How you schedule your meetings with clients is a critical component to being successful as a trusted financial advisor. We’ve put a lot of thought into this process and have discovered that a 3-meeting annual cycle is the optimum for keeping close communication between you, the financial advisor, your clients and your team. 

This Three Meeting Process™ is an integral part of The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™. So some advisors using the toolkit wonder why when you click on the Tab “Progress Meetings” in the navigation bar, it lists six client meetings?  The reason is because it’s also including three one-time only meetings that you need to have with new clients before you institute the Three Meeting Process™.

What are these three one-time meetings we recommend?

• The first non-recurring meeting financial advisors should schedule is a Discovery Meeting – the initial client interview. If you're a values-based financial planning advisor, this is where you do the financial roadmap interview.  This is how you find out if the potential client is a fit for moving forward with you or not. In values-based financial planning the client brings all their financial documents to this meeting.

If you use a different client acquisition front-end process, instead of one meeting, you may have multiple meetings.  So, this first meeting really represents whatever number of meetings you have in your process to decide if both you and the client can work together.

• The second non-recurring meeting financial advisors should schedule is the Implementation Meeting.  Because you have your clients’ financial documents from the first meeting, you’re able to use the time between the first and second meetings to establish the initial projections for the client. Then you can share the implementation plan you’ve worked out when the client comes in for this implementation meeting.  This can include signing lots of papers, account applications being filled out, transferring forms, etc.  You’re beginning the process of orchestrating everything. 

• The third non-recurring initial meeting financial advisors should schedule is the Initial Progress Update. This meeting has a somewhat loose agenda that’s really designed to keep your client updated and comfortable with all the changes.  It shows what progress has been made, as well as, giving your client an opportunity to ask questions.  

Think about it from their perspective. As their new financial advisor, you've signed a bunch of applications and transfer forms that results in a lot of information coming in their mail – such as statements from their old firm showing zero balances and documentation from the new firm. Anything that you've submitted in the implementation meeting they've received in the mail.  This mail can stack up quickly! So, have them bring their mail and you can sort and file it for them. They’ll have questions about what to keep or throw away.  This also ensures that your firm got copies of everything.

It really saves you and your team a lot of time and energy to have a system for requesting information, documenting and sharing that information, ensuring accountability for your team members, and scheduling the meetings.  You’ll find all of that outlined for you in The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™.  If you’d like to read how financial advisors can implement all of this within 30 days, please check out the case study of Kate Wilson.