Spring Internship Business Plan

Austin Joseph Aucoin

8989 Interline Ave., Suite B, Baton Rouge, LA, 70809
February 26th, 2016-May 6th, 2016
Vision Statement
My focus as an Edward Jones Financial Advisor is to strive to acquire goal-oriented clients
who value and follow up on our advice. By providing tailored solutions to meet each
clients short-term and long-term financial goals, by using a consistent and up-to-date
proactive process, and by implementing financial plans that are ALWAYS in the clients best
interest, we want to become the most revered financial planning team in our community.
Market Analysis/Contact Strategy
IDENTIFY:
I desire to establish my business in the Metairie/River Ridge in Region 64. To
identify prospective clients, I plan to use five strategies. First, I will introduce myself to the
community through face to face contact. The main way I intend to implement this strategy
is by creating a face-to-face system which entails separating neighborhoods in my
surrounding community into sectors and visiting each sector at least once every six
weeks. The first visit will consist of introducing myself and handing the potential client an
Edward Jones and You Brochure and following up with a thank-you note. The next visit, I
will bring a sample portfolio report and I gauge the potential clients interest and decide if I
should continue to pursue the individual. Next, I will get involved in the community by:
joining associations with members who have similar interests as myself, participating in
community events such as parish fairs, fishing rodeos, and galas, and if my budget allows, I
could sponsor a playground league. Furthermore, I plan to use various social media outlets
such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to connect with prospective clients; but, more
importantly, to find common interests with individuals who I plan to specifically target.
Also, I plan to use Social Media to further enhance my existing clients knowledge by
sharing and retweeting posts relating to the financial industry. In addition, I would like to
host three morning coffees and one lunch seminar every trimester. At these events, I will
urge existing clients to bring at least one friend and they will be more financial literate and
have a free cup of coffee or lunch for attending. Finally, I am confident that I will be able to
develop a professional networking referral relationship with highly respected estate
lawyers, CPAs, and doctors in the community.
Based on my knowledge of the community, I plan to specifically target the upper to
middle income class, adults who are seven to fourteen years removed from college, and
small business owners in the St. James Business Park and the Elmwood Industrial Park. I

will specifically target the upper to middle income class because they will come from the
same background as I which will allow me to connect better and share similar interests.
Also, these individuals will most likely have money to invest and will be looking for a
financial advisor to make sure they have enough for retirement, childrens education, and
are properly protected in case of an emergency. Moreover, seven to fourteen years
removed from college is my target audience because at this stage, individuals either just
switched jobs or are settled and looking to make sure they are have sufficient funds for
retirement. I will suggest to these individuals to invest in qualified plans to protect all
assets while they are still accumulating wealth. Finally, I will target small business owners
in the St. James Business Park, such as Voodoo BBQ or Stone Interiors New Orleans, and in
Elmwood Industrial Park, such as Quality Sheet Metal or KBK Insurance. Again, I will
suggest qualified plans to ensure that their life savings is safe from creditors in the event
something happens.
During the client creation process, I expect many hurdles, such as limited experience
in the field, baby-face, conflicting personalities, and stubborn individuals. I would
overcome these hurdles by having pre-determined responses so I am not befuddled when a
prospective client has one of these concerns. My response will include talking about the
Golden Rule which is the fiduciary standard, my extensive training (FACD), my education
(Masters in Finance,) my designations (CFP,) my experience (internships,) and that I have
grown up around the industry my entire life.
ATTRACT:
I will attract prospective clients by using the same five strategies that I use to
identify prospective clients: face-to-face, getting involved in the community, social media
outlets, hosting monthly events, and establishing a professional referral network. I believe
face-to-face contact, getting involved in the community, and hosting monthly events will be
the most efficient ways to attract clients. Although I consider social media outlets and a
professional referral network to be essential aspects of attracting and identifying clients, I
believe that social media and my professional referral network will be my main source of
marketing to my clients. Social Media will allow me to give up-to-date information on
major events in the financial industry, allow me to provide instant answers to concerned
clients, and be able to show my interests so I can attract clients with the same hobbies.
Also the professional referral network will be a great marketing tool because it shows that
other highly-respected professionals have enough confidence in my work to refer their
clients.
Edward Jones offers many resources to assist beginning financial advisors in the
industry to attract prospective clients. The most important resource that I will have at my
disposal are other Edward Jones Financial Advisor. When I begin, I plan to interview three
FAs in my communityone being a level 1-3, one level 5-7 FA, and one highly successful
level 8-10 FA. I believe if I interview FAs at different stages in their career, I will be able to
better understand what it takes to be successful in the initial stages and how to continue

