When it comes to implementing comprehensive financial services, there are financial advisors who look at it as impossible as climbing Mount Everest.  They see the work involved and quit before they even get started.

Why is it that we overwhelm ourselves by looking at the whole project rather than breaking it down into manageable goals?

Thankfully, there's a simple antidote. After deciding that you're committed to implementing comprehensive financial services, then just take the first step. You're not going to climb this whole mountain overnight; you're just committing to the effort and then taking the first step. 

So, what's the first step? It's implementing a systematic, highly structured annual client meeting cycle with agendas predetermined for each meeting and checklists driving the whole process. (The process The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™ supports is called The Three Meeting Process™).

Whatever process you choose, this is the best "first step" because it puts in place an operating system for everything. Take a look at how this will benefit your office:

• Every ideal client agrees and commits to attend three progress meetings per year. 
• The client progress meetings occur every four months so you’re in close contact with your clients.
• You have on your schedule the annual meeting cycle for every client, so you know when to expect each client.
• The client progress meetings are spread equally across the year, so they don't unduly strain your team. 
• Each of the three meetings has a predetermined checklist and agenda so that, for each ideal client, all checkpoints on the list are crossed off every 12 months. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks and all your clients are on-track financially. 

The quickest and easiest way to get up “the mountain” is to focus 100% of your energy on scheduling all of your ideal clients into a structured and consistent annual meeting cycle. When you have that done, you can focus on the next step – putting in place standardized meeting agendas and checklists for the progress meetings that you now have scheduled. 

Just as Sherpas guide climbers up Mount Everest and make sure they make it to the top, The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™ can be your guide to successfully installing comprehensive financial services in an easy, step-by-step manner.  You can register now for a basic membership at no charge.

When you store your clients’ information in your office, you take every precaution to keep it safe.  You lock the doors.  You install a security system.  You entrust the key to only thoroughly vetted individuals.  That’s part of being trustworthy.

Many today are storing information on internet “cloud” services.  These are technology data centers.  It’s a convenient place to store information so that your entire team can access information at any time.

Perhaps, that’s something that your financial services firm is taking advantage of, and you’ve noticed how much faster and more efficiently the work gets done.  It’s a huge advance over misplaced paperwork, unsuccessful telephone calls to people who aren’t available, and searching through file cabinets. 

It’s not surprising that your clients may be concerned about the security of their information.  You can alleviate their anxiety by proving that your data storage service obtains appropriate security certifications and successfully conducts audits to demonstrate the security of your infrastructure.

Not only is it an issue as to where the data is securely kept, but also whether your communication within the system is thoroughly secure.  To protect communication, use a Secure Lock Layer (SSL).  This is a method of safeguarding communication between computers over the internet.  The computers on each end are secured behind their respective “firewalls”, and SSL ensures that they can securely talk to each other.  The information is fully encrypted so that no one can listen in.

You’ll notice the padlock image by The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™.  That’s a symbol of our Secure Lock Layer.  When you register as a member, take a moment to read about our system security.  It’s a benefit that you’ll want to share with your clients.  Not a member yet?  You can register now for a basic membership at no charge.

The smart business model establishes a proactive annual meeting cycle.

When you settle upon the ideal number of clients in your community, you’ll find that most of your clients are easy to care for once you have processes for your team to follow. However, there are always a handful of clients going through some special situation that requires more analysis necessitating a special meeting with your team.  You know, those rare occasions where an ideal client’s company has made them an “early buy-out” offer, or they have an opportunity to purchase a business, or one of their most complicated goal dates is imminent. 

These situations can be time-consuming for your team.  In order to create the time necessary to deal with the pressing needs of these few clients, it would be smart to develop a methodical meeting cycle.  It should be one that almost automatically cares for your other clients who have nothing pressing going on in their lives.

An annual meeting cycle needs to accomplish two important things:

• Get everything that needs to be done for your clients (your deliverables) completed on time.
• Create a standardized process for all ideal clients, so you can delegate most of the meeting preparation to your growing team (progress reports, updates, etc).

