Mitch Anthony
Mitch Anthony
FINANCIAL LIFE PLANNING
Your e-mail source of breaking news and events that directly impact financial advisors and the clients they serve .
In addition to our daily eNewsletter , you will receive special topicspecific editions , some of which include :
• Broker-Dealer News
• ESG
• FinTech
• Fixed Income
• Next Chapter
• Retirement
• RIA News
• Tax Planning
Request your FREE subscription at www . fa-mag . com
The conversations you choose to have with your clients are your investment in them as a person .
million dollars , and Marlin asked him the question . The man gave him a dead-serious look and muttered , “ Four months in traction — and don ’ t you lose one single cent of it !” It turns out the man had been in a car accident and this was the money from his insurance . To him , the money represented the pain he went through , and he wanted to lose not a bit of it — which is why it went into bonds .
Marlin wiped his brow after telling me this story and said , “ Phew , I ’ m so glad I asked !” That is the kind of information you might want to know before you suggest investment vehicles . This question is a good way of getting that critical piece of emotional context .
That ’ s because money represents different things to different people . I ’ ve always believed that it ’ s the world ’ s greatest metaphor — and that it ’ s up to advisors to figure out each client ’ s interpretation of the wealth they ’ ve gathered . This is something that hit home with me while I ran a suicide helpline during the farm crisis of the mid-1980s . At the time , I was speaking with farmers about wealth lost , not wealth gained . They would talk about the multiple generations of their families investing their lives into building the enterprise , only to see it go down on their watch . The money and the land were a metaphor for familial legacy — and the pain of losing it was unbearable to them .
For some , money is a metaphor for freedom . For others , it demonstrates the rewards for taking risks .
I once asked a very successful contractor what his money represented to him . He said it combined all the principles his father taught him : how to treat people fairly , how to fix the problem not the blame , and how it takes a lifetime to build a reputation , while it takes just one bad decision to destroy it . All those principles were rolled up in his idea of money .
People earn , save and invest with intentionality . When you ’ re an advisor , your first task in discovery is to find out what the clients ’ intentions are . Usually , it boils down to people they love , places they love , and things they love to do .
Question 2 : How Do You Define True Wealth ?
Wealth defined is wealth refined . Years ago , I introduced a one-page discovery tool called the “ True Wealth Questionnaire .” This simple exercise led me to some very profound dialogues with clients . Among the questions I asked were these :
• How do you define wealth with your family life ?
• How do you define wealth with your career ?
• How do you define wealth from a personal point of view ?
• How do you define wealth financially ?
We all intuitively understand that a person ’ s net worth cannot be defined by a number . We more accurately display our wealth through the contributions we make to our world than by the material rewards we collect . I think of this every Christmas season when watching the end of the Frank Capra film It ’ s A Wonderful Life . Clarence , the angel , hands George Bailey a copy of a book with the inscription , “ Remember , no man is a failure who has friends .”
We speak of material gain as if it is the core of wealth , but we all know it represents only the material — and that true riches are much more satisfying . I ’ m reminded of the great words of the late philosopher Dallas Willard , who said , “ Everything that is of value on this planet is a person .”
The conversations you choose to have with your clients are your investment in them as a person . It is in these conversations that the true riches begin to surface .
MITCH ANTHONY is the creator of Life-Centered Planning , the author of 12 books for advisors , and the co-founder of ROLadvisor . com and LifeCentered- Planners . com .
26 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | JUNE 2023 WWW . FA-MAG . COM