Articles

If you are going to venture into an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous environment, go along with someone who knows what they’re doing

Your financial planning business is going well, and the time has come to take your marketing activity to the next level.

To be effective you need to be able to apply that knowledge to your client’s unique situation. The more you can tailor your messaging by building upon what is familiar to them, the more successful you can be.

So, as you enjoy some well-earned time off, close your eyes and imagine… if you were walking into your business in five years, what are you experiencing?  What clients are you serving?

Most advice on how to find financial planning clients is prescriptive. It tells you what to do or where to look. Yet how helpful is this?

Throughout a lifetime relationship, a planner might have many interactions with their clients. Still, I would argue that the review meeting stakes the claim as the most important.

Creating happy, enthusiastic, loyal financial planning clients for life requires you to do one thing well, and consistently. So, what is that one thing?

Niche means we receive far more enquiries from professional connections, friends, social media and internet searches amongst others.

How can we bridge the gap between all the companies searching for talent and all the next generation talent desperate to find a career?

We must address the demographic imbalance created through decades of a lack of focus in nurturing new financial planning talent.

We discuss our clients’ goals way before retirement, we should also do it for ourselves. Here is my 10-year succession plan.

Niching and specialising in divorce was the best thing I ever did and the business has grown significantly ever since. Although at first it was very daunting.

You don’t just tell your brand story through websites, brochures and advertisements. It’s done through the spoken word too. Aim to do justice to your brand every time you open your mouth.

Dimensional introduced its Women and Wealth community in 2015 in response to the growing interest in this subject from advisors across the globe. We started by asking a simple question: are the financial planning needs of women different?

Owners of financial planning firms often approach me when considering hiring a Practice Manager for their firm. Over the years, I notice that those hiring for this role for the first time tend to grapple with the same questions …

There are things about your business that you don’t know, challenges that lie ahead you cannot foresee. If you are serious about one day selling, you need to start now.

For me, school was tough! If you told me then that I would be dedicating to a life-long career of learning and pursuit of qualifications, I would have run a mile. But this is the thing about the profession, you do exams because you want to.

Despite having found his way to success largely by accident, Pete Matthew describes himself as “living proof” that creating content online can lead to great things. Increased turnover, enhanced professional standing and, he believes, it will make you a better adviser.

I get to meet someone new and find about who they really are; where they are now and what their dreams and aspirations are for the future. I find the stories of other people inspirational. If we can help them live a bigger future going forward, that’s very exciting

Once you have established your niche and your ideal client, then you need to speak their language, and capture their attention.

For many reasons my recent move from an investment focused role to a full financial planning one was quite simply the biggest decision of my career. I wanted to add more value to clients’ lives rather than just measuring financial returns.

Our second episode looks at the importance of gender diversity and inclusion in the financial services profession. Our guest Anna Sofat doesn’t hold back.

The Flight of The Soul Millionaire, Chapter 3. A framework emerges that creates empowered people. What’s more surprising is that the same framework improves how leaders behave, how teams excel and how revenue increases.

I’m sure like many, a mix of office and home working will become the reality, more so than before. Indeed, in our London office, we now have team members based in South Wales and North West England – they will likely only be in the office a couple of days every other week.

In a remote-first world, your website is your real estate, it’s your shopfront, your receptionist, your billboard. The only visible presence you have.

Why I’ve launched the Financial Changemakers’ Podcast with Olivia Parnell. Our first episode is with guests Rohan Sivajoti of NextGen Planners and Amira Norris of Nucleus.

The Flight of The Soul Millionaire, Chapter 2. Now you discover the ageless model, which underpins almost every story of ordinary folk who embark upon extraordinary journeys …

Growing up, I didn’t have the classic princess stories or anything like that, I had books about the planets and stars. For my 11th birthday I was taken to toys r us and told I could pick anything I liked, and I picked a telescope.

The story about how I ended up in Financial Planning is probably similar to most people in the profession: I got there by accident.

A younger version of myself wouldn’t have had the confidence for a planning role nor the maturity or empathy to understand a clients financial worries and fears.

Chapter 1. The journey to greater impact – to doing great work – requires transformational thinking and behaviour.

Conversations about discrimination.

When I was asked to mentor three future financial planners, I initially found the prospect quite daunting. How would I inspire them?

This article is a follow up to the webinar – How To Win Clients Through Verbal Storytelling.

About five years ago, David Scarlett asked me who I liked working with best and who I felt I did the best job for. I had absolutely no answer for him.