Our firm invested a year researching the question of how many meetings provide the optimum service to ideal clients.  And do you know what we came up with?  A 3-meeting annual cycle is the best.

What are the benefits of fewer meetings?

• It gives clients more time to focus on things that matter most to them.
• It’s less taxing on your team.  They have more freedom to deal with clients going through more intense special planning situations. 
• It creates more time for you.  You’ll be able to spend at least two-thirds of your time interacting even more effectively with your ideal clients and, of course, acquiring new ones.

That’s why I created The Three Meeting Process™ within the The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™.  We teach and fully support financial advisors with all the meeting plans, client agendas, preparation materials, document checklists, progress reports, and client “homework assignments” you need to successfully implement an annual meeting cycle that gives your clients the best possible service.  If you don’t already have a membership to our system, you can register now at no charge!

However, you’re stuck when it comes to discussing this with your clients. You don’t know how to tell them you’re changing your whole business model.  You’re afraid you’ll make a real mess of it and lose your ideal clients. 

What I’ve found helpful is to work from a script. So here’s a suggestion of what you could say.  (Of course you’ll want to personalize it and practice, practice, practice, until it flows smoothly and is as natural and sincere as you are.)

“I appreciate that you were able to meet with me so I can lay out the future vision I have for my practice and what it will mean for you.  I’m convinced these new changes will be in the best interest of our ideal clients, such as yourself.

In the past, I did some basic goal planning with each client, which resulted in an asset allocation that I created.  I selected suitable investments and then charged my clients between 1 – 2% annually for the accounts they placed under my care.

Here’s what will change, and I’m sure you’ll see how much more value you’ll receive.

I’ve made a commitment to providing fully comprehensive financial services to all of my ideal clients.  Every client will have a comprehensive written lifetime financial plan created by a Best-in-Class Financial Planner that I’m bringing onto our team. 

In addition, I’m actively seeking the most experienced and highly skilled experts in the areas of tax, money management, insurance and estate planning to bring onto our team.  They will help me cycle through our checklist of more than 139 action items annually.  This ensures that every one of my ideal clients is financially organized at all times.

I promise you these three things:

• You’ll have the greatest probability of accomplishing your goals by your target dates.
• You’ll make smart choices about your money in all areas of finance.
• Your financial house will stay in perfect order for the rest of your life because of our new proactive process.

We will still charge between 1 – 2% on the value of your assets annually (or fee of $____, whichever is greater). However, my job is to ensure that any charges for additional planning, as well as for financial products or services required to keep you organized, will be fully disclosed. I am committed to finding you the most value at the lowest cost.

If you choose to join us, we’ll need you to agree to meet with our team three times a year in order for us to interact with you about things that only you can tell us. You meet our ideal client profile and we want to continue working with you.  Would you like to join us?”

Does reading through this conversation reveal some gaps in your own business model?  Do you have all of your systems documented so you that you have a checklist of all your action items?  These and many more concerns are dealt with in The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™. If you don’t already have a membership to our system, you can register now at no charge!

The definition of “deliverables” for me, and that I use within The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™, is anything that you as a financial advisor provide for your client. Now anything you do for them is a client deliverable in a very broad definition. If you offer comprehensive financial services, the number of your deliverables will be considerably more than that of someone who only offers wealth management.

Identify your deliverables.

Can you, off the top of your head, formulate how much is entailed in providing comprehensive services? What would you have to provide for your clients so that they can confidently and wisely use financial resources to achieve lifelong goals in spite of what the economy or world events bring?  If you haven’t taken the time to brainstorm and write all of these deliverables down, you won’t be able to create a supportive system that keeps your business running like clockwork.

Organize your deliverables.

Don’t overlook the humble checklist for creating a system that delineates all the deliverables needed by your team. When everyone has the checklist, they know what they need to do, nothing can be forgotten. This also helps you have a system in place that ensures the work gets done even if a team member is unable to do the work because of illness.

What kind of promise can a trusted advisor make when providing comprehensive deliverables?  

