Description
When markets are benign, performance is good and clients feel confident about the future, Financial Advisors (FAs) feel secure about the stability of their advisor-client relationships. However, when markets become volatile or when clients experience personal challenges or normal life transitions, even long-standing, solid relationships may become stressed. Powerful forces influence the way clients think about their advisor, and these forces often increase the fragility of the working relationship and the likelihood of stress between FAs and clients.
Learning Objectives
This program is built on four key premises: every advisor practices in a context of increased skepticism about the value of a full-service FA; this context raises the chances that clients will experience a crisis of skepticism at predictable junctures in their lives; FAs can target these clients according to defined criteria that can predict their vulnerability to such crises; and FAs can intervene, reduce skepticism, and increase engagement and client satisfaction. The advisor-client relationship is influenced by a client s life stages and events. Most FAs have experienced clients who changed advisors because an important life shift occurred. The prudent advisor pays attention as clients approach new stages of life or go through abrupt changes in the structure of their lives. The thoughtful FA takes action to control the narrative of how clients understand the value of their advisor. In this program, we propose a conversational model to help advisors manage these interactions, and we introduce the concept of the situational checklist to help organize the new relationship with each client. By paying attention to what is happening in the client s life and presenting new issues before the client discovers them, the advisor encourages the relationship to grow and is able to stay relevant to the evolving needs of the client.