IFC Announcements

FSI Advocates for Main Street Americans’ Access to Objective, Affordable Financial Advice

Milford, CT. – Local financial advisor Richard Forzano, of Independent Financial Services, Inc., today announced he has become a member of the Financial Services Institute (FSI) in Washington, D.C. FSI advocates for Main Street Americans’ access to objective, affordable financial advice, delivered by a growing network of over 37,000 independent financial advisor members.

“I am proud to become a member of the FSI, an organization that works hard every day, to protect my clients’ access to quality financial advice,” said Forzano. “FSI helps educate elected officials and regulators on what Americans need from financial advisors and how the industry works with clients to secure their financial futures. They also help ensure that I can continue to offer my clients and potential clients the advice they need.”

“We are very pleased to have Richard Forzano as a new member,” said FSI President & CEO Dale E. Brown. “Our advocacy is only as effective as our engaged members. And conscientious advisors like Richard help bring real-life experience to our efforts. We plan to work closely with Richard Forzano as we advocate for independent financial advisors and the hard-working clients they serve.”

The Financial Services Institute (FSI) is the only organization advocating solely on behalf of independent financial advisors and independent financial services firms. Since 2004, through advocacy, education and public awareness, FSI has successfully promoted a more responsible regulatory environment for 37,000 independent financial advisors, and 100 independent financial services firms who represent roughly 160,000 affiliated financial advisors. We effect change through involvement in FINRA governance as well as constructive engagement in the regulatory and legislative processes, working to create a healthier regulatory environment for our members so they can provide affordable, objective advice to hard-working Main Street Americans. For more information, please visit financialservices.org.

In Nashville September 9th to September 12th, Richard Forzano and Amy Horrocks Fino, financial advisors located in Milford, CT. with FSC Securities, Inc., recently attended the 2014 AIG Advisor Group ConnectED conference. The annual conference was the largest to date, with more than 3,400 attendees gathering in Nashville, Tennessee, for the event. Financial advisors with FSC Securities Corp, Royal Alliance, SagePoint Financial and Woodbury Financial, the four broker-dealers of AIG Advisor Group, were in attendance.

"ConnectED 2014 brought together some of the top advisors from across the nation to share best practices and creative ideas for partnering with clients to help them achieve strong financial futures," said Erica McGinnis, President and CEO, AIG Advisor Group. "With presentations from a variety of key leaders and hundreds of educational breakout sessions, advisors left the conference with new knowledge, new skills and new opportunities for success."

The three-day conference included general sessions with former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Cam Marston – a well-respected expert on generational insights, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Dave McCullough. Advisors could also attend breakout sessions on topics ranging from global investing trends, social security reform, technology solutions for financial planning and more.

"ConnectED 2014 was a fantastic conference," said Richard Forzano. "From the incredible speakers to the interesting breakout sessions and many networking opportunities, I learned so much that can benefit my clients and my practice directly. This conference is a powerful learning opportunity, and one of the reasons I am so glad to be part of AIG Advisor Group."

Previously, at IFC, we sought our clients feedback as it pertained to what they valued most about our relationship, what they felt was the most important thing we do for them, what differentiated IFC from other financial firms and where they would like to see improvement at IFC. We had the opportunity to discuss their feedback with our Client Advisory Board at our most recent meeting.

The Advisory Board is a collection of some of our most engaged clients who we bring together twice a year to advise us on the direction of our practice. It is a very effective way of stimulating high level and rich conversations about how to leverage the greatest value IFC offers to clients.

After a brief introduction of all the board members, and sharing each others backgrounds and experience with IFC, we focused on what items we could work on to improve the overall client experience. The following topics were some we discussed.

1. The optimal number of client review meetings that should be performed in a year. We agreed to put a statement in our consult letters to remind our clients to please contact us if they feel the need to meet more often. We will make every effort to accommodate.
2. Advanced technology via apps for IPads and IPhones to access account information. We currently offer a free App (NetXClient) for access to brokerage accounts. There is currently no App available for Android devices. However, they can access most of their accounts with IFC via the internet. A link can be accessed from our website under the Client Center tab on the left side of the home page.
3. How to optimize our servicing of Florida clients. We are contacting our clients directly to offer telephone consultations and have successfully completed the testing of our first Web meeting.

We also had discussions on how the board and clients may communicate directly with each other. Unfortunately our Compliance Department will not allow this under any circumstances.

Lastly, we discussed the planning of upcoming Client Referral Social Events.

Feel free to contact us with reference to any of the above.