Mason Companies advisor replaces standardized client calendar

Sarah Baker, a senior wealth advisor at Mason Companies in Reston, Virginia, manages $260 million for 60 client households. She said on episode 515 of the Financial Advisor Success podcast that she often meets clients where they are comfortable rather than in her office, which she credits with building loyalty and generating referrals. Her starting point with a client is to identify what she calls the "greatest felt need," then work through the full range of planning issues.

Baker replaced a standardized client service calendar with more bespoke contact, and mixes regular in-person and virtual client events between scheduled meetings to keep relationships warm. That approach asks the advisor to decide contact frequency client by client rather than following a firm-wide cadence.

Baker has intentionally avoided restrictive employment agreements, non-acceptance and non-compete clauses in particular, so she could keep her client relationships if she moved to a new firm. She has stayed a salaried employee rather than taking revenue-based compensation or partnership stakes, in part to give her family a more consistent lifestyle. She left two firms after they were acquired by larger enterprises, including one where she had worked 11 years, and found new advisory homes each time. She said being present for clients during their most difficult life moments is the part of an advisor's value that digital tools have trouble replicating.