Mitch Anthony
Mitch Anthony
FINANCIAL LIFE PLANNING
the clients ’ experiences , concerns , responsibilities and hopes .
It ’ s the defining past experiences that have made clients who they are today and shaped the way they approach money matters . Meanwhile , their present concerns and responsibilities , including possible instability , consume their energies . They also have hopes and visions for the future that could prompt them to act responsibly with their current assets . This brings us ( finally ) to the numbers conversation . The problem with our industry , however , is that our practitioners attempt to get to these numbers first and to the stories second , if at all . When we do it that way , we lose context , and the price we pay is fickle relationships and uncertain degrees of trust .
The problem with our industry is that our practitioners attempt to get to the numbers first and to the stories second , if at all .
Hopefully by now we all realize that humans reveal themselves through stories not numbers , and the best advisory relationships will be formed by those who can tease out these stories with good questions and surveys . We should resist the temptation to think the numbers alone tell us what we need to know about clients .
Advisors must take the time to understand who their clients are and the experiences that have shaped them , as well as what the clients most care about and what they hope to achieve . By broadening the conversation , advisors will see deeper relationships and more opportunity . Our businesses will evolve in direct proportion to the ways our client profiling and discovery processes do .
MITCH ANTHONY is the creator of Life-Centered Planning , the author of 18 books for advisors and their clients , and the co-founder of ROLadvisor . com and LifeCenteredPlanners . com .
20 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | JUNE 2024 WWW . FA-MAG . COM