Your promise could go something like this… “Let me tell you exactly what you’re going to get. I’m going to tell you exactly how much you should have in cash reserves, how to get it there and keep it there. We’re going to take a look at your debt, and then we’ll give you specific advice on how to reduce or ultimately eliminate your debt on a schedule that really works for you. We’re going to look at every type of insurance that exists and tell you these three things – if you should have it, how much you should have, and what’s the right kind of insurance for you. Then we’re going to look at how your assets are allocated and give you advice on how to best deploy or allocate those assets.”

That’s a really huge promise.  Not only are you outlining specific plans of actions, you’re also implying that you’ll supply a great many other services to that client necessary to fully implementing those action plans.

Do you have all 143 Deliverables? 

For the first time in the history of the financial services industry, The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™ has defined comprehensive financial services as 143 Deliverables across the five major areas of finance, tax, financial planning, money management, estate planning, and insurance.  So, of the 143 Deliverables, how many are you able to identify and deliver at a high-level to your clients?

Wondering which deliverables you should start with? Why start from scratch when you can find every checklist driven process you need in The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™?  Imagine having all the templates, processes and training you need to fulfill your commitment to providing comprehensive services for your clients. If you do not already have a membership to our system you can register now at no charge for our basic level of membership.

You want to offer your clients comprehensive financial services, but you may be wondering, “How am I supposed to run a business and at the same time remodel my business by implementing new processes?” 

When you’re in the process of remodeling your business, it can feel just as daunting as living in a house while you’re trying to remodel.  Your inexperience can make you feel like you’re tripping over deadlines, running into uncooperative contractors, and learning everything the hard way at great cost of money, time and energy.  Nobody wants that extra stress when they’re trying to run a business and taking care of clients!

I’ve coached many financial advisors as they implement The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™, a practice management system, and in the beginning it can feel terribly overwhelming. This is especially true if you make the mistake of looking at the whole project rather than breaking it down into bite-sized, doable pieces. 

In the beginning, I recommend spending a third of your time with the implementation of the practice management system so that you’re not neglecting the other necessary facets of keeping your business growing.  You’ll want to keep your new processes simple to implement by avoiding issues like:

• They're over complicated.
• They take too long to customize for a specific office culture. 
• They're over-automated (too many tasks are assigned and don't change when circumstances change). 

(The methodology in The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™ has been highly sensitive to these issues.  That’s why we have our financial advisors create processes with their teams that are simple, highly customized to the individual office and are flexible.)

However the processes themselves aren’t the biggest problems that a financial advisor’s office can experience during a “remodel”. Since it’s not just your office implementing the process but it also involves getting all of your external professional team members to cooperate the greatest challenges come from team members who: 

• Don’t "buy in" to the idea of the need to document major processes (even if we provide a way to do it in less than 20 minutes). 
• Don’t follow processes once they are documented. 
• Don’t amend processes once it is acknowledged that it is, for some reason, broken. 

Whenever you have a “remodel” going on in your business, take the time to have a well-defined plan and communicate that plan to others. You’ll find that the process methodology of The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™ is simple to implement and less onerous than the absence of a process. If you do not already have a membership to our system you can register now at no charge

Is it your dream to build a business structured in a way that gives your clients every key financial plan with the highest probability of achieving their goals?  Can you imagine the satisfaction you’ll feel when you make not only your dream come true but also the dreams of all of your clients?  And what would it be worth to you if you were able to do it without exhausting yourself?  Wouldn’t it be priceless?

The truth is that your dream can only become a reality when you gather a team of experts that are as committed as you are.  The good news is that it’s possible and easily done!  By implementing these three steps outlined below, you’ll have a clearer picture of whom you should select for your dream team.

1.      Provide all areas of expertise that give your clients extraordinary service.  To provide comprehensive financial services, you’ll need to cover many areas of expertise, such as taxes, financial planning, money management, estate planning, insurance, attorneys, CPAs, etc. Thinking about finding all these experts at once can be overwhelming.  And it might be tempting to just engage anyone who does the type of work you’re looking for but that would be a mistake!  You need to first have clearly in mind your ideal clients and the qualities your team members must have to fill your ideal clients’ needs.

