Welcome everybody. This is Pat Ferrer with Orion here in the Southeast. And I'm here with the Kathy Cadle to do kind of a says exclusive interview. It's more like a fireside chat from from our standpoint, kind of get a little bit of a peek behind her success and what she's been able to do as a financial advisor. Welcome Kathy. Thank you so much for having me today, Pat. Wow, Our pleasure. It's good to talk to you. Kathy and I've been working together now, I guess it's been almost a decade. I've watched her firm grow, the success of Keystone Financial Services. But to the listeners who maybe don't know your story, Kathy, maybe you could give us a couple minutes just on how you got started and how you've built your business before we get into kind of the meat and the potatoes of the partnership that we've forged. Sure. Absolutely so. I know a lot of us have different stories on how we kind of got into the industry. Mine, of course, was. I had no intentions of ever becoming a financial advisor. I really started in the industry in 2000. My job was working for a financial planning firm here in Atlanta and I would go up and down the East Coast. I would recruit. Train and then develop a market for advisors in different cities. Preferably I would go into a city, hire somebody that never had any experience in the industry before. You know, try to train them right for the right from the beginning and then really develop a marketing program to try to get them into that niche marketing that we all try to work so hard for. That really was my career path had, like I said, had no intentions of really becoming a financial advisor on my own. And in 2004, the company that I worked for unfortunately closed its doors. So I got left with utilizing the only real skill that I knew that I had, which was developing of a financial planning practice. So I got licensed in 2004 and started developing a practice. I knew that I really wanted to spend the majority of my time focusing on. My clients had no desire at all to do any individual money management. Wanted to leave that really to up to the experts. So the way that I started, the firm was really trying to partner up with what we now know to be of course, third party money managers, allowing them to do what they do best and me and our firm doing what we do, which is really cultivating relationships. And here we are today. Yeah, that's awesome. No, I hadn't heard the story myself in a while. So that's good. You know, one of the things with outsourcing and you've told me this. A lot of the platforms like ours, Orion, there's a variety of investment styles. Tell me how that's helped you kind of with your clients and addressing their needs in the market cycles and how you've utilized that cuz you've done a great job with that. Absolutely. So one of the wonderful things that I really appreciate is that Orion does a great job of getting best in class money managers. And really putting a spotlight on what their strengths are, Our niche market that we work for, our employees of a large utility firm and there's certain characteristics that they look for in an investment. Many of them have a large concentration of their 401K invested in their company stock. So they're looking for certain things when they want to do a diversification right. One of the things that we try to do is not to put all of our eggs in one basket. But trying to convince these individuals that it is in their best interest to diversify had at one point been very difficult because they knew that their company stock, which was a utility stock, is one that people always need right utilities. Even in recession, people will tend to pay their electricity bill before they pay anything else, and their company stock has a long history of paying a dividend. So I knew that I wanted to find a money manager that had those parameters and Orion does, I was able to work with Pat the you kind of pointing me in the direction of finding money managers who they're best in class has the same characteristics of our employees stocks. So we're able to pinpoint advisor, I mean pinpoint third party money managers that focus on equities of consumer staples that have a long history of dividends. And then working through your partnership, we've been able to kind of supplement and really benefit that through other third party money managers, but that is our core. So you guys have allowed us to really identify advisors, I mean identify third party money managers that have that necessity of what we're looking for and then complement them with subsequent other money managers. No, that's great. In fact you have a great line that you use and I'll let you say because I don't want to steal your your line there, something about your account number and your managers, how do you exactly say that? So what I say a lot of times to people is listen, your account number may not change, but your money managers change depending upon what the economic landscape is, right. So the the market doesn't stay the same. The economy as we all know we're going through today is, is very different. And so I always try to impress upon them. Listen, we're going to open up an account and it's going to have this account number. But next week, next month, next year, you may still have the same account number, but the money managers are going to change. We're trying to be very proactive and ensuring that we team up with the. We think again is best in class that's a that's a keyword that I try to use a lot through the providers that Orion gives to me and trying to make sure that we continue to complement them with a diversified portfolio that addresses whatever the needs are. Listen, we we now live in a day in which our clients are either getting their news from TikTok, all right, which which we all kind of unfortunately they get those TikTok and they hear buzzwords and they want to call up and say, hey listen, do we have any of this Bitcoin exposure? Do we have any of this? Do we have any of that? It's important that we continue to tell and listen we are actively managing this by picking and choosing the right money managers based on what's going on with the market. I