Nitrogen helped boutique firm to grow by millions in assets in one year despite economic downturn

As a lifetime northeastern native, financial advisor Ronald brings a high level of care and compassion to his work. Just ask his clients who, after a 600-pt. drop on Christmas Eve 2018, felt so secure in their investments that their friends and family couldn’t help but wonder: “Who is your financial advisor?”

A long-time Nitrogen user

Ronald has spent the last 14 years helping clients reach their financial goals in his hometown in the northeast. And as a financial advisor, he believes the best client relationships are rooted in open communication and education – two components that were top of mind when he was introduced to Nitrogen in 2014.

“When we heard about Nitrogen for the first time, we jumped on it right away,” said Ronald. “Over the last five years, it’s been exciting to follow along with the platform’s various upgrades – we almost feel like we’ve evolved alongside Nitrogen.”

For the boutique firm, rapid growth is not the primary goal, said Ronald. Instead, creating a client experience that is personalized, authentic, and cutting-edge is what the firm believes will help it maintain a healthy level of growth.

“The old ways of analyzing risk only gave us half of the picture – it generally showed us a client’s risk tolerance but didn’t tell us why they were lying awake at night. That distinction is important, because we’re not just monitoring the ups and downs of the market, we’re monitoring the ups and downs of peoples’ lives.”

Ghosts of recession’s past

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all over our televisions, media everywhere were warning viewers about the worst December market downturn since the Great Depression. And for Ronald, this meant he needed to get in front of his clients – fast.

“Here we were, experiencing an extremely volatile market, during a time that most financial advisors were out of the office spending time with their families. Although I was also spending time with mine, I knew I needed to let my clients know I was there for them. So that’s what I did.”

Ronald quickly deployed Check-ins by Nitrogen to let his clients know that he understood how they were feeling, and could be available for them if they were concerned.

Ronald barely received any client calls during the days following Christmas – and of the calls he did receive, his clients let him know that they were comfortable and willing to stay the course.

The gift of referrals

Ronald expected that many of his clients felt at ease, even after the market took a 1000-pt. leap on the day after Christmas. But he did not expect what came next.

While many families around the world were swapping memories, jokes, and good tidings around the Christmas ham, Ronald’s clients were discussing – you guessed it – market volatility. And because they seemed so confident in their own investments, their own friends and family couldn’t help but wonder what their Risk Number® was, how much risk was in their portfolio, and why their current financial advisors hadn’t reached out to check on them.

“We received about six calls in that first quarter from friends and family of current clients. They wanted to hear about our approach to risk and were impressed with how in-tune we were with our clients,” said Ronald.

Between adding new clients and increasing the wallet share from current ones, Ronald’s firm grew by millions in assets by the following fall – without a single dime spent on social media or traditional advertising.

“Nitrogen gives us the ability to communicate with clients about risk in a way that is so simple, they can discuss it around the dinner table with family – that in itself is invaluable.”

Capacity for greatness

In addition to using the Risk Number to drive client engagement, Ronald uses Nitrogen Trading to help manage client portfolios and “plan forward, not backward.” With Trading Automation at his fingertips, he’s able to drive efficiency in how he implements changes to client accounts. “Every time we’ve hit a capacity threshold at our firm, it seems like Nitrogen has released an update that prevents us from having to invest in hiring someone new,” said Ronald.

When you have the opportunity to spend time educating clients, he continued, they’ll become better consumers and give your firm better referrals.

Relying 100% on referrals for continued growth, Ronald’s firm is evolving at a comfortable pace and is able to retain full control of the superior client experience they’re known for.

“I never feel like a salesman – using a tool like Nitrogen, our work sells itself. I get to have the career that I love, and work with clients who genuinely are able to sleep better at night knowing that we have their best interests at heart.”

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This advisor has requested to remain anonymous—their firm and name have been changed.