2.      Decide which business model you’ll use.  You have the choice of gathering: internal team members - employees of your business who works internally in your office or on your direct payroll, external team members - someone who works outside your organization but is compensated by you or your client and agrees in advance to follow your processes or a combination of both.  To keep the stress down while making your selections, it’s key to view this search as an opportunity to explore creative options in providing extraordinary value to your ideal clients.  

While I’ve seen success with several models, the one that works really well with The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™ is immediately select one internal administrative support person (Administrative Manager) and ultimately two or three on your payroll, with all The Ten Client Deliverables™ being fully outsourced to external professionals.

3.      Establish processes for keeping good communication between all on your team.   This is where many financial businesses fail.  For your team to smoothly work together, you must document all of your processes and communicate what exactly is required of each one and then keep them accountable.  This includes meeting schedules, reports that need to be filled out, ways of submitting reports, and so much more. 

Why start from scratch when you can find every checklist driven process you need to ensure your team works smoothly together in The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™?  You’ll learn through video and audio lessons as well as receiving tons of step-by-step templates, downloads, reports and online resources that help you build a dream team that delivers extraordinary financial services to your clients. If you do not already have a membership to our system you can register now at no charge!

Bill Bachrach, the creator and founder of the values based financial planning movement and methodology, forever changed how financial advisors do business.  The Trusted Advisor Toolkit™, has taken comprehensive financial services to the "next level" by defining the term and providing tools to consistently implement comprehensive financial services for every client.

By offering comprehensive financial service you have the power to change your client’s stress about the rollercoaster economy into confidence.  Just think about all that you do for your clients when you’re providing comprehensive financial services. Here’s just a short list to get you started:

• You create a team that implements the Values-Based Financial Planning™.

• You’re proactive in each client’s situation – so that they’re able to take advantage of more opportunities because you’re ahead of issues not behind them.

• While there are no guarantees in life, you help them create a plan that gives the greatest probability that they’re going to be OK financially.

• You can’t predict the future, but you can help them manage their stock options and invest very sensibly, thus helping them to see that they should focus on the things that they can control, versus the things they can’t control… like the stock market or world events.

• You put a war plan together on how to pay off their debt and mortgage.  

• You make sure their taxes are done properly every year, taking advantage of all tax saving opportunities.

• When the estate tax laws change, you review their estate plan, and send them to an attorney to make the changes to keep up with the new laws.

• You update their financial plan frequently.

• You run the projections and sees possible financial problems looming in twenty or thirty years.

• You honestly tell your client about necessary adjustments even if it’s not something your client wants to hear.  They trust you to look out for their best interests, not just be a “yes man”. 

• You evaluate their insurance and see that they have the coverage they need.

• You can even help them save thousands of dollars when they buy a new vehicle.

• You create a process driven culture that guarantees, consistent, dependable, high quality service even if one of your team is unexpectedly unavailable.

The financial advisor who offers the most comprehensive services is more irreplaceable to their clients and commands the highest compensation.  Is that who you want to be?

Ready to see how The Trusted Advisor Toolkit can help you create the processes and team that makes all of this work a breeze?  Our team would love to schedule an interview with you! Simply email your request to InterviewRequest@TrustedAdvisorToolkit.com.

Over the years I’ve noticed one area that raises a question in the minds of those who are new to the concept of being a trusted financial advisor. You see, I advocate telling potential clients right up front the profile of your ideal client including the amount of financial assets that they must have to qualify as one of your clients.  That, however, raises this question:

“If I tell people that my ideal client have XX amount of financial assets, won’t I be making it harder to get clients by scaring away a lot of potential clients?”

The whole purpose of having an ideal client profile is to keep you focused.  If you’re not happy serving someone, or your firm isn’t structured to really help them, you’re doing them and yourself a disservice by signing them on as a client.

You want to make sure that people who cannot afford you are not taken off guard when they see your fees and your minimums.  Imagine somebody talks to you about what you do and his or her interest is peaked.  You set up a meeting and take up an hour or more of their time. At the end of the meeting, they see your fees and it’s definitely not a fit. They don’t have near enough money to work with you. Both of you will be frustrated at that point.

