Let’s consider the word “Advisor” in the title as compared to the words “manager” or “expert.”  While the term manager does imply authority it also implies a relationship with something other than the client.  A money manager manages money, not client situations.  The term “Wealth Manager” is used by Life Insurance Agents, Stock Brokers, Bank Trust Officers and nearly any other position within the financial services industry. The title has no clear meaning or specific definition within our industry, but in examining the words the implication is, again, a person who deals with a client’s “Wealth” rather than the client.  The term “expert” on the other hand implies someone highly skilled within a narrow field of specialization.  In our context we think of Subject Matter Experts in the areas of money management, financial planning, estate planning, tax and insurance planning.  All narrow fields of specialization each requiring many thousands of hours of experience to be considered an expert.  I have heard the term “expert” described as an individual who has read, and internalized, everything that has ever been written on a narrow topic.  Regardless of your definition, an expert is a generator of skilled content while an advisor is one who has the ability to interpret and make the experts’ content understood.  While an expert is skilled at generating an appropriate recommendation, it is the advisor who is skilled at ensuring that the expert advice is followed and implemented.

An advisor is not a manager of money or anything other than the client’s relationship with their other financial managers and Subject Matter Experts.  A Trusted Advisor is the leader of the team of experts and managers and filters the masterful content generated by honing it all into precise, specific and concise recommendations which serve to move a client closer to those things they have shared that they want to achieve.  Your role as a Trusted Advisor is not to be a content expert in any narrow field, even if you are qualified, but rather to be the orchestrator of a team of experts which frees you up to internalize the recommendations being created with empathy for the client and interpret those recommendations which are most suitable.  As Trusted Advisor, your client will often hear a recommendation from a highly skilled expert on your Deliverables Team with vast experience only to turn to you and ask “Do you think I should do this?”  Your role as Trusted Advisor gives the greatest gift any human can give to another, the gift of time.  By having you in that trusted position, it saves every one of your clients the time it would take to assess the suitability of recommendations.  They simply need the “nod” from you and they know a recommendation is sound. 

To earn the position all you need to be is highly a highly competent leader and worthy of trust. As Trusted Advisor, you are the orchestrator of your clients’ team of financial experts in all areas, serving as the Knights Templar of their Financial Road Map®. Once the ink dries upon that document and the client entrusts you with helping them actualize it, remember that the road map has no voice of its own. It is your job to be the defender of every client’s road map and give voice to those things which will move them closer to actualizing it (even if it means confronting the client’s own behavior at times).

Enter this New Year knowing that Trusted Advisors add overwhelming tangible value to their client’s lives.  The value an Ideal Client places in always having their financial house in perfect order means that they are continually making smart choices with their money, unexpected financial messes are always avoided, and a realization that a perpetually greater probability of achieving their goals has been achieved through your leadership and your counsel which has proven over time to be worthy of trust.  If you resolve anything this year, resolve to become an even more effective Trusted Advisor in 2010.