Looking back on her practice when she first became an MDRT member in 2007, Katy Baxter, Dip PFS, almost can’t believe her clients represented no particular income level, background or needs. They basically were almost anyone who wanted to do business with her.

Yet the 18-year MDRT member from Brighstone, Isle of Wight, England, UK, also pinpoints that time as the start of her move toward right-fit clients, her rise to Top of the Table qualification and now her role as the Top of the Table Global Council Member.

Learning and converting

Though Baxter’s father and business partner, Malcolm Charles Baxter, a former 16-year MDRT member from Hertfordshire, England, UK, had begun his MDRT membership in 2000, he’d never been to an MDRT meeting. So, both Baxters attended the 2007 MDRT Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA, and Baxter found a peer group unlike any she’d previously experienced outside of MDRT.

The biggest lesson focused on charging fees, with Baxter receiving guidance from several UK members who had experience transforming and modernizing their business models.

“They were pioneering that situation in their businesses — talking about how they were introducing fees to their clients and how they wanted clients to view their financial advisor on the same level as their lawyers or accountant,” Baxter said. “That was my challenge in order to move from Court of the Table to Top of the Table.”

That might sound simple for anyone who was forced by regulation into the fee-for-service model, but for Baxter the process meant looking closely at her clients and determining how to define her value. Her client base had ballooned thanks to referrals and multigenerational clients but included too many insubstantial portfolios, creating an expensive and unsustainable imbalance in the business.

Baxter also recognized that moving to a fee-based environment provided the perfect opportunity to reevaluate her practice and refocus on clients who were the right fit for her transformed operation. So, she adjusted her service model and communicated these changes to clients. Anyone who didn’t want to pay the fee would self-select out (about 30% did or were served by a junior advisor instead). When clients called and asked what she charged by the hour, she indicated that her fee wasn’t hourly but was for the unique service she provided. Rather than reject her, most clients expressed satisfaction that they finally understood how Baxter was compensated.

She also created a presentation, explaining all the work she does for clients before and after a meeting, in addition to the qualifications, experience, professional development and team training that goes into advising each client. Plus, she asked each client to come to her office because driving two to three hours to see a client is time she can’t use to help another client.

“Everyone understood the value we were giving, and they had a sense of duty to other clients as well,” Baxter said. “Plus, they enjoyed coming to see us. As soon as they arrived and saw their name on a parking space, they knew they were being looked after.”

Present and future

Today, Baxter works with a practice manager and a chief operating officer. She manages estate planning and inheritance tax planning for 60 to 70 high-net-worth clients in addition to wills and trusts for those clients and 230 others. About 80% of client meetings take place on Zoom. If a client asks to meet face-to-face, Baxter says she can do that in four to six weeks or talk via Zoom in the next week or so.

“Nine times out of 10, clients say, ‘Oh, Katy, let’s just have a Zoom so I don’t have to wait to see you in person,’” she said.

Another shrewd approach, and a rarity among U.K. advisors, is publishing her fees on her website, which minimizes the need to explain them. She also refuses to do estate planning or wills and trusts for clients unless she has met their family. The more bespoke approach with a smaller clientele allows more time for fewer people.

“It makes them feel warm and fuzzy to know if something happens to them, the people they love most have had access to us and can reach me whenever they need me,” she said.

Baxter has been extensively involved with Top of the Table, sitting on numerous committees and learning much about herself and how to work with different people and handle different situations. She was encouraged to volunteer at that 2007 meeting in Denver and recommends others follow her lead.

In her role as Global Council Member, Baxter looks forward to working with Top of the Table division and committee leaders to provide more meaningful experiences and resources to an increasingly expanding set of members and to boost the impact of the annual MDRT Business Performance Analysis (formerly known as the Benchmarking Survey).

She is also excited about the new Member Outreach Committee, which is tasked with supporting new Top of the Table members early in their experience.

“We’re giving them the opportunity to engage early with other members and welcoming them to the resources that we have, be that webinars or study groups or the MDRT Annual Meeting or the Top of the Table Annual Meeting,” she said. “Everything we can do to encourage and nurture our new members is something I’m really pleased to support this year.”