Member of the Month - Building a Cornerstone of Credibility

An Interview with NEB Member Anthony Zimmer

Credibility is the bedrock of any financial services business. Just ask Anthony Zimmer, CRFA, CSA, president of Associated Tax Advisory Group, LLC, in Aurora, Illinois. A former 22-year producer with New England Financial, Zimmer left that organization in 2003 to set up his own practice. One thing he noticed almost immediately was that selling for a large financial services firm brings a lot of credibility.

“When I was with New England, I never used to get questions about my credibility,” Zimmer says. “People walked into our offices, which were in a high-profile building, and felt like they were dealing with a major law firm. They immediately trusted us.

“After I went out on my own, I started to get questioned a lot more. Who are you? What makes you good? Are you trying to steal my identity?”

Zimmer is not joking about that last question. During a meeting with a prospective client, he did his usual fact-finding interview, requesting financial statements, including the person’s Social Security number. Everything was totally above board and typical of an initial meeting. 

Shortly after the person left, Zimmer got a call from the local police department. The officer said he had just received a complaint from someone who said he (Zimmer) was a possible identity thief.

Zimmer was mortified. The last thing he needed as a new business owner was to have a criminal charge on his record, especially one so serious.  Zimmer volunteered to go down to the station to explain what happened. The officer quickly realized the complaint was bogus, and assured Zimmer no black mark would appear on his record.

Relieved, Zimmer was curious about what triggered the complaint. So he called the person.  Apparently, he had been hearing a lot in the media about identity theft and decided to report Zimmer just to be safe. When Zimmer explained why his information requests were totally legitimate, the person understood and expressed his desire to become a client. Zimmer declined. He didn’t think he could establish a trusting relationship with the individual.

Being perceived as an identity thief really hurt. Zimmer decided he needed a better way to establish credibility and trust. Soon after, he attended a seminar put on by a colleague, Ed Downey, who was a member of the National Ethics Bureau. In the seminar, Downey mentioned his affiliation with the National Ethics Bureau. Downey told Ed that NEB was a great resource for potential clients and really helped his credibility. Zimmer decided to join NEB himself because “in this day and age, you absolutely need to have the most credibility you can.”

Three years later, Zimmer has put the credibility issue to bed. He is president of Associated Tax Advisory Group, LLC, one of 200 affiliates of USA Tax and Insurance Services, Inc. He has a large base of satisfied clients who shower him with holiday cards and thank-you notes. He has enough letters after his name to populate an alphabet. And he has access to just about any financial expertise his clients need through his relationship with numerous estate planning and elder-law attorneys and securities specialists. He even provides in-house income tax services, which he uses to attract new clients and to retain existing clients.

But even though he’s come a long way since the identity theft incident, he’s not resting comfortably, especially when it comes to building trust with clients. To fully leverage his membership, Zimmer tells attendees at his weekly seminars about NEB and encourages them to contact NEB to verify his background. He also passes out his NEB Professional Profile at seminars and sends NEB’s consumer education pamphlets to clients on a quarterly basis.

Although activities like these go a long way toward defusing consumer doubt, professional competence is still the key to success in financial services. And that’s something Zimmer has a large supply of, having been in sales and client service since the mid-1970s. 

After attending DePaul University and the University of Illinois, Zimmer launched a real estate sales training company in the Mid-West, along with a partner. The work was good, but the travel wasn’t. So Zimmer decided to find a different type of sales career . . .one with a high upside.

In 1981, he joined New England Life in Chicago, where he did estate, retirement, and business continuation planning for physicians and small-business owners. “Working for New England was awesome training,” Zimmer explains. Learning the intricacies of insurance, stocks, bonds, mutual funds—all from a planning standpoint—was not only great fun, but also financially rewarding. Zimmer eventually entered the company’s Hall of Fame and began to work on increasingly sophisticated business cases. But working with large businesses took its toll. Dealing with committees and glacial decision-making was tough, so Zimmer decided to set up his own shop—and get back to what he loved most: working one on one with individual clients.

“I absolutely love what I’m doing now, “Zimmer says. “I love doing seminars and working directly with people. My clients tell me I listen well and have their best interests at heart. I know I have to motivate them about what needs to be done, but I apply absolutely zero pressure.”

So life is good these days at Associated Tax Advisory Group, LLC. Zimmer, along with his wife, Marge, his administrative assistant, Sharon, his son-in-law, Ron—who is in training to eventually take over the business—and his four tax preparers, continue to build credibility and client satisfaction out of their upscale 2,300 square-foot office condo.

“We’ve accumulated more credibility,” says Zimmer, “but NEB will always be our cornerstone.”

How are you maximizing your NEB membership to grow your business? Would you like to be featured in our newsletter? The National Ethics Bureau welcomes your input. Send your comments to: hlew@ethicscheck.com