LPL financial advisor Kashif Ahmed relied on his team, the right technology, and his approach as a business owner to keep his practice on track during the pandemic, even when he suffered from the virus himself.

Earlier this year, LPL advisor Kashif “Kash” Ahmed, founder and president of American Private Wealth outside of Boston and a professor of finance and financial planning at Suffolk University, fought a battle with COVID-19 and won. While he was in the hospital recovering, his advisory business continued to thrive, thanks to his business model and adoption of LPL technology.

Suffering through—and beating—COVID-19

Kash was in the middle of a Zoom session where he was judging the final presentations of his Masters in Finance students when COVID-19 symptoms struck him. He had a fever that spiked to 102 degrees and debilitating body aches.

Eventually, the fever and body aches improved, but Kash was left with ongoing weakness and chest tightness that made it difficult to take deep breaths. After calling around to several health care providers and two eventual tests—the first negative — it was confirmed Kash had COVID-19.

Due to his ongoing symptoms, Kash ended up in the emergency room to make sure the virus hadn’t led to a stroke or heart attack. While there, Kash posted to Twitter: “Still fighting #COVID19. Make no mistake, I will beat it (@AmericanPWealth).”

Thriving as a business owner

Kash’s Twitter message, which incidentally went viral with over 500,000 engagements, was spot on — he beat the disease, thankfully with no lasting effects.

“I’ve always believed that half the battle is your own attitude, and I love life,” he says. “I’m having a ball! It’s too early for me to go. Yes, it was scary — at one point I was afraid to get up because I had no feeling in my legs — and not being able to breathe normally is the most frightening thing. But I took all the precautions, and I was determined to get through it.”

Kash was also amazed at the number of well wishes he received after he posted his tweet, which kept his spirits up and made him even more determined to keep going. “The outpouring of support from people around the world was just amazing,” he says. “I had dozens of messages and calls from friends and family from all over the world. Name a continent, and I have a precious friend there! I am so blessed. LPL in particular was incredibly supportive, from Dan Arnold to Andy Kalbaugh to LPL Research, and copious other departments throughout the company.”

At the same time, while he was recovering, Kash’s business continued to thrive. He credits his business’ ongoing success, even while he was out several weeks fighting COVID, to how he views and manages it. “When people ask me what I do, I have never said I’m a financial advisor,” he says. “I say I own a wealth management business. That’s how I view it—as a business I own and run—so my focus has always been on being a business owner, not just a day-to-day financial planner.”

By viewing his business as just that — a business — Kash has made decisions and put practices in place that keep it running smoothly, even when he isn’t there. “We don’t live and die by the market, and we have recurring revenue, so the business is self-sustaining; it can run on its own for an extended period if needed,” he says.

The value of adopting the right technology

Part of running a business is taking the time to adopt and integrate supportive technology, and with LPL’s help, Kash has made it a point to do so. While he’s adopted many different technology tools in recent months, he specifically credits Advisor Sleeve and eSignature with enabling him to be out of the office, both while recuperating from COVID and even now as remote work continues.

While Kash was hesitant to use Model Wealth Portfolios (MWP) for a long time, when Advisor Sleeve was introduced to the platform, he immediately adopted it. “Before my advisory consultant could even finish his sentence describing Advisor Sleeve, I said I wanted it,” explains Kash. “I wanted to have input into the model makeup, which MWP Advisor Sleeve allows me to do, but with incredible efficiency.”

In addition to the amount of time it can take to rebalance and trade the portfolios, Kash acknowledges that one of the challenges with running your own models is having to stay on top of them at all times, even when you’re out of the office. For example, if a client decides to add or remove cash from the portfolio, not only does the portfolio have to be traded, but appropriately rebalanced afterward. Advisor Sleeve takes care of both automatically.

“Advisor Sleeve not only allows me to implement my own ideas and models, but my portfolios are being rebalanced without me actually having to do it,” Kash says. “Because of this, I was able to focus on recuperating, knowing my models would be rebalanced if necessary, since Advisor Sleeve was working on my clients’ and my behalf.”

Even when Kash was fully recovered and back in the office, he was able to leverage Advisor Sleeve to manage his clients’ portfolios in response to ongoing market volatility. “I updated seven of my models one morning last week, swapping out three different securities across seven models, which impacted countless accounts, and by the afternoon, they were all traded and appropriately rebalanced,” he says. “That’s simply not possible if I was doing it manually—just imagine the number of trades I’d have to do. The tool is brilliant. You can’t put a price on it.”

eSignature is the other technology Kash felt has been key to maintaining his business during the pandemic. “eSignature has made it possible for me to do business from anywhere with people who may be located anywhere in the world,” he says. “I was on a video conference with a client who was visiting India recently, and while we were still talking, I sent him a DocuSign, which he completed before we finished the call.”

Finding opportunity in tough times

Despite the challenges of the remote work environment, Kash sees a lot of opportunity for advisors willing to look for it. “There’s a lot of money in motion,” he says. “People are coming to the conclusion that they can’t really do this themselves, and they need an advisor to guide them through.”

The reason Kash has been able to capitalize on these opportunities, he believes, is because of technology — and his business-owner mindset. “By using technology, you gain the time and capacity to think like a businessperson. Advisor Sleeve allows you to be efficient; it allows you to scale. You can get out of the office because you’re not trading. eSignature allows you to do business with clients anywhere. I just want to tell LPL advisors: adopt technology.”

As Kash says, technology can be a key enabler as we forge forward into the future as well. By taking another look at your business and finding ways to run it more efficiently, you may create more opportunities — opportunities to grow your business, deepen your current client relationships, and reach more people who need your help more than ever.

To discover more about what’s available, LPL advisors can search for Thrivalist on the Resource Center. The LPL Thrivalist suite of products include technology tools and resources to help you best serve clients whether you’re working remotely or back in the office. For more on what it means to become a thrivalist, you can also check out articles on LPL.com.

Model Wealth Portfolios (MWP) are centrally managed fee-based portfolios constructed by LPL Financial Research. Investment choices include mutual funds and exchange-traded products (ETPs). The portfolios benefit from ongoing monitoring, rebalancing, and tax management services implemented by the LPL Financial Overlay Portfolio Management Group.

The views and opinions expressed by the LPL Financial Advisor may not be representative of the views of other Financial Advisors and are not indicative of future performance or success. Neither LPL Financial nor the LPL Financial Advisor can be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information offered.

American Private Wealth and LPL Financial are separate entities.