How This Financial Advisor Successfully Launched His Career With SmartAsset

TJ Tamura is still in the early stages of his career as a financial advisor, but he’s already learned a valuable lesson about converting leads into clients: focus on educating the client, not selling them.

Tamura joined Capitol Planning Group in Sacramento, California, as a financial advisor and retirement planner in 2022 after exploring several other potential career paths. Since then, he’s tapped into the lead generation power of SmartAsset and quickly grown his book of business.

Using a data-driven approach that puts client education at the center of his sales process, Tamura notes that he converts an average of one to one-and-a-half SmartAsset leads into clients each month.

Tamura recently spoke with SmartAsset CEO and founder Michael Carvin about how he leverages SmartAsset, as well as the unique challenges of being a young advisor working with older clients.

“Number one, no matter where you’re generating leads from, stay education-focused and be very genuine in that pursuit of educating your clients,” Tamura advises.

Looking to grow your business? Learn more about how SmartAsset AMP helps advisors connect and communicate with leads.

Interview Video and Transcript

Michael Carvin: Welcome to our Advisor Success Series. I am joined today by TJ Tamura. My name is Michael Carvin. I’m the CEO and founder of SmartAsset. TJ, welcome to the program.

TJ Tamura: Thank you. I appreciate you guys having me. Nice to talk to you, Michael.

Michael Carvin: I would love to start, TJ, by just hearing a little bit about yourself, your advisory practice and how you got into wealth management.

TJ Tamura: Yeah, so my name is TJ Tamura. I’m an investment advisor representative with Capitol Planning Group. Our office is located in Sacramento, California. We have a smaller group of about six advisors.

How I got into the business, you know, I kind of did a few different 180s. I never ended up in the same spot, and finally figured out how to put it all together in investment advisory. So I went to school for environmental engineering, then I went abroad and taught English for a couple of years. When I came home, I was really trying to figure out what I wanted to do professionally, what stirred me, what drove me to be motivated every day. My mom, who had been an advisor for over 20 years, suggested that I get into the business and learn a little bit about her practice.

As I did, the obsession grew in the business as I started educating myself; as I figured out how I could meld my engineering background with financial planning and also my education background.

I got my life (insurance) license in October of 2021, so about three years ago. I worked for about a year to get my Series 65, which I have held since October of 2022. Since October 2022, I’ve been with Capitol Planning Group and had a really great experience there. Their president and vice president are also first- and second-generation advisors, so we come from a similar background and share that in common.

Michael Carvin: Well, that’s super. Can you tell us a little bit about the practice? What kind of services do you offer to consumers?

TJ Tamura: Yeah, so we offer comprehensive retirement planning. I’d say the majority of our clients – maybe 70 to 80% – are those who are currently retired and looking to make some changes or are five to 10 years out from retirement. Most of them, for the first time ever, are really taking a look at their retirement accounts and assets, figuring out how to transition smoothly from the growth-focused phase of their life into an income focus, maybe a legacy focus. It’s also a time when taxes come in mind. So we do try to talk to our clients about things like tax diversification, which is important to us. With the help of tax advisors, we make that work for clients. We’re also very focused on estate planning with the help of estate planning attorneys. That’s definitely a very key focus of our practice.

Michael Carvin: That makes sense. Is that the ideal client for you, TJ? Someone who’s approaching retirement, someone who’s thinking through how to manage their money effectively in the decumulation phase?

TJ Tamura: Yeah, absolutely. I’d say that’s the majority of my best clients are those that are in the phase where they’ve grown their assets, and now they’re trying to figure out, you know, hey, I’ve grown money in this 401(k), I’ve got this ESOP, I’ve got this 457 – what do I do with these assets? How do I transition them into the income phase? Retirement is not as simple as it used to be. A long time ago, everyone just had a pension and there’s a lot of concerns about Social Security. How to maximize that, where’s that going to go? What are their concerns for depleting funds at the macro level? Those are the majority of clients where we have a lot to offer. We can bring a lot of value to those that are getting ready for retirement.

But I also do enjoy working with younger savers who I’m able to speak with very closely in terms of age, those that are truly dedicated in moving forward in their savings and getting creative with how they’re building their assets for the future.