The good news is that none of your potential clients who actually meet all the elements of your ideal client profile will be put off by your standards.  They'll read your ideal client profile (and minimum requirements), say to themselves, "That's me" and realize they are speaking to a financial advisor who best serves clients meeting their profile.

If you’re going to be a trusted financial advisor offering advice to people about the wise use of money, you can’t have hang ups about talking about money up front.

Establishing an ideal client profile and 9 other financial advisor priorities are outlined in the case study of a financial advisor named Kate Wilson.  You can see how she fine-tuned her answers so she became very articulate and compelling when she talked about what she does as a financial advisor.  Sign up for your free video lessons from this case study here.

Here are seven previously written blogs that you’ll find helpful in determining who your ideal clients are. When you get this clarity you can focus on those that your financial organization is designed to service best.

Tips for Handling Non-Ideal Clients

Learn how a financial advisor decides which is an ideal client and which is not.

Politely Disengaging

After you’ve determined who your ideal clients are, learn 4 ways to deal with existing non-ideal clients.

I'd Like To Hire You As My Advisor, But...

One of the best places to find ideal clients is a referral from your existing ideal clients.

What Should a Trusted Advisor's Website Look Like?

Learn how can you design a website that attracts your ideal client.

Advisor: What service should I offer my Non-Ideal Clients?

As a financial advisor goes through the process of disengaging from non-ideal clients, should the relationship be abruptly terminated or should services continue to be offered to non-ideal clients and for how long?

Question: Mark Did You Do Financial Road Maps?

When I began categorizing my clients to see which were ideal, I had 1,242 clients.  After applying my ideal client profile I was left with 17! Learn what happened next.

A Lesson in “Missing the Point”

In the financial services industry, it’s easy to miss the simple things that ideal clients value most. Make the mental shift from a perception of what the client values most to what clients actually value.

Perhaps you’re still having trouble in defining who your ideal client is.  Check out the free video lessons from the case study of financial advisor Kate Wilson.  It shows how The Trusted Advisor Toolkit helped her to gain clarity about her ideal client and turned her whole business around in 30 days.

Think back over all of the conversations you’ve ever had during meetings with new potential clients. What’s one of the first questions that people ask?  Isn’t it…

Question #1: “What do you do?”  So, how can you respond simply to this question?

• Bad Answer:  “I’m a money manager.”  Since there is no clear definition of this term, you have no idea what your potential client will picture.  It’s too ambiguous.

• Good Answer:  “I help people make wise choices about their money so they can accomplish what’s important to them.”   In one sentence, you’ve explained what you do and the benefit of it.

Question #2:   “How do you do that?” How would you respond?

•  Bad Answer: “My clients are people who understand that they have the greatest potential to make a positive impact in the world, so I help them to make wise investments and I coach then in all areas of their lives so they can live transcendent lives.” It goes without saying that your clients are people and using words that don’t come up in normal conversation doesn’t impress anyone.  It’s unclear and too wordy.

• Good Answer:  “My job is to orchestrate the written plan that our team helps every client create. I hold everyone on your team accountable, including you, to ensure the greatest probability that the plan unfolds as it should.”  This gives a lot of information in a small amount of time in a conversational way.

Question #3:  “How do you charge?” Your answer?

•  Bad Answer:  “Well, that depends…” Doesn’t hedging like that raise a red flag with you?  It will to your potential client, too.

• Good Answer: “I charge a single simple fee which is a percentage of the assets under our management according to a schedule outlined in our Investment Advisory Agreement. It works out to X% per year. Our minimum fee is $XX per year, so the clients we serve the best have combined financial assets exceeding $XX.”  Not only is it a clear answer, but also you have given them a number that tells them whether they qualify or not to be a client without them having to ask.

A financial advisor must first have personal clarity about the services he or she provides.  Only then can you articulate – clearly and conversationally – answers to anyone who asks. 

