3 Year-End Optimization Steps for Advisors

It’s virtually universal wisdom: A key to success is to set clear, obtainable goals and then determine a path to reach them. It’s what you help your clients do every day, pausing regularly to assess their progress and adjust as needed along the way.

These foundational steps in the financial planning process, however, are easy to overlook when it comes to your own advisory practice. It’s likely time to ask yourself: Have I been too busy prioritizing client needs over my own business development goals?

Take a Pause to Assess and Goal Set

As the year comes to a close, here’s your reminder to take a moment to reflect on your financial practice. You’ve worked hard all year in your business; now is the time to work on your business and to prepare for the year ahead. After all, we know that 75% of our top advisors think like CEOs and focus on growth, formally evaluating individual performance every six months.*

Taking these three simple steps now will enable you to more smoothly navigate the holiday and tax-season crunch times and lay a robust foundation for your success in 2025.

1. Review your year-to-date financial results.

From your profit and loss statement to your balance sheet to your cash flow, it’s a good time to assess the overall financial health of your business. Compare actual income and expenses to your budget, noting any discrepancies and areas for improvement.

Sure, you’re a financial advisor with exceptionally strong financial acumen. But when was the last time you consulted with a peer, especially a tax professional, to ensure you’ve optimized tax strategies for your advisory practice?

2. Evaluate your progress toward any previously established growth goals.

An honest assessment of your business is crucial for identifying opportunities to optimize, streamline, and grow your practice in the year ahead. Looking at 2024 so far, how did you do toward reaching the milestones you had hoped to? Are you positioned to do so between now and the end of the year? How are you doing compared to your peers? As LPL financial advisors look at their practice and make these assessments, they can leverage Practice Hub, which offers data-driven insights, goal-setting and benchmarking tools, and best practices for growth.

Beyond the data, what moments are you most proud of? Which new clients did you onboard? What success stories and big wins are you celebrating? Did you generate leads from any new marketing initiatives?

In the remaining weeks, assess what you and your team can do to close in on acquiring those new clients, gathering new assets from existing clients, or adding services such as tax strategies and financial planning.

3. Set your performance goals for 2025.

Perhaps you never set defined 2024 goals for yourself and your team. You’re not alone. Now is your opportunity to do so for the year ahead, making sure those goals are specific and measurable. Use this year’s to-date performance to inform the new goals you’ll set for your practice next year.

Where are the biggest growth opportunities for you in 2025? Where do you want to be in terms of client acquisition, client retention, NNA, AUM, and gross revenue? What about staffing? Are there other leading indicators that will define next year’s success?

Helpful LPL Resources

As an advisor at LPL, a number of resources are available to help you evaluate your business and set goals. In addition to Practice Hub, where you can measure your progress and even benchmark your results against your peers, LPL specialists are just a phone call away. Through CFO Solutions, CFOs can study your practice, assess its performance, evaluate your goals, and then help you create a path to achieve them. From cash flow to cost-saving opportunities, your specialist can advise on how to generate more revenue and profitability.