Michael Carvin: That’s great. And I know we’re going to talk about your relationship with SmartAsset and the Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP) in a second. But what other strategies does your group use to get in front of that kind of consumer? How are you thinking about organic growth?

TJ Tamura: Yeah, so it really depends on the advisors in our group. I know our president does a lot of Social Security maximization seminars – it’s been his bread and butter for over 25 years. Our vice president runs a very successful podcast. So we’ve kind of run the gamut, all of us, on different marketing techniques. I myself have done TV commercials, which some of those didn’t go so well, but I’d be happy to do them in the future. I definitely enjoy recording commercials. I’m working on a podcast, but a lot of my current marketing techniques come from local networking groups. I do a lot of work in the local community. I try to immerse myself with professionals around the area, which not only helps me build clients but also helps me build a value circle where I can send clients – refer them to people who specialize in things that I don’t.

And then SmartAsset is a significant portion of my marketing. You know, you guys have done a great job putting clients in front of me who I can truly help and educate.

Michael Carvin: Well, that’s a great segue. I’d love to hear about your experience working with SmartAsset AMP, the Advisor Marketing Platform. Maybe you can start by telling us how you’ve set up your account. What are some of the high-level metrics?

TJ Tamura: Yeah, so I’ll give you a little history on how I got into it, how I got connected with you guys. Our vice president had been using SmartAsset for a couple of years and had vetted SmartAsset over the years. He had some good success. So that really eased me into the program because I had come on as a newly licensed advisor a few months into the business. Even though I had had a successful year in the life insurance and annuities business, I added my Series 65 license. It’s not like I’ve been in the business for 10 years and have all this capital. It was a larger investment for me to think about. So having someone who had worked with you guys before and had seen success and gave me some tips and advice, that really got me comfortable with SmartAsset very quickly.

So I originally started my relationship with SmartAsset with about a $2,000 a month budget. I’ve increased it over time to about $2,500 per month, and I have a soft goal for myself of about $4,000 per month. If I can really maximize that, I think it’ll be time to bring someone else in who can help me continue to nurture those leads and increase my marketing over time.

In terms of the number of leads that I receive per month, I think I’m looking at around 30 to 35 leads per month that I’ve split up among the different tiers. I’ve kind of changed my ratio of asset tiers over time. In the beginning, I was really focusing on quantity over – I wouldn’t say quality – but over asset level. When I first started, I was trying to get in front of as many people as possible, have the conversations, go through questions that maybe I’d heard for the first time, stumble through a few conversations and really get that practice under my belt. Over time, I’ve increased the amount of assets that I am looking for in clients and I’ve increased my budget over time as the program has been successful for me.

Michael Carvin: And can you share what investable asset ranges you target?

TJ Tamura: Absolutely. So I’ve got it written over here: this month I’ve currently got seven leads coming from the $25,000 to $100,000 level; 10 leads from the $100,000 to $250,000 level and 16 leads from the $250,000 to a million dollar (tier). It’s changed a lot over time. I’ve continued to really add more in that $250,000 to a million-dollar range. Those clients have been perfect for what I offer. I’ve found that when I jump into the conversations, ask the questions and learn more about the potential clients, there’s a lot of value I can bring them because many of them are in that retirement phase of their life or pre-retirement phase. So I’ve seen a lot of great success in that range.

Michael Carvin: So it sounds like over time you’ve increased your focus on the higher investable asset consumers as you’ve gotten more comfortable with the program. Maybe you can just take us through your metrics. What kind of conversion rates do you see? How do you think about ROI? How do you think about the return on your investment with SmartAsset AMP?

TJ Tamura: I think this is going to differ from advisor to advisor because we all offer different types of investments and different fee structures as well. So in terms of what we offer, we’re typically offering investment management, annuities and life insurance. And through those, we’re paid differently on each of those different investments. So ROI can come in a couple of different forms. Some of those are commission-offering products, which generate a higher ROI upfront and a little bit less in the long run. We also combine that with our investment management. We’re fee-only fiduciary advisors, and that helps keep the ROI going over time. As we continue to purchase leads, those leads become long-term clients. All of our clients are long-term clients, but those accounts continue to generate consistent revenue for our business and allow us to keep purchasing leads.