think you've done a great job of being nimble in addressing kind of those individual client returns. I've seen you where you know clients got the portfolio and then all of a sudden they hear something from the the Internet and they're saying oh, is there a way I can get some gold or is there a way I can get some and and you've used some of our niche managers, you know very effectively there. You know, the other thing I wanted to ask you about is I've seen how you have changed managers periodically. You don't, you don't run all over in whipsaw, but talk a minute, if you can, about how a platform allows you to change the horse you're riding for a little bit. How simple it is. Well, I will say that it's made it very easy for us because we do have a niche market. The majority of our clients are all kind of looking for the same thing, whether it is dependable retirement income to supplement their pension or of course they have a growth component that they're wanting to strive to as well. So we have built different models. That are pretty standard models for our use for advisors across our platform. So we do have advisors in different states to be able to service our the employees of this utility company. But we have some standard models that we built based upon not only risk tolerance but the goal in the face that they are in, in their in their life. So for retirees we have very much a dividend focused type of portfolio. For those that are still the accumulation process we have more of a growth portfolio. But we are able to monitor those performances with the help of Orion. And sometimes Orion will be very proactive to call us up and say, hey, listen, I really think that you need to take kick this money manager out, maybe consider putting a different one in based upon what they're seeing. And it's really easy because once you build that model and you assign all of your clients or whatever account numbers or you want to be assigned to that model, let's say for example, you've got three money managers. That are in this model, IF1 money manager is underperforming or a money manager is no longer conducive for the environment that you want to be. You just pluck out that money manager and plug in the new one and it automatically does it for all of the accounts that you have tagged. So it becomes very, very easy, very, very seamless. But not only for us on our side, because again we don't want to spend any time on those mechanics aspect of it. That's why we've partnered with Orion. We really just want to be able to work with you guys, give us our heads up, change it and then keep on servicing our clients. No, that's great. And I really appreciate you saying that. I remember way back in the day when I had first started to work with you, folks were telling me about you by reputation. And they said, you know, Kathy is is really good in front of a crowd. And This is why she utilizes platforms like ours, which is one of several, but also because you want to stay in where you're most effective. And then I remember texting, you said, you know, they lied to me. You're not good in front of a crowd. You're great in front of a crowd. So that was going way back and you've done it. But I wanted to go back to something that you said because it's been really exciting. To see how you've leveraged the the platform and the models and even the wholesaler team, myself and others at Orion to build this whole satellite in another state that's nearby efficiently. I mean you've been able to grow your bit. You got a big practice. So it's it, you know, that would have been like a hard thing to do. Tell it, talk about how we, you know, you leveraged it, your thought process and that great success you've had in the nearby state with kind of a, you know, a whole new team, you know. Absolutely. So like I said, we do have advisors about the Southeast. Wherever there's a large concentration of employees in the area, we try to have a presence there. The way that I specifically try to hire recruit advisors are those that really want to focus on delivering client services, right. We really have a lot of high touches. We really want advisors that want to establish relationships and really be a part of the family for this now if we had. That platform along with having a money manage, it would be difficult to try to rule things out And for us it's really, really important that whether an advisor meets or what a client meets with somebody in Birmingham or they meet is somebody in Savannah, they're getting the same story. They're getting the same goal, right? So whether they meet with somebody there and a lot of these folks, I'll tell you the truth, that maybe they work in Birmingham, but they have a coworker that they work on the same team that's in Augusta or somebody that's in Atlanta, and they'll refer people to us. So the advisor in Atlanta will pick up them and it's imperative for us to be telling the same story to them as well. That says, listen, we really want to get you what your goal is. This is our platform, this is what we're able to utilize. So we can actually grow our practice significantly because the theme stays the same throughout all of our offices. And and Orion allows us to help do that because of the fact that we've got these standard models. That's not to say that Orion hasn't helped us do one offers I I do have clients that a couple of them want to be faith-based, focused, right and that's a little different than what our standard model is. So working together with your team was able to create a a faith-based focused model and we're able to plug that in. But it is imperative when you're looking to really want to grow your practice that you want efficiency, right, ease of doing business and you want your store to stay the same. And that's a great way for us to do it because we're able to see on a constant basis all of the accounts that are tagged to these models. When we need to make changes, it happens easily, which doesn't distract the advisor. The advisor doesn't have to say, Oh my gosh, I've got to go in today and change money managers for 150 accounts. You know, we're able to do that on the platform with