that success for a long period of time. I will learn from all three FAs which methods have
not yielded desired results for them, which methods they have added a personal tweak to,
and which methods have been great successes. For instance, a successful level 1-3 will be
able to better connect with me because they are closer to my stage and will be able to show
me how to best utilize modern technology to ensure I am running a legal, ethical, and
profitable business. Next, interviewing a successful level 5-7 FA will give me insight on
how to continue to grow my book of business and the best methods to deepen client
relationships. Finally, I will interview one of the most successful FAs in my community
(level 8-10) and I will pick up on what methods have worked all these years to continually
grow his business, deepen relationships, and constantly perform at the highest level. In
addition to the other experienced FAs at my disposal, Edward Jones offers JonesLink and
Home Office. JonesLink is a system which is designed specifically for Edward Jones
employees and has virtually the answer to any question an FA or BOA may ask. Also, home
office is a fantastic resourceif JonesLink does not have the answer, home office is readily
available and has specialists who are able to answer your question regarding any industry
area. All of these resources are extremely beneficial for every new FA because the FA
knows that he has all the necessary resources to run a legal, ethical, and profitable
business.
Good referral sources come from the professional referral network that I intend to
establish. My professional network will consist of an estate planning attorney, certified
public accountants (CPAs,) physicians, and leaders of the community. Establishing a
partnership with an estate planning attorney, CPA, and physician will be a process that
takes time. Ultimately, these relationships will begin by attending seminars if they host
any. After the initial contact, continue to keep in contact and begin to refer clients to them.
Eventually, my existing clients will tell the attorney and CPA and physician about my
business and how delighted they are with the relationship. Then, I will begin receiving
introductions from the estate planning attorney, CPA, and physician. Now, establishing a
referral relationship with the leaders of the community will consist of me spending my free
time volunteering at community events. Every chance I get, I need to show my face in the
community to show that I am involved. Eventually, the leaders will notice that I want to be
involved and we will start talking about careers and before you know it, the leaders will be
introducing their friends to me. Establishing a relationship with community leaders is a
great referral source because you will most likely share similar interests.
SERVE:
I will determine my clients needs by sitting down and asking open-ended questions
to get to know the client and help prioritize his/her goals. Edward Jones offers a plethora
of tools and resources to help establish a clients financial goals including the 5-step
process, risk tolerance questionnaire, and financial foundations. During the initial meeting,
I will sit down with a client and go over the 5-step Process: I will see where they are
today, where they would like to be, see if it is possible to get there, analyze and develop a
plan, and show them how to stay on track. Step 5 of the process is how can I stay on track

and the way to ensure that a client is on track is to have an in-office meeting and review the
portfolio/plan at least once a year. The risk tolerance questionnaire allows the FA to build
an appropriate portfolio/plan that coincides with a clients risk tolerance. Finally, financial
foundations is a key resource to establish financial goals. Financial foundations ties in a
clients goals, risk tolerance, and portfolio and shows if their goals are possible to achieve
by continuing our current plan or if we need to adjust the plan.
During my internship, I have learned that the best way to explain this process to
clients is by using analogies that people can relate to and to keep everything simple unless
they ask for more details. I plan to develop my own set of analogies for the 5-step
process, own/loan presentation, and mutual fund presentation to be able to present
everything in a way which the client understands. During each presentation when I am
educating a client, I will provide the basic information at first, and I will only go more indepth if the client asks. By presenting solutions this way, the client will understand what I
am proposing and will not be overwhelmed with information.
I will determine the most appropriate solutions for my clients by using financial
foundations and by using knowledge I have acquired through education and literature. I
have learned that most financial planners are undecided on whether to place more
emphasis on earning a return on investments or persevering ones assets. A main
determining factor for this dilemma is age. According to my research, older investors tend
to be conservative and want to protect their assets and leave a legacy to their families. In
contrast, middle-aged investors and baby boomers will be in retirement for decades, which
means they will need to have a pretty significant retirement nest-egg and the only way to
do this is by gaining returns on investments. Furthermore, middle-aged investors and baby
boomers are concerned with healthcare costs, caring for older parents, longevity. In
particular, baby boomers want to travel during retirement and they underestimate their
longevity, health care cost, long-term care costs; and, overestimate retirement savings. I
believe that I will be able to provide the most appropriate solutions to all my clients with
my knowledge along with the resources that Edward Jones offers such as financial
foundations.
Branch Management:
The Financial Advisor is ultimately responsible for everything that goes on in the
office. With that being said, I know that time is precious as a new financial advisor; so, I
will have to assign responsibilities to myself and to the BOA. My duties will consist of ALL
marketing activities (bringing in new clients and new assets) and all procedures related to
sales and investments such as client meetings, client reviews, and portfolio management.
The BOAs responsibilities will consist of administration tasks and operational duties.
These responsibilities include: handling payments, following-up with clients, scheduling
appointments, taking messages, returning phone calls, and making sure we contact every
client each trimester (whether it be a portfolio review, phone appointment, or courtesy
call.)

