Secrets of Successful Advisors℠ with Ken Haman

The capital-markets landscape is brimming with questions, and external and geopolitical shocks are emerging more often. This poses a stiff challenge for advisors: guiding portfolios to support increasingly dynamic retirement plans. The stakes are high. With longer lives, finish lines are distant and there are no restarts. Emotion adds complexity: advisors must help clients overcome short-term impu...

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) isn't just a client quirk — it's a primal reflex that can quietly derail even your best recommendations. In this episode, you'll learn a simple, structured, and strategic Future Self Check‑in that shifts attention, reduces reactivity, and helps clients choose protection without fear of missing out. DISCLAIMER Note to All Readers: The information contained here reflects t...

In this episode Scott and Ken discuss how advisors unconsciously imagine a prospect becoming a client — and then instantly imagine losing that client the moment they state their fee. That internal movie triggers loss aversion, leading to unnecessary discounts with new clients and hesitation to raise fees with existing ones. The conversation explores why discretionary pricing makes advisors emotion...

Rainmaking isn't a personality type — it's a learnable system that most advisors have simply never been shown. In this episode, Ken lays out the foundational principles behind rainmaker behavior, from outwarddirected energy to the art of curating emotionally resonant client experiences. Building on that framework, he walks through ten independent but mutually reinforcing traits that consistently s...

This episode tackles one of the most dangerous blind spots in an advisor's career: the habit of thinking only about today. Ken explores why so many advisors stay trapped in tactical mode—responding to client needs, chasing new prospects, and managing the urgent—while neglecting the strategic questions that determine the future of their business. With Baby Boomers turning 80 and 81% of heirs leavin...

Most advisors segment clients by contact frequency—but that barely scratches the surface. In this episode, discover how wealth level and life stage reveal a richer Standard of Care that clients instantly recognize as expertise. Learn how to map your book of business on a simple X‑Y grid, expand your service model, and show clients you understand their world because you've guided dozens just like t...

A family's true legacy isn't preserved by hope or by handcuffs. In this episode, discover the third path—an intentional legacy‑planning process that strengthens communication, aligns values across generations, and transforms the entire family into the client. Learn how advisors can guide families toward maturity, stewardship, and multigenerational success. This episode tackles one of the most sens...

Rainmaking isn't a personality type — it's a learnable system that most advisors have simply never been shown. In this episode, Ken lays out the foundational principles behind rainmaker behavior, from outward‑directed energy to the art of curating emotionally resonant client experiences. Building on that framework, he walks through ten independent but mutually reinforcing traits that consistently...

Advisors often assume value comes from listing services, but real value is created when clients feel something powerful in their chest. In this episode, Ken explains why elite advisors intentionally design and deliver curated experiences that shape those early emotional impressions. He then introduces Future Shaping, a strategy that helps clients imagine a vivid scene of future success with their...

PART 2: High‑functioning teams don't succeed by accident—they succeed because they operate like institutions with a shared mission, not loose collections of talented individuals. When a team aligns around a clear purpose, common language, and consistent expectations, it creates a culture that outperforms any one person's contribution. In this podcast, Ken and Scott explore how great teams are buil...

PART 1: High‑functioning teams don't succeed by accident—they succeed because they operate like institutions with a shared mission, not loose collections of talented individuals. When a team aligns around a clear purpose, common language, and consistent expectations, it creates a culture that outperforms any one person's contribution. In this podcast, Ken and Scott explore how great teams are buil...

Is the future of your practice is at a crossroads? With more than $80 trillion set to transfer to younger generations, advisors face a stark reality: 80% of inheritors plan to find a new advisor. In this episode, we explore what's fueling the next generation's disengagement and how advisors must make critical shifts today to stay relevant to those inheriting tomorrow's wealth. DISCLAIMER Note to A...