a couple of clicks and then they're still off and running, working with their clients. Well, and that's that's a great summary of all that. And I think that you've done such a wonderful job of positioning the partnership with us that it only enhances your fiduciary responsibility to your clients into being an advocate for the clients saying, look, you know, I'm going to hold the money managers accountable. I'll put together portfolios and I meet with them and talk to them on a regular basis. I do want to bring back one idea that I thought was a stroke of brilliance by you and it's when we went through COVID and we're all shut down and you reached out to me and asked for money managers to do after market kind of updates. We probably did. I don't know how many we did how many weeks or months in a row we're doing a month in a month and once a week. I think at one point if you want to just talk to that because it's a way you again leveraged our platform to get through the crisis of our generation, which I thought was just brilliant. Absolutely, absolutely. So one thing that I'll that I'll say prior to that to kind of get into that is there going to be times right in which essentially what we're going through right now in which our client will come in and we'll do a client review and they're very disappointed in the returns, right, because what it is. But because of the way that we leverage our partnership, they're never disappointed with us. They're disappointed in the manager. Now hear me out for a second. They'll come in and we'll talk about the the rate of return. I'm going to say, you know what, I think our models, we're changing them. We're going to fire this money manager and put on one that I think maybe do a little bit better in this kind of climate that we're in. So the client never thinks, Oh my gosh, I've got to fire my Keystone advisor. Right. That's never an option. It is. Keystone is going to fire this money manager that's the one who's causing, you know, whatever it is, negative reaction on on their on their portfolio so that there is no version of them ever coming in and saying, you know, we're disappointing the returns, you know, we're looking elsewhere. It really is, we're disappointing the returns. Keystone's going to get a new money manager in there and thinks you're going to be okay. So that kind of feeds into what happened during COVID. We are sure that a lot of y'all were getting tons of phone calls that people worried. Obviously we've never been in this situation before. We certainly didn't have answers because again we don't focus our time or energy or or really do our majority of our time studying on standard deviations and betas and all the stuff and how it's going to react to the market. And it's impossible. You know, the reality is, is that you can't wear every hat in a financial planning firm, you can't And so there is no way that I could call. All my clients fares while making sure that we're going out there and putting together different portfolios. So I reached out to you and I said listen, our clients really want high touch right now. They want to hear back from their advisors. Now of course the problem, but many of us, you're getting so many calls, there's only so many hours in a day you couldn't call everybody back in an efficient manner. So what we did was we created once a week market calls, market update calls. We did it through Zoom, which it was a little difficult at first as people were moving into this new Zoom world. There was one time where we, we actually had learned prior to this, we didn't know to mute everybody when they came in to our market calls and we heard people flushing their toilets during our calls and we heard people yelling at their kids during our calls. But we kindly adapted to that fairly quickly. But once a week you were kind enough to get us a different money manager to speak on whatever was going on in in that market during that day. That week and it was important for our clients to know number one, that we were staying on top of it, right that we may not be the the, the subject matter experts, but by golly we have teamed up with subject matter experts on all these different topics. So one week we would have somebody out there on equities, One week we'd have somebody out there on bonds. One week, I mean it was, it was unbelievable the amount of resources of of different specialists that we had and it really gave us an opportunity to let our clients know, hey, we're staying on top of this. We're partnering up with the best folks and we had a ton of people on those calls. Once a week you figured they'd get tired of it, but but they really did it. And they really appreciated that. And now we've gone back to doing it once a month And and then I thank you again because you always get us best speakers, but our clients love it. You know, they're able to to to go in. They feel like they're getting the Wall Street discussion points and things of that nature. And it's a great way for you to provide a value added to your client without the man hours that are having to be devoted to call all the clients out. Plus your clients don't always want to hear from you, they want to hear from others. They kind of coincide with the same message. That you're delivering for validity and and make them feel safe and secure. No, no doubt. I love that. What I liked about it was you you read the client mood out there. We just I want to know what's going on and I don't even know we're going to begin to look and you were humble and said look I I think I know what's going on but why just listen to me get on a zoom every week or every Monday. I can tap into some resources that I know are valuable and have tremendous insight beyond what I have. So clients are looking into saying wow hey Kathy researching what's going on I can rely on her as my. Trusted advisor. So I just thought it was such a stroke of brilliance and I'll be candid, there are very few advisors did it. You were one of the only in my territory. I can't speak for the rest of the country. Let me let me shift. Here's a little bit here because I know you do client reviews on a regular basis with