When Justin Fitchko left Wells Fargo Advisors and joined an independent advisory firm in 2023, he was faced with the challenge of rebuilding a larger portion of his client base than he anticipated.
But he’s relished the opportunity to find new clients who need financial advice. Fitchko, a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) and managing partner at DayMark Wealth Partners in Ohio, says he’s able to quickly connect with prospective clients using SmartAsset AMP’s automated outreach tools.
“After I leave a voicemail – which is frequently what happens when you make that first call – I send them a personalized text message through outreach automation,” Fitchko said.
“The outreach automation tool helps you stay accountable to a cadence that’s appropriate to reach out to these folks,” he added.
Fitchko started using SmartAsset in December 2023 and has since added four new clients after spending around $20,000 on marketing and lead generation. He says the investment has more than paid off, as he’s added a reported $6.5 million in assets under management using SmartAsset. Those assets will generate between $60,000 and $70,000 in annual recurring revenue for his firm, he says.
He recently sat down with SmartAsset founder and CEO Michael Carvin to talk about his career path in wealth management, how he works leads and fosters trust with prospective clients.
Looking to grow your business? Learn more about how SmartAsset AMP helps advisors connect and communicate with leads.
Interview Transcript
Michael Carvin: Welcome to SmartAsset’s Advisor Success Series. I am Michael Carvin. I’m the founder and CEO of SmartAsset. I’m really excited to be joined today by Justin Fitchko. Justin, welcome.
Justin Fitchko: Thank you very much for having me.
Michael Carvin: Justin, let me start by just hearing a little bit about yourself and how you got into wealth management, and if you can tell us a little bit about your practice.
Justin Fitchko: Certainly. Well, about myself. I’ve been married to my wife, Jennifer, for 14 years. We have two wonderful boys, a 9-year-old son, and an 11-year-old son. They’re very active, which makes us very active. There’s a very few down moments in my household, but we like it that way. It suits us perfectly.
I’ve lived in the Cleveland, Ohio area my whole life, with the exception of going to undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Dayton in Ohio. I’m the kind of guy who enjoys lifelong friendships and relationships with close family and friends. I like meeting new people. It’s easy for me to make new friends and acquaintances, and I think that’s served me well throughout my career.
I think we’ll tie this in as the conversation goes on, but I think just being your natural self is one of the keys I’ve had to success.
In terms of my professional background, throughout my whole life I was a very entrepreneurial kind of person. I grew up in a family where my father was a small business owner throughout my entire life, and I saw him work very hard, but also have the autonomy to pursue other interests. But frankly, he mostly just worked. I think what rubbed off on me was that I’d rather work harder and have some autonomy in my life. I think that’s one of the drivers that launched me into this career.
You go throughout my youth, between either friends and family, we always had some sort of small business operation going – between landscaping or power washing decks and all sorts of things like that – throughout my youth and teenage years. As I started to approach what I wanted to do with my career, I knew it would be something entrepreneurial. I also learned at a certain point that I value giving advice. I guess it makes me feel good to help other people and for my recommendations to be something meaningful to someone else’s life.
As I approached college, I entered as an accounting major and graduated with an accounting [degree]. I actually entered the field of public accounting with Deloitte and Touche in Cleveland. I did that thinking, “Hey, if I love this career, there’s entrepreneurial components to that.”
But thankfully, after two years, I knew it was time to do something else. That’s other good career advice: if you find out you don’t like something, get out before you’re in it too long.
But nonetheless, I had done an internship in this field. My uncle, who was a successful advisor, invited me to join him in his practice in my mid-20s. So it’s been going on 20 years soon here where I’ve been a financial advisor.
As far as firms go, I was with Wells Fargo Advisors for approximately 17 years, and the predecessor firms were Wachovia Securities and Prudential before that. But it was only about a year and a half ago that my team broke away from Wells Fargo Advisors and joined the current firm, in which I’m a partner, called DayMark Wealth Partners. We’re a registered investment advisory firm. We’re just so excited about what we can do to help clients – more than we ever could before.
Michael Carvin: That’s great. It’s great to hear you talk about leading with authenticity and being your natural self. One of the things I’ve certainly learned in the wealth management space is that it’s a relationship business and trust is so important. I’m curious to hear how you think about relationship-building with your clients and how you bring authenticity into how you serve your clients.
Justin Fitchko: Well, I think it’s important to create a foundation of the relationship before you presume that you’ve earned their trust. I think trust takes a long time naturally.
There’s a difference between relationships with folks you’ve served for a long time versus prospective clients or new clients you might bring on board. It’s a different skill set. You want to integrate the same types of things that you do with long-time clients with new clients. You’re not going to change who you are, what you do, but just being respectful that it’s going to take them some time.