Michael Carvin: Makes sense. Can you give us a sense, do you think you’re getting kind of two times your money, three times your money? How do you think about revenue versus investment? I understand that the return can come from commissions or it can come from the AUM – it can come from different places but how do you think about the overall ROI?

TJ Tamura: So far, I was just doing calculations the other day, looking at who I’ve talked to. You know, I keep track of all my leads, even the ones that don’t want me to talk to them anymore, I still go into my database – although I don’t reach out to them. But I’ve looked at them and in terms of clients per month, I’m looking at about one to two clients per month that I’m getting from my SmartAsset leads, which is fantastic. It is exactly what you guys had told me from the beginning. If I get 30 leads, I’m not going to turn them into 30 clients. That’s unrealistic to expect that. I’m getting I think an average of one to one-and-a-half clients per month from my leads from SmartAsset, and I’ve already generated about a three to three-and-a-half times ROI. So I’m more than happy with that, and that’s just going to continue to grow.

I want to say almost 100% – maybe 80 to 90% of the leads that I’ve turned into clients from SmartAsset – have a multitude of different investments that they’re looking for. That includes investments and continuing fee investments. So we’re managing IRAs, we’re managing Roth IRAs, brokerage accounts, things like that.

Michael Carvin: Great. Those are good metrics. So it sounds like you’re getting 25 to 30 leads per month and generating one to one-and-a-half clients per month. That’s really healthy. That’s great stuff.

TJ Tamura: Absolutely. And I think I want to stress to people that are looking to generate leads and maybe early in their business, to not to have unrealistic expectations about how much you’re going to be generating. Many of these people are just coming for education or just coming for a question or filled out a questionnaire and changed their mind. And that’s okay, it’s going to happen.

In my first month with SmartAsset, I had a really, really amazing couple of first calls. Of course, I was incredibly nervous. Called the leads, maybe stumbled a little bit over the phone, but they were very nice, and I turned them into clients very quickly. They were good clients with plenty of assets to invest. But because of that, I kind of complacent to be honest, in the first couple of months because I just expected that everything was going to continue. The momentum was never going to stop. I thought, “I must be doing something different from everyone else. I must be unique in my practice.” Everyone has those thoughts when things are going well.

The reason why I’ve continued to generate success with SmartAsset for well over a year now is because I just kept working through it, keeping the momentum and refining my practice, refining my calls and my questions. I’ve really reached a good spot now where some of the leads that I think I would have lost at one point, I’m converting into clients because I’ve gained the expertise just from working it over time.

Michael Carvin: That’s great. And so what’s the total number of clients that you have now from SmartAsset?

TJ Tamura: Total number of clients from SmartAsset, I believe, is 13.

Michael Carvin: Okay, great. Well, congratulations.

TJ Tamura: Yeah, thank you.

Michael Carvin: The way we think about things is there are two skill sets you need to be successful on the platform. You need to be able to get in front of the consumer – you need to be able to initiate that first meeting. And then you need to have good nurturing and good sales skills to convert a prospect into a client. Maybe we can start with just the initial outreach part. You’re getting 25 to 30 leads per month. How do you manage that outreach? What kind of outreach are you doing, and are you leveraging our outreach automation tools?

TJ Tamura: Yeah, great question. So I don’t have a team of advisors and paraplanners with me, right? I’m pretty early in the business, three years into it. I’m seeing some really good success, but of course I’m not a 20-year veteran who has 10 workers that are nurturing these leads for them. So everything’s on my own, except I do use DeftSales, which you guys had connected me with, to assist me with my marketing automation they help me send out texts and emails automatically as soon as I get the leads, that’s very helpful.

So that’s step one – the automated emails and texts that go out to clients that say, “Hey,” a little bit about me and what I could help with. If you’d like to schedule a meeting, click my Calendly link here.” When I have someone that gets a text automatically and signs up for an appointment via Calendly, it’s fantastic for me. It’s much less work. I don’t even have to call that client until they’re ready for that meeting, which saves me a ton of time.

