This is the fifth and final in a series of blog postings defining success for retirement plan advisors by Liz Davidson, who as president of Financial Finesse has a unique vision of who the most successful retirement plan advisors are, and what they have in common.–Ed.

In the first article of this series, The Successful Retirement Plan Advisor, Pt. 1: 3 Traits They Share, I identified key traits that successful advisors have in common. One of those traits was understanding the difference between expenses and investments, and committing to strategic investments that have the potential to take your firm to the next level. 

Tom Royce and Mike Chong of Voyage Financial Group are a tremendous example of how effective this strategy can be. They took a big risk about a decade ago to take on the time and expense of cultivating a relationship with a Fortune 500 company, providing financial planning services to their mostly blue-collar employees—something most wealth managers would never even consider  a viable strategy. Today, they have nearly 700 clients and manage more than $350 million using this difficult but highly effective model. No cold calls, no expensive direct mail materials and no expensive travel to networking events—just time spent working with middle-income earners at their workplace, for free, who could be potential clients and advocates for their services.