Starting with that attitude is a good thing, but I think also it does go back to sincerity. Sincerity is just who I am – that’s what I do. You try to interject some humor from time to time, and I think that’s a good thing, but you also don’t want to be a goof – always trying to be the funny guy all the time. I think putting people at ease is important, whether that’s with how you present to them their financial situation. I think it’s also important to let them into your life a little bit, too.
I’ve always had a lot of respect for the type of trust it takes for any client – new or old – to divulge the amount of information and intimacy that it really takes for this to be a great working relationship. Intimacy is actually a very important part. When they’re providing you intimacy in their life, selectively, I think it’s good to give them a little intimacy into your life.
Michael Carvin: I’d love to hear a little bit about your experience breaking away – it was obviously a big decision – and then joining DayMark. What advice do you have for other advisors who might be thinking about taking a similar step?
Justin Fitchko: Well, I can say this for myself, as well as from listening to a lot of commentary from other advisors being interviewed about this topic, and I agree with a lot of what they would say. even these advisors are saying, “You know, it’s not the right fit for everyone to break away from a big firm and move to an RIA.”
So that’s my first piece of advice: you really have to be introspective to see if it’s going to work best for you and your clientele. [That’s] kind of obvious. But looking through my eyes, I think you want to be absolutely sure that you’ve got solid relationships with your clients, because you are asking them to make a big move. It’s not 100% smooth – generally speaking, it is – but there are bumps in the road.
You really want to do your due diligence long before you get serious. I would take at least a year, if not two to three years, to understand the landscape around you first, so that you’re educated if you were to move. And then of course, look at the various types of ways there are to go independent, because there are so many ways now.
Michael Carvin: Is there anything you didn’t expect, leaving a larger firm and joining an RIA?
Justin Fitchko: Again, just being transparent, I thought I’d bring over a little bit more of my business. I was very pleased with the outcome – don’t get me wrong – but being ambitious, I thought I’d have a bit more success in that. So, I think for anyone listening, just be mindful that you’re likely to lose some client relationships in the process.
I would say that’s been totally fine and in a lot of ways it’s refreshing. As you build back your revenue, you’ll find it’s a lot more enjoyable to work with the people that you know want to work with you. So, there’s a little bit of a silver lining there. And then as you bring on new clients, you’re absolutely sure they’re working with you because DayMark Wealth Partners isn’t a brand name everyone knows, right? Whereas, if you work for a big brand, I guess some clients take comfort in that.
Michael Carvin: And tell us more about DayMark. What are the assets under management? Where are you guys based? How many offices, how many partners?
Justin Fitchko: We have eight partners. We also have the ability to bring on other teams – we dub them stake businesses. In that regard, they’re all part of the DayMark family, but they can run their own business, their own P&L and it’s typically in a team setting. As an example, we have a team that joined us in Connecticut earlier this summer, and then a year before that, another team from Wells Fargo Advisors.
So thus far, it’s been: the founders of DayMark that were Cincinnati-based advisors; Cleveland-based advisors, which is where I am; another set of Cleveland advisors joined us several months later; and then a Connecticut team. Altogether, I would say we’re nearing 20 advisors and then support staff. So the firm size is over 40 people. Assets under management is about $3 billion at this point.
Michael Carvin: And how much of the AUM do you manage?
Justin Fitchko: I personally manage approximately $140 million, and that’s been growing steadily.
My clients typically are – for some of them, it’s inherited money. A handful are small business owners, several executives and a whole lot of folks who I would just dub as “savers” – mass affluent folks who valued putting money aside and growing it in 401(k) plans and other investments. These are just salt-of-the-earth, the greatest kind of people you’d ever want to work with who value advice.
Michael Carvin: That’s great. Has your approach to growing your business changed from previously being at a large organization and now being at DayMark? Has strategy changed? Has how you get in front of new clients changed? Any thoughts there?
Justin Fitchko: Certainly, I would say it has, and it is directly related to using SmartAsset. When I was with Wells Fargo Advisors, I used SmartAsset and I would say it had a limited amount of success. I decided to give it another go, here on this side of the business. Partially, I was motivated to bring on some new clients. I found that I wanted to attract clients that really saw the abilities of DayMark to help. As well, I found that it’s a more effective setting to speak with prospective clients in a service like [SmartAsset] because the ability to use different forms of communication to more effectively get in front of people has been advantageous.
As an example, text messaging is not the only way, but it’s a good touchpoint. That’s been a more effective way to get on people’s radar. So, naturally, I do a cadence of phone calls, emails, text messages and a little bit of mailing, but that truly has been transformational in terms of the ability to get in front of prospective clients using text messaging.