This episode breaks down a simple four‑step model advisors can use to calm anxious clients — and then dives into the big market forces that are quietly shaping the next decade of opportunity. If you want to guide clients with confidence and invest with clarity, this conversation shows you where the real signals are in spite of current geo-political conflicts. Also in this episode, the AllianceBern...

In 2026 the oldest Baby Boomer turns 80. That person will be followed by 76 million Baby Boomers entering the last years of their lives. Just as the Baby Boomers redefined financial services when they started turning 35 in 1981, this transition will be equally disruptive. The future just arrived: the great wealth transfer that we've been talking about for the past decade is now here. Unfortunately...

PART 2: As consensus accelerates that markets are over-heated and due for some type of modulation or correction advisors are reluctant to change their investment approach. In this 2-part deep dive Scott and Ken explore how "reasonable recommendations" can feel unreasonable because of built-in, decision-making vulnerabilities. Also in this episode, the AllianceBernstein Digital Coach – see practice...

PART 1: As consensus accelerates that markets are over-heated and due for some type of modulation or correction advisors are reluctant to change their investment approach. In this 2-part deep dive Scott and Ken explore how "reasonable recommendations" can feel unreasonable because of built-in, decision-making vulnerabilities. Also in this episode, the AllianceBernstein Digital Coach – see practice...

Uniquely successful families have different needs from their advisor compared to other, less successful clients. A windfall wealth event represents both a wonderful gain (of money) and a painful loss (of identity, role, belonging, meaning and purpose of life). Because of this, the UHNW client needs their advisor to help them not only manage their assets but to manage their needs for creating a new...

Uniquely successful families have different needs from their advisor compared to other, less successful clients. A windfall wealth event represents both a wonderful gain (of money) and a painful loss (of identity, role, belonging, meaning and purpose of life). Because of this, the UHNW client needs their advisor to help them not only manage their assets but to manage their needs for creating a new...

For many client-facing financial advisors the word "retirement" stirs up strong, negative feelings.   Rather than seeing retirement as an opportunity for creativity and to author a new, satisfying chapter of life many advisors find it difficult to think about retirement at all.   In this fast paced conversation, Ken explores the origins of these feelings with Cara Gray founder of Good Morning Free...

In this fast paced conversation, Ken and Alex Kirby, founder and CEO of  Total   Family , discuss the role of annual family meetings as an important part of a family's Legacy work. In this approach to doing Family Legacy, the Family Meeting represents a great opportunity for the advisor to work more closely with family members that they may have never connected with before. Not just the "Next Gene...

Financial Advisors feel enormous pressure to discount their fees when on-boarding new clients into their practices. For most advisors, once they have established a price with a client - even an inappropriately low price - they feel it is impossible to change the financial structure of the relationship even when they are providing a superior value.  For most advisors the thought of raising their pr...

For many years most legacy work was done by high-level, bespoke consultants or teams, was very expensive and offered only to families with enormous wealth. All of that is changing today. In this fast-paced conversation, Alex Kirby, founder and CEO of  Total   Family,  explains how legacy work is now available to families at all levels of wealth and can be provided by financial advisors as part of...

Today there are millions of households in the United States that have accumulated more than $10 million in net worth - with about 2 million having $20 million or more. This huge and growing population of clients is being chronically - and tragically - undeserved by advisors who continue to engage them as if they have the same financial needs as they did before they achieved this level of success....

The financial services industry continues to evolve, and new approaches to working with clients are emerging with greater frequency than ever before. For a busy advisor, deciding to adopt a new approach to doing business with clients is challenging, but it is just the first step in evolving a business. The next step can be the most daunting: how do you introduce a new approach to an existing clien...

It seems that every month or so a new "killer app" is launched with expectations that it will soon revolutionize the financial services industry. In spite of obvious benefits, most advisors seem to be "late adopters" of new technologies. Scott and Ken explore why it is hard for most people to embrace new ideas, and consider what an advisor can do if they want to accelerate their use of technologie...