WORK•THAT•MATTERS

Tag: advice

  • #Coronavirus: 6 things for financial planners to consider

    Many financial planners are currently dealing with the fallout from volatile financial markets and managing their clients’ questions and anxieties.
    However, have you considered the impact on your practice once the Coronavirus hits SA?
    1 What if you can’t travel to see clients?
    2 What if your existing clients can’t travel to your offices?
    3 How will you engage with potential clients and source new clients?
    4 What if your staff can’t come into the office?
    5 Will you be able to process client requests?
    6 Will you fall behind on client reviews? And how will you catch up?
    Most of us could probably deal with these challenges for a week or three, but what if the duration is similar to what we’ve seen in China and extends past 3 months? This may materially impact your practice and clients.
    At the same time, globally advisors are struggling to increase their productivity to make up for the increased cost of regulation, static markets, ageing client base, reduced fees, etc. As Winston Churchill said, “Never waste a good crisis”.
    Implementing change is hard – use this is an opportunity to
    1) demonstrate your value proposition to clients (the number 1 challenge facing advisors globally)
    2) show clients that you are able to adapt to using new technology, in a way that benefits them
    3) implement new ways of doing business in your practice that saves you time and money on a permanent basis
    Some areas to consider:
    – pro-actively communicate with your clients to reassure them that you are still looking after their best interests and delivering value to them, and how specifically you will deal with the possible impact of Corona Virus in your practice
    – regular engagement with clients is critical for client satisfaction and retention, so do not stop engaging with clients simply because you can’t meet them face to face. Replace face to face engagement with other forms of client engagement.
    Many South African planners do not engage remotely with clients, but the technology is now readily available to do this professionally. Applications such as Zoom has made a material difference for planners to reduce travel time, and better manage their client meetings. Clients are impressed when you introduce innovation which is engaging and saves them time. Ensure you keep your clients engaged when contacting them remotely by using software such as Asset-Map to focus their attention on the key issues, and not get distracted.
    Use this opportunity to demonstrate your value proposition and introduce new ways of doing business to your clients. This will significantly strengthen your practice into the future.
    We love using our “Heart, Head, Hand” framework to help planners think through the emotional, intellectual and practical aspects of improving their client experience. I would love to hear your comments on the steps you believe practices should take to deal with the impact of the Coronavirus.

     

  • Calorie Counting is for the Birds

    2020, another year, another decade! No doubt, to be accompanied by a new set of resolutions and hopes for a “new me.” Habitually, I’ve had on my list: “get thinner” and “get richer,” among various other incidentals.

    Curious also that I seem to have a blind spot in my ability to select the strategy that is likely to afford me the highest chances of success. Every year, I find myself trying harder to accomplish the very activities at which I had failed so miserably the year before. Was it Albert Einstein that said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”? Researchers say it’s unlikely,  but whoever said it, it really speaks straight to my gut.

    My “getting thinner” gameplan feels like a fresh start every year. If I break it down though, it’s the same thing year on year – a tactical plan to consume less than I burn at every serving. Sure, there may be a new app that automates my daily deficit / surplus with a few cellphone snaps of my meals, but it’s still the same thing. Some apps even go a step further by making me feel bad about myself, but I still just can’t keep compliant. 

    As hard as I try, life just seems to throw me curve balls. My life feels just too unpredictable for a programme that requires straight lines and repeat processes – day-after-day, month-after-month. It feels like there are just too many opportunities to be led astray, given the unpredictability of what life throws up at me. Every misstep feels like a failure, a reason to start again. Stack these up over a few weeks and I’ve resigned myself to, “I’ll give it up till next year.” There just don’t seem to be any programmes flexible enough to bottle up the variability that is my life. 

    Money is no different. I’ve been through the calorie counting equivalent, too many times to think about. I’ve had excel spreadsheets, data aggregating apps, magnets on the fridge, you name it, I’ve tried it. My existence knows no boundaries. 

    This gets me thinking about the strategies available to Financial Planners when giving advice to clients. How helpful is it to itemise their budgets to the decimal point, hoping upon hope that they will change their wicked ways? And if clients can’t stick to their budgets for a few months, what impact might their unpredictable behaviour have for all their other goals, projected in infinite detail, over a lifetime? 

    If I can’t stick to a diet, it must follow that my long term commitments are equally vulnerable to my humanly flaws. The effect of our behaviour means that even the BIG numbers, the value of a pension fund, investment contributions, salaries, health bills, are simply hypothetical in the face of an existence, over decades, that is so fluid. 

    I think we have the wrong approach. We have to focus on the behaviour, not the theory, not the detail. Whether we burn 1200 calories or 1500 calories, it doesn’t matter if we’ve lost the will to make any change at all.

    I think Financial Planning often burdens clients with the detail to the extent that it makes their ability to stick to the next step too overwhelming. Instead, they fall off the wagon, and rather than climbing back up, they abandon it altogether, “till next year.” 

    I think we need to move away from issuing a 3000 piece puzzle to achieving financial (and personal) well-being. Rather give me a simple rule of thumb to make better decisions every moment I shove something in my face. There’s too much anxiety hidden in the detail. We have to let go, even if it means introducing an anxiety all of it’s own – not though, for the client, but for the advisor!  

    This has to filter into how we plan for clients. Getting all wound up about the numbers and the infinite detail is nothing but academic if the client is uncontrollably walking in any direction at every opportunity. Let’s make it easy for them – show them their big picture and give clear, simple instructions: “Sugar is bad. Equity is good.” 

    Calorie counting is for the birds.