The majority of my clients, though, the leads are coming in and I’m giving them a call right away. Typically, the latest that I will wait to call someone is maybe a few hours later. Or if I’m busy – you know, I obviously have days off as well – so if I’m busy, have a day off and I haven’t paused my leads, then I’ll give them a call the next day. But typically, I’m calling them right away. I follow up via phone call with each lead about four to six times before I put them in my drip campaign.

I’m sending them calls. I’m sending them texts over time, and I’m changing what I say to ask different types of questions and see maybe there’s something else someone’s looking for that I didn’t quite get to in my initial reachout.

Michael Carvin: That’s great. Do you have an idea of what percentage of the referrals we send you do you get in touch with?

TJ Tamura: So in terms of people that I actually reach via a call or text or they schedule something on Calendly, I’d say it’s about 25 to 35% or so, which is really good. There’s some months when it’s much harder to reach people, and there’s some months where, for some reason, I’m reaching five or six people a day out of my 15 calls. It just depends, but I’m seeing pretty good success – probably about a third of the people that I call.

Michael Carvin: Okay, and then from that third, what’s the next step for you? What do you want those consumers to do?

TJ Tamura: So what I’m usually looking to go over in that initial meeting, if I can catch them at a good time and if I have the time, I try to get them to agree to about a 15-minute intro. Fifteen to 20 minutes just to get an idea, ask some questions, let them know who I am, see what they’re comfortable telling me about, what questions I can get answered for them. That’s usually where I start. I stay very education-focused, and I just tell them, “Hey, what questions can I get answered for you?” Because that’s how they got connected to me initially, because they were looking to get some questions answered through the SmartAsset platform. That’s where I start.

If I can’t get a 15-minute intro initially, then I schedule some time for that. From there, I stick to that very closely. I give them 15 to 20 minutes, and if they still want to ask questions, I always leave extra time. I’ve had initial meetings go for over an hour, and that’s always great when it can happen. But if not, I schedule the next meeting for about 30 minutes to an hour maximum, where I’m really digging into the data gathering, the questioning, getting an idea of not only their needs, their wants, their goals. What are they trying to do with their money eventually? And I never come in with products in mind. I’m always coming in questions-focused and data-driven.

From there, I usually tell them we’re going to move to the next step if they’re comfortable with it. I’m gathering statements, I’m gathering information, I’m creating a financial plan in the background. That third meeting is where I come in, present a plan, show them a plan of action and I get their questions or changes they want to make. Many of them are ready to go after that third meeting, and some of them want to meet longer. It just depends on the clients, but that’s usually what I’m looking for – intro, data gathering, presentation.

Michael Carvin: Do you have a rough idea, it sounds like you’re speaking to about one in three – you call it 30 to 35%, and then you’re doing the data gathering and the presentation. What’s the conversion rate from the initial conversation to the data gathering to the presentation and then to client, if you have a rough idea?

TJ Tamura: Yeah, so if I can get someone through a 15-minute intro, I would say there’s usually about a 75% chance we’re going to get to the next call. Unless, the people who have liked what I said in the intro and say, “Hey, I’m interested in the next call,” about 75% actually come to that next call. Some people just ghost me, but that’s what happens in the business we’re in. In the intro, probably about 60 to 70% say they want to go and schedule another call. Many of them are not ready for my help. Some of them need a tax advisor, and I help them figure that out and get connected. Some of them need an estate planning attorney. Investment advisor, financial advisor can be such a broad definition, and a lot of people don’t know exactly what we do. So a lot of times in that intro meeting, I’m helping them get to the answer quickly. If I need to refer them out, that’s great.

Of the people that want to move forward, about 75% get to that next meeting. If we do the second meeting, I’d say 75 to 80% are looking to move forward to the financial plan. Once we get there, it’s a much higher conversion rate because at that point I’m pretty sure I can bring them value, and we can show that in the data from there.

Michael Carvin: And so, one of the things I’m always excited to speak to younger advisors. As a younger advisor spending a lot of your time speaking to people who are approaching retirement, has that been a challenge for you? And what advice do you have for other younger advisors who are speaking to consumers or clients that are older than they are?