Michael Carvin: And what’s your overall experience been? How many new clients have you been able to bring on? What kind of new assets have you been able to bring on through SmartAsset and our Advisor Marketing Platform?
Justin Fitchko: I joined the platform in December of last year, so that’s about nine months so far. I’ve brought on four new households. I have more in the pipeline, but the four households bring approximately six and a half Million Dollars in new AUM and it’s been good. In terms of the timeline, some clients have taken a number of months to land, and frankly, some were rather brief in terms of the courtship period to where they were ready to join.
Michael Carvin: That’s great. Congratulations – six and a half million dollars in new assets. How do you think about the return on investment? How much have you spent to generate that six and a half million dollars? And is that something you track closely?
Justin Fitchko: I don’t track it as closely yet, but I actually have been working with your staff on some tools you’re piloting to make that a little more effective to track. Because it’s only been that number of months, and I know exactly the amount of clients and assets, it’s pretty easy to say its already a positive return in investments
If you look back on what I’ve been spending on leads for about nine months – call it about $20,000 of outlay so far. [I’m] expecting to generate $60,000 or $70,000 of annual revenue, remembering that that’s gross, not net. Let’s try to be as accurate as we can: If I’m going to net about $30,000 or more vs. the $20,000 spent so far, that’s a 50% return on investment, thus far, in as little as nine months.
Michael Carvin: Yeah, that’s great performance. Congratulations. It’s always great to hear about advisors being successful and that we get to play a role in helping you grow your business and impact positively new clients. They’re getting great service out of this, too. That’s why people become clients of advisors.
We’d love to hear a little bit about what’s made you successful. Tell us how you approach when you get a lead, what do you do? Are you using outreach automation? How do you contact that consumer and set up that first meeting?
Justin Fitchko: One of the advantages of being on the RIA side is access to the outreach automation. Some brokerage firms may also have that. It’s a pretty effective tool to help advisors quickly react to their leads.
I try to call the prospective client immediately when I get a lead. I’m always thinking about the fact that the other one or two advisors who got the same lead are probably thinking the same. So I reach out with a phone call. The outreach automation tool is set up so they’re getting an immediate text message in a campaign that I’ve built. It is standardized and it is routine, but they’re getting a welcoming text message, and at the same time, an email with a similar affect.
After I leave a voicemail – which is frequently what happens when you make that first call – I send them a personalized text message through outreach automation. I’ve sat down, written it and tried to stay brief, friendly, and inviting to connect with me. The outreach automation tool helps you stay accountable to a cadence that’s appropriate to reach out to these folks. That’s generally respective to phone calls and follow-up phone calls. When you have a campaign set up, they’re getting regular cadence of emails and text messages that you’ve set up to go out to them.
So, I try to be on point. I try to call right away. I’m frequently on the automation tool to verify that I’m staying on track with my outreach.
Michael Carvin: How does that first conversation go? Are you trying to qualify the consumer or are you just trying to get the meeting set up as quickly as possible?
Justin Fitchko: Well, I mean, at its essence, that’s a “yes.” But my approach has been, I try to lead with value. In other words, trying to find out what motivated them to reach out through SmartAsset. Were they sincerely desiring to connect with an advisor? What might be something happening in their financial lives that they are not pleased with? If I see that there is an ability to add value, I’m trying to set up that first meeting.
But frankly, if I find that the person isn’t well-served by working with an advisor or they’re sincerely not interested, I try to determine that as quickly as I can, too. I don’t want to pester them, and I don’t want to spend time with someone who doesn’t sincerely want help. But I will tell you, you will find that there are plenty of folks who sincerely want help.
Michael Carvin: That’s very well said. It sounds like you’re getting 12 leads a month. Do you have a rough idea of how often you’re able to get in touch with that consumer? And how many meetings would you say you set up on a monthly or quarterly basis?
Justin Fitchko: Yeah, well, we’re going to dub a meeting as a scheduled phone call, a Zoom or face-to-face. Frankly, even an ad hoc phone call where they pick up and they want to spend 15, 20 or 30 minutes with you speaking. With all of those, I would say I’m having an initial conversation with two to three – maybe it’s four.
I would say every month, about two of those prospective clients are setting up some form of a meeting – Zoom, in person or phone call. Some more than others. There’s an ebb and flow to this, but that’s about right. Just yesterday, I had an initial conversation with a person, and it went very well and it’s leading to an in-person meeting in the next couple of weeks.
Just interjecting one thing here: if your firm allows you, I would highly recommend putting into your email campaign something that allows them to easily set up an appointment with you. I believe Outlook has its own tool, but I think that’s the first meeting I’ve had where I started using Calendly, and I was pleased with how simple it is to get a meeting set up.