your clients. Is there a particular report that you use and how you use it on our system or you're just pulling up screens. Give us a sense of how you've used the, you know, our our platform and and how that in you know, working with your you know client review process. So we at least at a minimum meet with our clients twice a year. That is at a minimum for us. Depending upon asset level, we might meet with them three times a year as they're getting closer to retirement. We do meet with them four times a year and their first two years of retirement we do meet with them four times a year. It's a lot of high touches. Again though, we've chosen to really build our firm on those high touches because we developed the relationship and like Grace I got I'm so grateful we we rarely lose clients. Because of that really high touch that we do, so our client review, we do create an agenda of course that we go over with them and the reports that we're able to generate. So on your platform, you do have client review reports that were able to generate. I especially focus just because where our clients are and what what their focus is, is on the projected income for the year. It's it's a great way for us to be able to look at them and say, hey listen, the truth is your account balance is down. We all know that in a recession there's almost nowhere to hide. But regardless of what your market value is right now, look at this income projected for the year, because if we're highly invested in these dividend paying stocks that have a long history of it, your income is going to stay the same. So there's a lot of different reports that you can run on your platform that are able to calm your clients fears and they're really able to highlight the areas of why you chose this portfolio. At the same time, let's say you chose a portfolio that has some some hedge against volatility and so you're able to compare. Is a report we can compare what their volatility has been to that of the market and say, you know, look at that, they've been able to hedge against it. Also it's an easy report to see the the movement. So there's a report that says, listen, a month ago you had these holdings and look at how active the money manager is that they've sold these holdings and replaced it with this holding. And it really depends upon the client, how deep they want to get. But there's plenty of tools on your platform that allow me to run those different reports for them. You know what your client wants to see when they come in. The majority of my clients just really just want to see projects. Directed income. And that's what they wanna see. And the rest of the time they just wanna talk about their grandkids or you do have that one engineer, which we have, that they really wanna take a deeper dive and the platform allows for that. That's awesome. No, appreciate that. Yeah, you guys have done a nice job of utilizing the toolbox that's there. So just in kind of wrapping up because I know we wanted to keep the the time limited because people just want to take a peek in and get a sense of whether this is something they want to add to their practice and learn from somebody like you. Last thing is there anything that I mean we've had a lot of success there's I could just we could go on for an hour about this. You know even even some of the things where you've pointed out money managers to us to say I found a manager that I like and we've added them to the platform for you. That's a whole nother conversations because we're very receptive to input from advisors that's where we get some really good ideas. So that's worked well as. Well, just one last thing. I know that you've used our proposal system every once in a while to put together a portfolio to show a prospect. You know, we're talking a lot in the client world. Maybe just wrap up with a couple of thoughts around that and then and we'll see where we, you know, we finish up with that, sure. So one of the things I like about the proposal when I work with your team to create a portfolio. Usually, you know we've got the three different buckets, I'll call it or three different money manager philosophies that we utilize. One of course is a diversifier, so on and so forth. Your proposal allows us to put in those three different philosophies, right, that hopefully created together creates a well diversified portfolio for the client. And then the powerful thing is when you generate the proposal, not only does it tell you the rate of returns of each of the money managers and how they've reacted through each of the different market cycles, then it has a blended report. That says, hey, based upon their history, had you had these three money managers back in 2005, this how would have reacted? So that blended report of where we right. So together with your partners, we've been able to create our own portfolio, but we're able to show them what the potential right, where the return is based upon what their historical has been that is blended so that they can see how this portfolio is going to look, how it's going to react going forward. And I think that's unbelievable. Yeah, they were well put. So thank you for sharing there because I know you guys have run proposals and pretty much the whole time since we've had the system for many, many years. And it's an effective way to at least share what your recommendation is to the client, what that would have done, what it looks like in terms of the different managers and the combinations thereof. So, hey, I really want to thank you for your time. It's been great. I know that you're busy. It's a busy time of year for you. We've had a great partnership, look forward to many more years. And just for those who listened in, we do offer a demo of a proposal system that they get no obligation. Just come on and shoot us a note and we'll get a demo. And certainly, I know Kathy, you're open to talk to anybody that you can help. So with that, I think we'll say goodbye. Kathy, I hope you have a wonderful week. I know we'll talk later in the week. And thanks again for the partnership. See you around very much. Thanks so much. Have a good day. Bye, bye. _1726709433188