A successful financial adviser shouldn’t need to market themselves. They should be busy enough with Client Referrals. Or so I had been told.

The lesson here is clear: when asking questions, first aim for the heart, as this leads you on a pathway to the soul.

When asked, clients most wanted to know more about staying safe online rather than market updates or investment.

To insource or to outsource is the most important decision to make. This is the efficient beating heart of your firm now and in the future.

Eight years ago, I was frazzled. I was the person with the answers. I had little time or space to breathe, let alone think!

Once I found content that resonated with me, I invested significant time and sometimes money to move forward.

The Power of Financial Planning is something I feel really passionate about: seeing clients journey from that initial meeting to designing the life that they’ve always wanted.

Paraplanning is definitely now more mainstream but with no specific qualification requirements nor a definitive job description, many tasks can fall under this title.

Customer reviews can creep up on you, with dozens needing completion in a matter of days. As a financial adviser, you have a contractual requirement to provide a full financial review to your client.

Shadowing two great financial planners allowed me to see first-hand the key to providing great outcomes is great conversations with clients.

A list of ‘nevers’, achieving Chartered Financial Planner status, a year by myself, giving birth and why I created my own online ‘village’ community. It’s coming up to a year that I’ve worked entirely alone.

Ruth Sturkey shares Paradigm Norton’s experience of planning and producing a virtual event for clients. Having all things backed up is key.

When you’ve seen the benefits of a lifetime cashflow model first hand, it’s a lightbulb moment that immediately convinces you of its power.

Cashflow modelling demonstrates the value you add to a client and you can stress test market movement on a client’s longterm financial plan.

An annual client Review Meeting acts as our formal client touch point each year to review what has happened and what changes need to be made to inform the future.

Much has been written about the first meeting with a prospective client. What happens when the prospect decides to proceed?

Systemise 90% of what you do ensuring that you have the time to customise the remaining 10% that truly matters.

Authenticity is the most important thing of all. Showing up as yourself, doing the very best job you can do, is a quality we can all respect at any stage of life.

Understand and accept that money is not the end-game, but a mere medium used to ultimately help clients and loved ones towards a better quality of life.

Clare Farrell, managing director at Northfield Wealth talks to Natalie Holt about building a business to give advice and support to as many people as possible.

Replace ‘Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics’ with ‘Purpose’.

It goes without saying that we’re all now more dependent on digital technologies than ever.

It’s time to rethink your leadership style; not just yours but the leadership you need to develop and nurture in your team.

How being more aware of your values and less focused on the goal itself can just create a far better life.

Lockdown life appears to have spawned a plethora of podcasts. As a tactic for creating a pillar piece of content, raising your profile in the local community, and expanding your network of professional connections, podcasting has relatively few equals.

Nick Platt, managing director at Henwood Court Financial Planning talks to Natalie Holt about the opportunities offered by remote working.

Respected journalist, the publisher of Inside Information and the godfather of US Financial Planning, Bob Veres, wrote about four years ago that the biggest disruptor in financial services might just be video conferencing technology.

Here are links to the resources provided by Jason Butler, The Wealthman in his POWER Webinar on Financial Wellbeing in the Workplace.

It’s at times like this, in COVID-19 Age, when financial wellbeing and resilience become increasingly important. This is Natalie Holt in conversation with Hayley Tink, Smith & Pinching.

We are in unprecedented times. Your clients want to hear from you more than ever and not necessarily about their investments.

I confess, when I started to write this article, I wondered whether ‘financial wellbeing’ was just some new buzz phrase or a phrase worth using.

Learnings from over a decade of working with Financial Planners and talking to their clients. Some thoughts for coaching clients and deeper client conversations.

The term ‘Financial Wellbeing’ is very subjective and can be defined differently by each person who uses it. The new Initiative of Financial Wellbeing has defined it as “the study and application of how money can make us happy” and I support that, but ‘well-being’ is derived from other things too.

Here are Jan Bowen-Nielsen and Chris Budd’s top 10 tips for using a coaching approach to increase client engagement.

In the questions and comments raised by some of the 2,000 or so people attending the two PFS Power webinars with Chris Budd and Jan Bowen-Nielsen, there were quite a few requests for us to recommend books about coaching.

During the PFS Power Coaching Webinars that Jan Bowen-Nielsen and I conducted on 28 January 2020, several people asked, “Can you suggest some great questions?” Here are a few thoughts.

Since discovering Lifestyle Financial Planning, Tamsin Caine has believed in it. It didn’t make it any easier to master. She is sure lots of other Financial Planners feel the same.