Michael Carvin: That’s great. So consumers are just putting meetings right on your calendar?
Justin Fitchko: That’s right, yep.
Michael Carvin: That’s exactly what we like to see. So if you’re getting 12 leads per month, having a few good conversations and a couple of meetings per month is exactly where we want you to be in terms of setting you up to generate that kind of ROI, where you’re getting $60,000 revenue against $20,000 spent. You know, $30,000 in margin. Depending on how you look at it, you’re investing $1 and getting $3 back, or you’re investing $1 and getting $1.50 of margin back, those are really good numbers.
When you have that first meeting, tell us a little bit about how that goes. What are your strategies for going from that initial meeting to generating a new client?
Justin Fitchko: I try to approach it as if they were a client, in terms of letting them tell me what’s on their mind. I try not to dominate the conversation or being too much of the talker; asking open-ended questions about themselves and what they’re also trying to achieve; finding shortfalls of what’s not pleased them about how they manage their money or what their financial situation is.
I really think it basically comes down to taking a financial planning mindset instead of thinking, “Gosh, I’ve got some sort of investment strategy or product I can’t wait to tell them about.” I think, just really determining what we can truly do to help them to add value. Folks aren’t going to make a change in their life unless they see some sort of dramatic uptick to change.
So, whether we’re determining that they don’t have confidence in their financial plan or they don’t have a plan at all, that’s an uptick. They’ve got an investment strategy not suited for them. They’re paying too much in fees. They’ve only got index funds or target-date funds in their portfolio – just trying to identify where the weaknesses are and making sure they understand.
Michael Carvin: This is a really important point and It’s a theme that I just see over and over again among our most successful advisors. I think a lot of people think that advisors who are really successful on the platform are just great salespeople, that they’re really good at the pitch. And the truth is, they’re great listeners. They let the consumer talk about their pain points. They let the consumer talk about where they are and what they need in an advisor. Then, the advisor can tailor the conversation around the value proposition and solving for their pain points. So it really starts with listening.
Justin Fitchko: It does, and I’m always happy to poke fun at myself because I don’t even consider myself that good of a salesperson. In fact, when I played the role of junior partner – as we go back in the story when my uncle invited me to join him – I’d sit in meetings, where I was mostly just listening and observing and participating a little bit in the meeting, but my uncle was generally leading it. I would sit there and think, “I don’t think he’s listening enough. I don’t think the sales pitch is that strong. What could I do?”
Okay, fine, that’s good learning. But I think what I took away from that is clients work with people they like. My uncle’s a great guy, and he took care of people. He had his heart and soul in the business like I do, and I think people gravitate to that.
So in my career, again, it goes back to authenticity. If you’re truly out to help people get better financial outcomes in their life, just leading with what serves them best. And again, it comes back to listening rather than spending a lot of time working on sales technique.
Michael Carvin: Yeah, absolutely. What advice do you have for advisors who are brand new to the program? You know, they’re just starting out, and they want to generate your level of success. What would you tell them?
Justin Fitchko: Well, the rep you work with when you join SmartAsset will tell you the same, and I’ll tell you exactly what they told me. What I observe is true, which is, it truly does take time and investment to reap rewards.
So as an example, in December when I started, one of the first leads I got – which, by the way, happened to be a live connection lead – this couple didn’t land as a new client until July.
It was a little bit affected by the fact that the family was out of the country where they’re kind of out of pocket for a month. No one wants to work on their financial plan when they’re trying to get out of town or when they just came back. But having some patience and just believing that the juice is worth the squeeze – if you will – and just keep plugging at it.
So I would say this tool does work. There are real people out there that want to connect with you, despite the fact that you’re going to get a fair amount of rejection until you find those folks. These are folks who took a moment to enter a questionnaire online and legitimately put down a bunch of details about themselves, and provided their cell phone and email. So someone was serious when they completed that survey.
You just really do have to stick with it. You’ve got to stay on top of outreach because it yields results.
When I was with Wells Fargo Advisors, I told one colleague about the service. He and I stay in touch, we’ve become close friends. I think he’s been a SmartAsset participant for at least three years, and he’s extraordinarily pleased with the success he’s had. He’s constantly thanking me for introducing him. But it really is his talent, as well as sticking to it. But he’s found tremendous value in the service.
And for me, that has been an advantage. I hope today’s conversation helps those of you out there who are looking to see if there’s value. I can tell you from firsthand experience: Sticking to it really does work. And that’s helped me by the way, inject some confidence in myself.
Michael Carvin: Justin, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time.
Justin Fitchko: It’s my pleasure, Michael. Thank you for having me, and I wish everyone listening the best of luck. Stick to it, and you’ll get some good results.
End of transcript.
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