My expectations of a BOA is to have a healthy partnership where praises, concerns,

and criticisms can be said without any hesitation. In addition, I expect a BOA to be very
involved in deepening client relationships. I consider the BOA a crucial part of the team so
I expect he BOA to help in shaping new client relationships, offering services to existing
clients such as ACH on demand or Online Account Access, and setting up in-office meetings
or phone meetings to continue the proactive service in my vision statement. I can provide
leadership and support to my BOA by leading by example and treating as equal. As an FA, I
will get to work on-time, I will not micro manage, I will give the BOA space, I will always be
smiling, praise the good, and allow first-time mistakes as long as it changes in the future.
Also, I will value the BOAs input, show mutual respect, I will not tell the BOA what to do, I
will ask, I will not raise my voice, I will say thank you when appropriate, and I will admit
when I am wrong. Finally, I reward the BOA by tying him/her into bonus achievement
compensations and adopting a surprise and delight system, which means I will randomly
surprise the BOA with presents not only when we accomplish a big goal; and, delight the
BOA with a big present when we accomplish a long-term goal.
I can learn from others in my region about how to lead a successful branch team by
calling successful level 1-3 Branch teams in the region and asking if I can sit in for a day and
observe how they conduct their day to day activities. Also, I can call highly successful
branch teams and ask if I can observe their team for an afternoon and if I can see their
original business plan. I would ask if it has changed since they entered into the industry
and ask what has helped them become extremely successful as a team. During my
internship, I have picked up on two concepts which I believe will ensure a successful
branch team: prepare a yearly business plan with the BOA, start the week with a brief
meeting with the BOA to go over the goals, and have customized template libraries for
various situations.
Time Management:
In the beginning, the most important activities that I will schedule first every week
will include blocking out specific times to make 30 phone calls a day or make face-to-face
contact with a minimum of 15-20 prospective clients each day asking open-ended
questions with the aspiration to schedule 3-5 appointments. The goal is to have 15
appointments per week with the intent of at least 8 becoming prospective clients ether
immediately or over time. My secondary activities will include daily meetings with the BOA
to go over the days objectives and schedule time to focus on marketing myself in the
community. I realize that overtime certain activities can become primary activities (such
as daily BOA meetings) but in the beginning, I believe the most important activity is
constantly being proactive with calls and face to face contact.
I anticipate two types of interruptions: clients constantly stopping in the office or
constantly calling because they are worried about their investments and family
emergencies. In the early stages, I plan to manage the clients who believe that I am
accessible around-the-clock with the support of the BOA. My BOA will act as the gate-

keeperthe BOA will screen calls and walk-ins and determine the significance/urgency of
the call/meeting and will determine the proper course of action. I believe this method will
be the best way to manage my time because the BOA will be able to filter out the clients
who need assistance compared with the clients who just want to chat. Later on in my
career, I will be able to turn away clients who I believe will not be worth all the headaches.
The BOA will also be crucial when it comes to the family emergencies that are out of your
control (medical emergencies, tragedies, car wrecks.) As an FA, you must have faith in the
BOA to hold down the office for the day and ensure everything goes efficiently and
smoothly as possible.
I will utilize my schedule to help reach my goals by reviewing my schedule the night
before for the upcoming day. By looking over it the night before, I can complete any tasks
that I believe may hinder my activities that are time-blocked. This will ensure that I am
utilizing my time in an efficient manner and completing all my primary tasks.
Business Projections:

Month
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1st Year
TOTAL

Households Assets Under

Care
3
$133,500
3
$133,500
3
$133,500
4
$178,000
5
$222,500
4
$178,000
4
$178,000
5
$222,500
6
$267,000
6
$267,000
5
$222,500
4
$178,000

Gross
Comission
$4,673
$4,673
$4,673
$6,230
$7,786
$6,231
$6,231
$7,786
$9,345
$9,345
$7,786
$6,231