TJ Tamura: Absolutely. Occasionally, it definitely is an issue, and it’s almost always something that comes up, whether or not it’s an issue. I can often feel it out with the conversation at this point, which I couldn’t when I was originally calling leads and clients. But I can tell if there’s an elephant in the room about my age.

So something I like to get across quickly is that I work with a team for a reason. The reason I collaborate is because – even though I’m young in age, and professionally, as well, I’m young – when combining all of our advisors’ experience, my professional age is much higher. I work with a team. My vice president and president of our firm are always looking at what plans I’m putting in force. It’s getting vetted along the way. We’re very collaborative in what we do, and that allows our younger advisors to utilize the veteran experience of our veteran advisors.

Also, being second generation in the business definitely helps. My mom was an advisor for over 20 years. She’s still my mentor. I still utilize her expertise. That often helps put people at ease.

Honestly, over time, people have asked less and less about my age and about my time in the business. As I’ve become more well-spoken in the business, more educated, able to answer their questions with more ease, that has come up less and less. So that’s been my experience there. And I’m trying to grow a mustache. That’s my next goal. Maybe if I look a little older with facial hair, people will stop asking the question.

Michael Carvin: Clients are obviously putting a lot of trust in you, and you’re clearly meeting their needs and giving them a lot of confidence in those initial meetings. So kudos on that.

Are there patterns that you see? It sounds like the most common reason a consumer that you’re speaking to – a potential client – is that they’re nearing retirement. What other patterns do you see? When they’re asking you questions, what are their biggest concerns? Where do you think you can be most helpful?

TJ Tamura: A lot of the concerns are things like taxes, which isn’t always something that I can help with directly. Of course, I have to work with a tax advisor for some of their questions. As far as the taxation of their investments, sometimes there are things we can do: conversions, cash value life insurance, Roth accounts, things like that. Brokerage accounts, utilizing capital gains taxes versus income taxes. In other cases, there are things I can’t do in terms of assisting with their taxes in the future. But what I can do is shed light on how they’re going to be taxed, what’s going to happen with their accounts when they take out the money. What are RMDs? How does that get taxed? How does it get taxed when they pass the money on? That’s a really major key piece of information that people are looking for – taxation of their investments, especially on the way out.

Other things that people are concerned about is making that transition from being growth-focused. Many of them have just saved well in their 401(k)s and their other retirement accounts, but they just don’t know what to do next. “What is an IRA? If I roll it over, do I pay taxes? What do I do from that point? How are fees coming out when I have this advisor versus that advisor?” That transition is a major piece for people.

When I start asking questions about their goals with their money, sometimes people don’t really know. They’re like, “What is my goal with my 401(k)? I don’t know. Just survive and live a happy life and leave a little bit to my kids?” which is plenty of information to go off of. As we dig into those questions, that’s where things come up like, “Do you want to leave a larger legacy? Are you looking to leave that in a tax-efficient manner? Are you looking to stay growth-focused? Do you really want to take investment risks in the market? If that answer is yes, how adventurous do you want to be in your investments?” So we really talk about that. A lot of those questions and concerns come up as I’m working with the client.

Michael Carvin: Makes sense, and I heard you mention financial planning. Do all of your prospects get financial planning as part of becoming a client? Some? And then how do you think about it? It can be expensive to put together a comprehensive financial plan. Is that something you offer for free as part of becoming a client? I’ve heard different advisors do this very differently. How do you guys manage it? How do you guys do that?

TJ Tamura: So every client that comes in, we’re designing a financial plan for them. To what extent we design it depends on their needs – how comprehensive they really need their financial planning to be. But typically, we’re creating a financial plan. We’re creating that in-house, but we’re sending it out to third parties to vet, to show us the data of what they’re seeing in their current portfolios versus the metrics on what our portfolio is assumed to generate over time, and what kind of risk we’re looking at taking. We’re running Monte Carlo simulations and making sure that we’re staying as data-driven as possible. Every client is getting financial plans. We do offer that free. There’s no charge for financial plans. I’ll run them through education. I’ll take them through meetings where I’m answering any questions they have or going through a full financial plan, making changes. We’re not charging for any of that.