If you don’t feel the love for your clients, why work with them? By Gemma Siddle.

Technology will be transformational in making Financial Planning more accessible than ever before. By Anthony Villis.

To be certain your business is futureproof, you have to predict the future and put plans in place to meet the demands put upon you indefinitely. By Julie Lord.

Developing a Financial Planning proposition can seem like a huge undertaking. But if your focus is already on achieving good outcomes for clients, you have the core foundations already in place. By Natalie Wright.

Our aim with the the PFS POWER Initiative is to empower and equip our readers to change people’s lives through Financial Planning. For many this means a change in mindset from transactional advice to a more comprehensive, life-focused service. By Ruth Sturkey.

Kevin Deamer makes a point of rehearsing what happens when the time comes for Executors to complete all the necessary paperwork.

Aligning yourself with your clients’ best interests is paramount in the provision of the best service you can give. When a desire to help people comes first, the money will follow if you always do the right thing, says Michael Freedman.

Structuring a Financial Planning business can be difficult. Applying some investment principles can paint an interesting picture. By Duncan Parkes.

Having recently undertaken a business coaching certification, Alasdair Walker found one of the benefits was an opportunity to reflect on his interaction with clients, particularly in the first meeting. Alasdair talks about a resulting change of approach mixing coaching skills with fact find.

Who is talking? Asks Jan Bowen-Nielsen. Have you been in client meetings and found yourself doing most of the talking? You might be keen to share product knowledge, to show your expertise, or you may just want to be liked and to build rapport.

In financial advice, two types of coaching have been rising in prominence over recent years: ‘pure’ coaching, and financial coaching. Although they share a name, there are differences. Chris Budd explains.

Around five years ago, Adam Carolan noticed a trend in his business: an ageing client base dying or losing capacity and a struggle to engage with the Next Generation.

Retirement planning is a core function of the Financial Planning profession. Amyr Rocha-Lima discusses why our job is not just to help clients accumulate resources but to help them as their coach and cheerleader as another life stage begins.

You’ve taken on a new client, given them a great initial Financial Planning experience, followed up with an Annual Planning Meeting and are wondering what now? By Garry Hale.

Often meeting number two, the ‘draft’ planning meeting is another time to shine. It’s when life and money come together to show what’s possible.

Clients tend to seek advice when big life events come along: selling a business, stopping work, a new business, birth of a child, a new house, ill health, divorce. It’s no surprise that people often have heightened emotions that affect their decisions. Anthony Villis explains.

Prior to a first meeting, setting the right expectations in clients’ minds is vital.

Broadly speaking, six steps are considered to form the foundation of a Financial Planning process used with clients.

What a Financial Planner does and two client stories that illustrate the value of what Financial Planning can achieve.

For Matrix Capital, the idea of establishing a Client Advisory Group emerged from a review undertaken of the business in 2008; about the time of the announcement of the Retail Distribution Review.

The whole Financial Planning process has made me think about what I really want to do. It has helped me confront myself about what I earn, what I spend and what’s left over.

The stethoscope was a great leap forward for medicine. Find out how the story of it shines a light on Financial Planning.

Anthony Villis talks about adopting a Lifestyle Financial Planning approach in 2014, and his firm, First Wealth, hasn’t looked back. “It’s brought energy to our business and helped change people’s lives in a positive way.”

The number of client meetings and time taken differs from firm to firm as they adapt a Financial Planning process that works for them. By Carrie Bendall.

Learn about how to structure pre-appointment letters discovery meetings and planning meetings, and the optimum content.

We now have so many marketing tools, techniques and channels at our disposal, how do we know which to use?

There are two sides to the client experience: the actual process clients go through and the outcomes clients receive. Whilst the outcomes of Financial Planning are positive, the Financial Planning process can be initially daunting.

Most Financial Planners put lifetime cash flow modelling at the heart of what they do. It’s essential to their work and the advice they give their clients.

Not everyone agrees though this may be because there is still some mystique about what cash flow modelling is. This section explains what cash flow modelling is, the benefits of using it with clients, as well as the drawbacks.

Many people focus on making money rather than discovering how much they actually need during the course of their lifetime. Imagine how you would feel if you knew you had enough money, not just to do the things you want, but to help others too.

“The job of a planner is 95% people skills and 5% technical skills, but you need to know 100% of the 5% technical”. Here are Ten Qualities.

Like many people I came to financial advice in mid-life, arguably far too late.