Secrets of Successful Advisors℠ with Ken Haman

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...

Too many financial advisors fall into the same trap: slashing fees to win business, then spending years overdelivering for a client who's paying far too little. The result? A regretted acquisition. Raising your fees should be the obvious next step. But the fear of rocking the boat—and losing a valued client—keeps most advisors stuck. Using insights from behavioral science, this master class will s...

One of the fastest growing opportunities for advisors who are committed to growing their business is the acquisition of retiring advisors' businesses. In the 1980's and 1990's thousands of advisors started new businesses, and these are all now coming of age with advisors who are eager to sell. There are few opportunities more motivating to a growth-oriented advisor than the chance to add hundreds...

Life is complicated and it moves very fast. To cope with complexity the human brain learned long ago to create a model of the world from experiences and to use that model to understand everything that happens. What a person believes about the world (their model of the world) defines everything decision they make and every action they take. Unfortunately, beliefs are often the result of a few, unfo...

Most advisors know that clients don't walk into their office with their financial hopes, dreams, goals and concerns all neatly organized on a mental spreadsheet. New, prospective clients especially experience their financial lives as a jumble of competing priorities and wishes. In this deep-diver conversation Scott and Ken explore how advisors can use a simple exercise with 5x8 cards to help clien...

In AB Advisor Institute's "Masterclass on Pricing" we propose that advisors can confidently charge a premium fee for their services if they do change their approach to the first few meetings with the client. We recommend that they slow down, complete a thorough Discovery and Fact-Finding process before establishing the price of the services and provide impactful experiences for the prospective cli...

Every advisor knows how important it is to respect the perspectives of their clients and to avoid emotionally charged conversations about religious or political topics. In spite of an advisor's best efforts, there are going to be times when a client will want to discuss their political views and will want to discover what their advisor thinks about the political narrative of the day. In this fast-...

For years advisors have been taught the importance of closing a  prospective client quickly – if possible, during the first meeting. On closer look advisors will have much more success if they slow down, take their time and give the client time to fully appreciate what the advisor has to offer. There has always been a dynamic tension for advisors between  taking the time to build trust in a new re...