We have found over time that if we’re not charging for that, people are comfortable getting to those steps. I think a lot of people get stuck because they just don’t want to pay that extra dollar. You know, “I’m already going to pay you a fee eventually. Why am I paying that extra money now to get this financial plan made?” Again, everyone does their practice differently. I think it’s great if advisors do it differently and it’s working for them and for their clients. But for us, we get to that step free of charge. Our mindset is, if we can bring you value – and our fees are very clear with our clients – from that point by showing you the financial plan, then great. Both parties are mutually understanding in that agreement, and they’re very satisfied and happy to know that they got education along the way, and we’ve empowered them to know what’s going on in their financial plan.

Michael Carvin: Great. Last question for you, TJ: what advice do you have for other financial advisors that are using SmartAsset AMP? What can you tell them that you think would help them be more successful? And I’d love to hear that as well, for young advisors. Any specific advice for younger advisors, starting from scratch, how do you build a book of business?

TJ Tamura: I like that final point. You know, I thought this question was going to come up, and so I was kind of brainstorming what advice can I really give someone because I’m only a few years into the business. I’m not a 20-year veteran. I’m sure there are veteran advisors that come on here and give you a wealth of tips and advice for people. But here’s what I can give you as a young advisor who’s in the midst of generating as many leads as possible and really working hard to nurture those leads that I purchase. Every lead that comes in is gold. You really have to mine them. So here’s a couple of things I would say.

Number one, no matter where you’re generating leads from, stay education-focused and be very genuine in that pursuit of educating your clients. I think me, you, clients – anyone – can understand and feel when you’re on the phone with someone and they have an ulterior motive. They’re doing a bait and switch. There’s some product they have in mind. They’re not being truly education-focused. You can feel that.

I think, as young advisors especially, you really have to strive to educate yourself and then educate your clients. I think that helps people get relaxed. That helps them be comfortable. That helps them be more open. There are many clients where in the first few meetings, or after a couple of meetings, I’ve gotten some good questions, but I still need to keep digging to really understand their true goals and needs. Sometimes, when those goals finally come up, we have to transition and pivot a little bit what we are discussing because I didn’t realize they’re, focused on leaving a large legacy or they’re really focused on “this type” of investment or being environmentally focused with what they invest in, for example. So staying education-focused is very important.

Something else I would say is to follow up like crazy. A “no” is a “no.” If someone tells you they don’t want you to respond anymore, great. You want to get to that point as fast as possible. As a new advisor, that was a very uncomfortable thing. If I felt like I could feel the lead didn’t want to discuss anything anymore, that’s not good enough. I had to continue to follow up until they said, “I don’t want to talk anymore, but thank you for your time.” And that’s really important.

Many of my now clients from SmartAsset are people that I followed up with for months and months and have told me they’re appreciative of me following up because it was something they wanted to get answered but they just got busy, or they weren’t sure if they wanted to talk to someone at that time. So a lot of times that follow up is appreciated and even if it isn’t you at least have your no and you can move on from there.

The other thing I would say to young advisors is to stay data-driven. If someone’s got investments from another firm, don’t just say, “Well, trust me, I’m going to do it better.” Figure out why. Try to get some information on what they’re offering. Compare it. Look at the data, show them, compare illustrations, compare carriers, compare investment firms’ portfolios. Find as much data as possible and then simplify that and deliver that to the client in a way that is understandable. That adds a ton to your practice. That adds a ton, for me, to my age as well. Data has no age. If I can get to that point, then I think that’s much more clear than just (saying) “Hey, trust me because I’m confident and you should trust me.” That doesn’t work for people, especially when you’re a young advisor.

Michael Carvin: That’s just really great advice about being persistent. I’ll share a data point with you. One of the larger firms we work with, 50% of their closes come 6 months after the initial introduction.

TJ Tamura: Wow

Michael Carvin: So, yeah, stay persistent. There is a lot of value in those consumers who raise their hand today, saying they want some advice but aren’t ready to engage right away. Those are good prospects for sure.

– Advisor transcript may contain errors.

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