prophetical leaders are tapped as worthy investment candidates. Among the First Mover's tenets is that the company should have an excellent reputation and ingenuity and that it should demonstrate a sustainable advantage gained through visionary leadership. When held to those lofty standards it is plain that Northeast Planning Associates, Inc. (NPA), one of the largest independent financial planning firms in the northern New England area, has established itself as a First Mover in the financial planning arena.

NPA has earned its "top dog" status with over four decades of experience providing financial services to its traditionally conservative client base. Over those years, NPA has grown from a traditional financial services firm into a composite of three specialty companies that when combined, blend their considerable experience and insight to evaluate and make recommendations from a wide spectrum of financial services and products. The companies NPA created include The Planning Center, a provider of advanced fee for service and case development planning and investment management, Pension Design Services, a qualified plan administration company with over 600 plans under administration, and Concepts in Benefits, which specializes in the marketing and administration of FSA/Section 125 plans.

Many in the independent broker/dealer world are challenged to find ways to advance advisor growth. And with the complexity and technical knowledge one needs today to promote a comprehensive practice, it is often beyond the ability of any single advisor to undertake a strategic growth plan. These problems were recognized by NPA and they became a 'first-mover' by forming its Planning Center concept that circles a specialized support team made up of technical professionals around their advisors for case design and development. Whether its estate planning, tax or financial issues, or benefit or retirement planning, the Planning Center concept is there to ensure there's no case too complex for NPA advisors to get involved in. The NPA parent spreads its more than 70 registered representatives and 50 staff across 21 offices in the Northeast. In addition to offering typical practice management support to this large professional group, NPA also provides access to its Integrated Partners (IP), a successful, proven process for establishing valuable partnerships with CPAs, Credit Unions and Attorneys.

"The IP concept," says Edward C. Hiers, ChFC and President of NPA, "was created with the principal intent of providing a highly qualified and repetitive source of clientele to our advisors." Another important benefit Hiers believed IP could offer the CPA community was a turnkey resource to enter financial services. "CPAs," relates Hiers, "were a very significant focus in the early years and we went on to create an A to Z process so our advisors could attract and actually partner with CPA firms to introduce financial services to the CPA's clients."

The process Hiers and his NPA team went on to build and refine is one of relative simplicity that includes four experience-honed steps as outlined below:

• Step 1: Produce a Practice Profile using an in-depth review process to gain an understanding of the practice's infrastructure in order to evaluate a firm's current strengths and weaknesses as well as pinpoint opportunities for future growth. Recommendations are then made on the best way to work together, based on the firm's unioperation and culture.
  
  
• Step 2: Utilize NPA's extensive working experience with CPA firms to segment clients into detailed, precise categories that identify promising opportunities to expand services.
  
  
• Step 3: Develop a step-by-step marketing plan to offer new services to current clients, attract new business, and grow the practice. NPA helps design and implement the plan with added support in the form of seminars and client appreciation events, targeted direct mail, and quarterly theme promotions.
  
  
• Step 4: Ensure this highly regulated business is ready to "open the doors" to financial services by having personnel on site to help set up the practice and instruct and train staff on everything from file maintenance and proper signage, to the compliance-related issues of this business.

NPA has found that CPAs are in a unique position to respond to this opportunity because now, more than ever, clients are looking for a single trusted source to coordinate their financial planning needs.

Because most CPA firms typically look for a financial services partner that will become an advisor to its clients, rather than a product sales person, NPA provides CPAs with the flexibility they need to become as involved as they like in presenting planning and investment advice to clients. NPA is firm in its understanding that regardless of the extent of that involvement, the CPA will remain the "quarterback" of the clients' financial and tax plans.

NPA demonstrates that it holds a sustainable advantage in its New England market and its advisors have come to view IP as a significant promotional resource in their quest to meet new potential clients and grow their practices. "Our advisors realize this is an extremely significant value added marketing service," says Hiers, "so we expend resources to help our advisors generate new clients."

On the marketing front, in addition to graphic designers and other inventive staff, NPA has hired a highly accomplished marketing professional to augment the already creative staff. This enhances the breadth of services to advisors such as branding, public relations, creating new client sources and building strong referral capabilities.

It's not difficult to identify the industry leaders. They're the ones that excel in innovation and ingenuity - and in NPA's case it's good old-fashioned American ingenuity.