Are you wondering what the 7 other pivotal questions are?  Check out The Trusted Advisor Toolkit’s Ten Pivotal Questions™.  If you aren’t already a member of the toolkit, you can register for a free membership now and gain access to the Ten Pivotal Questions™.

So, why wait for once a year to think about how to improve your life and business?  Wouldn’t it serve a person better to schedule time throughout the year to consider ways to improve?

Many people, myself included, started on the path to being a financial advisor right out of college with the purpose of helping people reach their goals as well as accomplishing personal ambitions. Then somewhere along the way, things get overwhelming and downright impossible to keep up with.  For me it wasn’t New Year’s, it was July 1999.  I had to make drastic changes because I couldn’t keep up and was burning out!  Maybe you can relate to that feeling.

If you’re a financial advisor, here are some indicators that you might need to change how you’re doing business:

• Is it hard for you to delegate any of your client services to a support person?

• Are you caring for more clients than you can personally meet with every year?

• Are you working outlandish hours that are robbing you of time with your family and activities that are important to you?

• Are you offering “thin” services, rather than full comprehensive financial services that cover all of your clients’ needs?

• Have you lost track of your original goal to help people and are now more concerned about your bottom line? 

• What’s keeping you in this line of business?

If you’re wearing yourself out running a one-man or one-woman show, may I suggest that now’s a good time to implement changes that will really make a difference to your business and your life?

While it took me 10 years to put together the systems and processes required to run a highly organized comprehensive financial services practice, you can do the greatest share of creating your own in 30 days. 

That’s right, you can be well on your way to creating a comprehensive financial service organization in 30 days if you put your mind to following the processes in The Trusted Advisor Toolkit.  Check out this case study and see how a regular person like Kate Wilson did it.

 Have you ever stopped to consider that the term “wealth management” has no meaning?  There is no standard to the use of the term.   People who specialize in only one area of expertise such as insurance agents, stockbrokers, and financial planners who don’t manage money call themselves “wealth managers”. 

 So if you’re a financial advisor who offers fully comprehensive financial services, and you call yourself a wealth manager, how is someone going to distinguish you from the crowd? 

There was a fascinating research study a few years ago in the financial services industry that surveyed a large sample of financial advisors.  The first question they asked was, “How do you describe yourself, what title do you use with your clients?”  In response 68% of financial advisors in the United States called themselves “wealth managers.”

Then they then did a follow up question to define the term, “wealth management”. They put a couple of condition that you can only call yourself a wealth manager if you: 1) meet with your clients at least once a year and 2) you offer two major deliverables. 

So if you did a full financial plan and then you offered money management, you could call yourself a wealth manager. Can you guess how many of those advisors actually met that embarrassingly low standard of definition of a wealth manager?  The number dropped from 68% down to 6%.  I talked to the person that did the research.  He said that he did a follow up study and the numbers got worse.

 So, the point is, wealth management means nothing.  If you call yourself a wealth manager, they throw you in a bucket with everyone else. And really, that term implies that you are more interested in the client’s wealth than in the person.

 “Financial advisor” is a better way of describing yourself when you offer comprehensive financial services.  An advisor isn’t a manager of money, but is a leader of a team of experts who help clients implement the best advice possible for achieving their goals. 

 An even better description to use is “trusted financial advisor”.  When you’ve built a relationship of trust with your clients, you bring great value to your clients.  They know that you’ll look out for their financial welfare, so they can concentrate on the other things that are important to them.

 Are you floundering with a clear answer to the question, “What do you do?”  Check out how The Trusted Advisor Toolkit helped Kate Wilson go from calling herself a wealth manager to being a trusted financial advisor, and see how it dramatically altered her business and life in her case study.

You trust your team but what if one of your team members were suddenly unable to perform their job? What if sudden illness or an accident made the person you trust and rely on completely unavailable to you? Would your financial organization come to a screeching halt or have a terrible time scrambling to cover everything?

Now imagine that someone else is able to step into the role and immediately fill the need. While it may sound unlikely, you really can have a business that functions that smoothly.  The key is documenting all of your processes. It’s the smartest business model and creates the only foundation upon which you can build a growing team of experts.

