Fantastic Financial
Plannng
By Jon Randall, CMC®
Certified Master Coach®
DYNAMIC DIRECTIONS
A BETTER LIFE AND PRACTICE
WWW.DYNAMICDIRECTIONS-D2.COM
Financial
planning
What are the top financial concerns of
American’s today? Ask them and you will hear
Retirement, Taxes and Health Care as some of
their top answers. Getting the best mutual fund
selection, optimal portfolios that outperform
their benchmarks and the best yield for risk and
duration from a fixed income portfolio will not
be the first things they say. Are you focused on
helping people with the things THEY want help
with? The financial industry has consumed itself
with products and not helping clients with the
things THEY want help with. Helping people
with the things they want is what the elite of
the financial industry call Financial Planning.
The term “Financial Planning” has been slung
around so much that consumers do not know
what it really means. Be careful how you use
this term with people as it might not mean the
same thing to them. The Certified Financial
Planner Board describes financial planning as
“the process of determining whether and how
an individual can meet life goals through the
proper management of financial resources.
Financial planning integrates the financial
planning six step process and with the seven
financial planning subject areas.”
Many financial advisors THINK
they do financial planning
Many financial advisors say they do financial
planning, but compared to the CFP boards’ six
step process and seven subject areas they are not
even close. There are many online calculators for
consumers that are informative, but not sufficient.
Some financial advisors use tools that are of the
same caliber. Leveraging the proper tools, process
and all subject areas are imperative for a true
financial planner to give clients what they need.
Many Americans have different needs. It can be
difficult for a financial advisor to help different people
with different things. Another complexity is that some
people do not have as many things to work on as
others. One way to conquer this is to take a lesson
from successful hotel chains. The Marriott and Hilton
corporations have different brands of hotels to serve
different people. They have low cost brands (like
Fairfield Inn and Hampton Inn), their staple name
sake brands and high end brands (like Ritz Carlton
and Waldorf Astoria). Top producing and highly rated
financial advisors have built out different levels of
service to accommodate their clients.
Plan a menu of services
A Menu of Services allows financial advisors to
deliver an appropriate level of service for different
clients at an appropriate price. When there is more
value, there can be a higher price. Part of increasing
value is helping with more areas, specifically the
areas THE CLIENT wants the most help with. The
areas that a financial advisor can help their clients
with should be part of their menu of services. The
best financial advisors include areas that Americans
are looking for help with. Many financial advisors will
start out with three levels of service. More advanced
and larger practices have more. A great menu of
services includes how the clients will get help, which
can include the number of interactions and what they
can expect.
Pricing is a quandary for
many financial advisors.
Some financial advisors choose to do financial
planning and not charge for it. Would you trust your
health with a doctor who was free? The value and
quality would most likely be questionable. Once
financial advisors break the barrier of charging
for their advice, many struggle with appropriate
pricing. Many will start by charging too little. They
focus on if people will pay them instead of the
value they will be delivering. According to the
Financial Planning Association (FPA), the average
financial planning fee in America is around $3,400
annually. Many top financial advisors derive their
pricing from a percentage of assets or net worth
a client has. Consider your largest client: what
would 0.5% of their assets be? Some advisors will
stagger the percentage of assets they charge from
0.25% to 2% depending on size of client assets
(smaller percentage for larger asset sizes and larger
percentage for smaller asset sizes). Other advisors
will charge a flat percentage fee for all of their clients.
Some financial advisors will tie in a financial planning
fee to asset management fees. A Barron’s Top 1,000
Financial Advisor says “when someone is paying you
more for advice, you will want to deliver it to them.”
Positioning financial planning
with clients can be easy.
Simply ask them “What are you worried about?” or
“What other things can we work on together?” Their
answers can be the items you leverage to engage
them in financial planning services or upgrade them
to a higher level. If they do not have any answers,
accurate. A plan is a snapshot in time
with accompanying assumptions to
act as a guide for financial planners
to give better advice to clients and
help clients make better decisions.
Making clients aware of the constant
change will help you align them to
ongoing financial planning. Your menu
of services can help you follow an
ongoing service plan for your clients.
use the areas that are other people’s
concerns, like retirement and taxes.
Give examples of ways you have
helped other clients (or you could be
helping them) and share that they
could benefit from the same things.
Build up the value around the things
they want help with. If you build up the
value around what THEY want help
with, the price will be irrelevant. You
can easily use your menu of services
to align the client to the appropriate
price.
The best benefit for clients, and your practice, is
to do ongoing financial planning incorporating an
annual fee for your ongoing advice. Things constantly
change in clients’ lives, the markets, tax laws and
estate laws. The instant you create a financial
plan it is technically wrong and outdated. Things
constantly change and the plan will never be 100%
The most common barrier for financial
advisors to deliver quality financial
planning is the extra work involved. If you could have
a multi six figure lift in your practice would you figure
out how to make it work? Top practices will often hire
someone to help with a portion of the new profits,
use an outsourcing service to complete financial
planning documents and organize the advice or a
combination of both. The end result is still profitable
for business and better for the client!
Jon Randall, CMC™
Transformation Guide
Jon is a Certified Master Coach™ and works with
some of the top financial professionals in the industry.
He is a national presenter at financial service industry
conventions and workshops around the country.
Financial advisors coached by Jon consistently grow
at a significantly higher rate than the average advisor.
Reach out to Jon at [email protected]
to schedule a complimentary consultation.
© 2014 Dynamic Directions-D2, Inc.
www.DynamicDirections-D2.com