Building a Successful Planning and Investment Firm with Ron Bernstein

At its core, financial life planning is about taking a holistic approach to your finances. It's about understanding how your money fits into your overall life and ensuring that your financial life aligns with your values and goals. But financial planning is not just about numbers. It's also about building relationships.  In this episode, Steve talks with Ronald Bernstein, Co-Founder and Managing Member of Prism Planning Partners. Ronald became a financial advisor in 2005 after working for years as a Certified Public Accountant and CFO of a publicly-traded medical supply company. After over a decade of experience, he founded Prism Planning Partners in 2018. Alongside co-founders, they set out to establish a different kind of financial planning experience that embraced the multi-faceted emotional, human elements of life planning and sophisticated, analytical financial planning. Ronald talks with Steve about how he and his team have built a firm serving 75 households and 130 million assets after just five years. He also speaks about how he blends traditional planning with life planning and strategies they use to focus on the bigger priorities for their business and clients.   Key Takeaways [01:19] - What Prism Planning Partners can offer clients. [02:47] - The difference between planning and investing. [04:59] - An overview of Ron's career before founding Prism Planning Partners. [06:43] - What led Ron to start his advisory firm? [08:01] - How Ron builds relationships with potential clients. [14:01] - What Ron does to market his services to a broader audience. [18:06] - A game-changing strategy that gives Ron more freedom to do more. [22:35] - Prism Planning Partners' ideal clients. [26:45] - How Ron prepared himself to provide effective client service. [33:01] - How Ron stays current with best practices in planning and advising.   Quotes [24:14] - "Financial planning allows clients to advance their particular needs without offering up or giving their assets to an advisor." - Ronald Bernstein [26:59] - "Life is a series of building blocks. And when you get into a situation where you can go on your own, you have to take the best of everything you learned. And a lot of that comes from the mistakes you've made along the way." - Ronald Bernstein [28:28] - "The relationship-building component and earning somebody's trust are paramount to longevity in the advisory business." - Ronald Bernstein   Links  Ronald Bernstein on LinkedIn Prism Planning Partners Money Quotient   Connect with our hosts Steve on LinkedIn Buckingham Strategic Partners   Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify Steve on LinkedIn Follow Buckingham Strategic Partners on Twitter