June  1, 2016

Is it possible to deliver your value without a quality financial plan?

Listening to Kevin Knull, President of MoneyGuidePro financial planning software, it is clear to me that clients who pay a tremendous amount of money to advisors for their services, will want a quality financial plan. The question to ask is” How are you going to defend your fees, especially for CRM2 regulation in Canada, without a quality financial plan? We should start by asking the critical question” what is a quality financial plan?

Start with goals

How many goals do you get from your clients? Besides the major retirement goal, do you get other clients goals such as family or parents healthcare, home renovations or changes, education, estate planning, gifts donations or charities? A typical advisor gets less than 3 goals while client driven plans get 7 or more goals. Looking at the goals list below, how many goals can you check off?

Goals Based Planning Exercise                                                 

____ Lifestyle - Retire / slow down / part time

____ Debts- Debt reduction-debt free

____ Education – Children / Self

____ Vehicles – Cars / Boat / RV / collector

____ Major purchase – Vacation property / Lifetime Trip

_____ Travel -Vacation property / Trips / bucket list

____ Health care – Family members / personal health

____ Home – Reno’s / Upgrades / downsizing

____ Celebrations- Weddings / birthdays

____ Estate- legacy- family-wishes

____ Gifts- donations / charitable involvement

____ Bequests – Philanthropic goals / legacy

____ Care for someone – elderly / family

____ Business – Investment / opportunity

____ Career – education / changes / courses

____ Memberships / Hobbies – golf or sports clubs / groups / collections

 Whenever I share this list with advisors in my workshops, they usually add to the list. Go ahead, make it your list and put it in front of your clients and prospects and ask them this question” looking at this list, is there any goal that jumps out to you that you have been thinking about?”.

What data is missing?

I hate factfinders, they are painful and boring and are not engaging. Finding out their personal income by finding out more than one goal will help you gather the information. If you get more than 6 goals from a client, you are well on your way to gathering critical financial planning information. However, what sometimes missing in financial plans are life expectancy, personal health information including smoking, net worth and other assets or liabilities list such as business assets or liabilities, stock options and deferred compensation options.  What risk data or software do you use and does it include insurance risks such as life and disability insurance, long term care needs and longevity risk along with market risk and inflation risk.

What do your clients expect?

While clients may feel confident in the value you deliver, and what they pay for the value, delivering more will eventually become commonplace. As Warren Buffet said” Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”. What is a quality financial plan? What is the value of having a quality financial plan? How often do clients want their financial plans updated or discussed? These are great questions to ask your best clients who are paying thousands of dollars to you and your firm.  Some advisors and clients do not see the value of having a quality financial plan. The days of drafting a large financial plan consisting of 30-50+ pages and then putting it on the shelf and never looked at again may be over.  

What does a quality financial plan mean to you?

This is a great question to ask your ideal clients, your staff, your own family members and most importantly, yourself. Start by defining what a quality financial plan means to you. Is it comprehensive? Is it coordinated with other professionals? Clients want to know, am I going to be ok and meet my goals , and am I on track. Delivering these answers is not easy, however can become easier with a quality financial plan. 

For more information on how to become CRM2 ready for 2016, email us for the Practice management checklist at grant@ghicks.com 

Advisor Practice Management’s goal is 

“ Helping Financial Advisors take action, to create 100 quality financial plans for their clients”. My mission if you choose to accept it is “ To help advisors to create 1 million quality financial plans for people”.  Ask your clients and prospects this question " What does a quality financial plan mean to you ? Let me know if I can help you grow your practice. 

Let’s work on your business. Start by emailing us. Why not? 

Enthusiastically yours,

Grant Hicks, CIM, National Director Practice Management
Advisor Practice Management
www.advisorpracticemanagement.com

909-17th Ave SW, 4th Floor
Calgary, Alberta  T2T 0A4
Tel  587 390 3148
Cell 403 970 8895
Email grant@ghicks.com   

PS Where do you want to be in 3 years?

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