The retirement plan business is all about trust. It’s built on trust and trust takes time.

So when an advisor calls me up and asks if I can refer them clients, it’s a faux pas on their part because they aren’t interested in building any kind of relationship with me, they just want to sell, sell, sell, kind of like the Dukes at the end of Trading Places.

I don’t get many direct clients from plan sponsors, it’s mainly through referrals from advisors and third-party administrators with plan sponsors in trouble. Even if I do have a client who needs a financial advisor, am I going to refer them to people I trust and work with, or someone who just cold-called me?

I believe one of the most important games I play is game theory, I try to deduce what the other side will do, in any given situation. With my game theory, I can’t imagine any advisor who isn’t just going to give me clients without some relationship-building. Yet so many advisors out there, think that I’ll just give them clients out of the blue.