However, as financial advisor, you’re coordinating a team of highly experienced professionals (Estate Planning Attorneys, CPA's, Financial Planners, Insurance Consultants, etc). They are highly successful business owners in their own right, and they may not be accustomed to following any process other than their own.  So, when they’re first introduced into your team, there could be confusion, or lack of compliance because of mental roadblocks. 

Let’s examine 7 excuses you may hear from your team when you ask them to begin documenting every process and how you should respond:

1. “I don’t know where to start.”

You as the trusted financial advisor must have a clear vision of how everything should be organized and documented so you can give your team clear direction from day one.

2. “The office is too busy doing the work to stop and document the process.” 

No business can afford to shut down for a week to get it all done.  Rather, your team must agree to create processes every day as part of their normal routine. 

3. “Everyone has a different method of documenting processes.” 

Provide your team with easy-to-implement templates for documenting each process.

4. “There’s not an organized place to post and share processes with the entire team.” 

As financial advisor, it’s part of your role to give your team a place where it’s easy to access and share information.

5. “Nobody is accountable for updating the process when something significant changes.” 

Assign someone to stay on top of this, perhaps your Administrative Manager.

6. “Once everything is documented, I’ll become dispensable.”  

Nothing is further from the truth. The documenting of processes is an ongoing process itself.  As each client brings in a unique need, a new process will be created.  So, make sure your team understands that they won’t become disposable. They’ll become more valuable as they document the processes.

7. “We’re reinventing the wheel. There’s no process to create a process."

 Yes, there is.  It’s called The Trusted Advisor Toolkit. Our team has done all the work for you so your team can create a documented process for anything in your practice in 20 minutes or less. We’ve uploaded proven documented processes, so you can pick the one you need and customize it to your office.  There’s also a secured intranet where you can store your major processes for everyone on your team to access.

The success of your financial organization depends upon all of your team members being committed to documenting processes.  Is it realistic to think there can be processes documented for every step?  Yes!  Why not take a look at the case study of financial advisor, Kate Wilson and see how The Trusted Advisor Toolkit works.

Your first question should be: “What’s important about money to you?”

And don’t be content with asking it once.  This is a question you should direct to both the husband and wife individually.  Each person should be given an opportunity to fully express his or her feelings. 

Only when they focus on what’s most important to them, will you be able to help your ideal clients create the financial roadmap to get them where they want to go.  (And as a side note:  this illustrates why it’s so important for both the husband and wife to be at this meeting.)

Imagine how the quality of your meetings will improve and how much more quickly a trusting relationship will grow.  Before, when you ask about their finances and goals, you’d learn the bare facts about how much money they have, how they spend it, how much debt, and what they want to do. 

Now, when you ask “What’s important about money to you?” you’re going to learn how they view life and what they want money to do for them.  That in turn, tells you how you, as a financial advisor, can be of service to them.

You’ll hear things like how money gives a sense of security, peace of mind, and confidence that the rest of the family will be OK no matter what happened. How having enough money gives a sense of ultimate fulfillment in making a difference in the lives of each family member.  Don’t be surprised or embarrassed if it gets emotional.  This one question is providing a very valuable service in helping your clients gain clarity.

Once you realize what’s important to your clients, you can help them see that their financial goals simply set up an environment where they will be able to achieve and enjoy those things that are more important than money.

They’ll realize that the best reason to hire you as a financial advisor is that while money is important in their lives, its management can be delegated to someone else.   When they trust you, they’ll happily focus on all the other important things in their lives that they can’t delegate, like relationships and their own physical health, thereby enhancing the quality of their lives.

Knowing that your comprehensive financial service helped them achieve their goals will give you a huge sense of satisfaction.  And it all started with one simple question.

Would you like to learn how to easily create the processes and build a team of experts that empower you to deliver comprehensive financial services that brings that kind of satisfaction?  The Trusted Advisor Toolkit has all of the work outlined for you, so you can hit the ground running. Or take a look at a case study of an advisor named Kate Wilson to show you how it works. Click here to download your copy.