Meet Registered Life Planner® Sarah Byrd. Sarah is one of over 500 professionals globally that have earned the prestigious Registered Life Planner® (RLP®) designation from the Kinder Institute of Life Planning. In this episode of Kinder Institute’s “I’m a Registered Life Planner®” series, Sarah Byrd of Life Planning firm Alpha Advisors shares what it is like to be an RLP®.
Alpha Advisors was one of the first financial life planning firms that used our Life Planning curriculum as a blueprint for their team-led business. In her interview, Sarah talks about how she was able to draw on her colleagues’ experience as they were setting up the Life Planning side of the business and even now as they learn more through continuing education programs.
In her conversation with Kinder Institute’s Communications Director, Lora Woodward, Sarah discusses a variety of topics, including what originally attracted her to our training programs and how they have influenced the way Alpha Advisors interacts with their clients. She shares the personal impact that Life Planning has had on her own life and what is next in her Life Planning journey. See below for a timestamped overview of their conversation.
Chapters:
00:33 Sarah’s background and journey to the financial life planning space
01:33 How Alpha Advisors became a Life Planning firm and how they fit the Kinder Institute curriculum into their team structure
03:09 What Life Planning means to Sarah and how that has impacted her interactions with clients
04:02 What about Kinder Institute’s curriculum spoke to Sarah
04:59 How Sarah uses EVOKE® with her clients to take them through the Life Planning process and how it’s important to customize this process for every client
07:26 How being Life Planned in the EVOKE® Life Planning Training impacted Sarah’s personal life, and still has been affecting her life over 6 years after taking the training!
12:22 Client success stories inspired by realizations that wouldn’t be part of a traditional financial planning conversation
16:03 Sarah’s advice for aspiring Life Planners and how she and the rest of her team support each other in their journey to become better guides for their clients
20:55 What is next in Sarah’s Life Planning journey
Sarah Byrd, RLP® is a financial life planner and the Chief Compliance Officer at Alpha Advisors, a financial life planning and wealth management firm in Richmond, VA. She co-advises clients with RLP® colleagues Mark Leimberger and Alex Scott. Sarah is passionate about helping clients discover and define their joy and then map a path to delivering it in short order. She graduated from James Madison University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and held many jobs before landing a role with Alpha Advisors in 2004 that turned into her calling. She earned her Registered Life Planner® designation in 2015. Sarah has been married for 40 years, has two daughters, two sons-in-law, and seven grandchildren. She serves on the board of directors for The Barnabas Center in Richmond, VA.