52

$80,989

$2,314,000

During my first 12 months as an FA, I will strive to achieve the Ted Jones Prospecting Award,
which as of 2016 is to open 50 new households. I project to open 52 households which
comes out to be 1 per week (if I work all 52 weeks in the year.) In the first trimester, I
assume there will be a learning curve and the time is shortened because February only has
28 days; so I only anticipate to open 13 new households. During the second trimester, I
predict that I will have improved my approach and the efficiency of the system; and I will
open 18 new households (taking into consideration that I will probably take a week off for

vacation in June or July.) In the third and final trimester, I expect that I will work diligently
to accomplish my goal and will not stop marketing until I hit at least 50 new households.
With that being said, I believe I will open up 21 new households because some of my earlier
contacts will begin to invest; however, I took into consideration that December will most
likely be a down month because of all the shopping bills. In addition, with 52 new
households, I should have approximately 156 new accounts because on average, every
household results in 3 accounts.
I calculated my assets under care (AUC) by setting a goal that I believe is attainable
and will allow me to go from level new to level 1. If you divide $2,314,000 by 52 (the
number of households,) you get $44,500. So, if I can average $44,500 per household, I will
be able to accomplish my goal. In the first trimester, I hope to acquire $578,500 new AUC,
in the second trimester, I will earn an additional $801,000 AUC; and, in the third trimester,
I will bring home another $934,500 new AUC bringing my total 12 month AUC to
$2,314,000.
I calculated my gross commission by taking the AUC and multiplying it by 3.5%
(which is the average commission per dollar.) The gross commission came out to be
$80,989. This also increased each trimester: the first trimester yielded $20,249, the second
added an additional $28,034; and the third trimester earned $32,707.
Tracking and Accountability:
***(What are the name of the tools that EJ provides that allows me to see my
progress)****
At the beginning of every day, I will look over the main points of the plan, especially
my vision statement. I will check to make sure I am still running my business in accordance
with my vision statement and, if I am not, I will see what I need to adjust and will make
those changes. I will also look at my business projections compared to my actual numbers
and will evaluate to see if I am on pace to meet my goals or if I need to create a new
strategy to ensure that I meet my production goals and client service goals. Edward Jones
provides many tools that allow me to see my progress including allowing me to have quick
and easy access to my vision and a program which allows me to see my year-long
production and client service goal broken down by monthly goals side-by-side with my
actual numbers for the months and total for the year.
I will share my goals with my BOA and one extremely successful and experienced FA
in the regionmy father, Kenneth Aucoin. I will review the goals briefly each day to ensure
the branch team is not too far off of the goals, every Monday, I will take a longer look at the
actual numbers compared to the goals; and on the first of every month, I will block off 30
minutes to an hour of time to review my progress. Also, I will ask my BOA to look at our
progress every Monday and to give me suggestions that he/she thinks will improve our
progress. In addition, I ask that my BOA always be honest, ethical, and hard-working to
guarantee that our branch team is doing everything in our power to reach our goals.

Finally, I will schedule one phone meeting every trimester with the extremely successful
and experienced FA to review our progress and I will ask for any suggestions to ensure that
I either stay on track or help get me back on track.

Personal and Professional Development:

I desire to run a legal, ethical, and profitable business which ALWAYS puts the
clients best interest first by providing tailored solutions to meet each clients short-term
and long-term financial objectives. I strive to become the most respected and the first
choice financial planning team in my community. In addition, I want to be a constant face at
the Edward Jones Drucker Conference, which is the top 50 branch teams in Client Service
Excellence with gross production of at least $850,000, and at the Edward Jones Managing
Partners Conference, which has recently been changed to the Financial Advisors whose
gross production ranks within the top 400 (the 2016 qualifying number was $1,189,627
and I expect that number to increase significantly by the time I am nearing consideration.)
The Drucker Conference is the main accomplishment that I want to strive for because it
shows that I am not only a highly successful producer, but that I am always doing what is in
the best interest of the client.
Based on the feedback from the internship, I plan to continue to develop a healthy
relationship with my BOA and also continue to use my interpersonal skills to introduce
myself to potential clients. In contrast, I will continue to improve my presentation skills; so
that I will be better able to relate with my clients. As I progress in the business, I will
continually be updating my goals and my strategies. I will also need to stay up-to-date with
the latest technology. I believe this will give me an advantage over my competitors and
other FAs because the new generation is all into the most recent apps/technologies.
Furthermore, if I continue to struggle in a specific area, I could read a book on that area
written by highly revered authors such as Nick Murray or Thomas Stanley; or I could read
any literature that Edward Jones has on the subject. In addition to reading, I could hire (if
money permits) a coach/mentor for the area which I am struggling. Finally, I could host
one seminar per trimester and invite existing clients, potential clients, and other FAs to sit
in and listen to a free lecture (on an area that is new to me or an area which I need help)
and enjoy a complimentary meal. By inviting other FAs, they can provide positive and
negative feedback, which will allow me to reach my full potential as a Financial Advisor.