Financial advisors don’t always take their best notes when meeting with clients, as maintaining the flow of a good meeting and the rapport established through personal conversation is difficult when the advisor interrupts the rhythm of the dialogue by pausing to jot down some notes. Consequently, advisors often end out relying on hastily written fragments taken during meetings to capture (at least some of) the most important details. After the meeting, they may spend more time to reflect and expand their notes into a comprehensive account of the discussion… with the caveat that the longer they wait to complete their notes, the more they will inevitably forget (as much as 50% after a day!).

In this guest post, Michael Lecours – Co-Founder of fpPathfinder (which creates flowchart and checklist resources specifically for financial advisors), and a Financial Advisor with Ohanesian/Lecours – explores the importance of good note-taking and offers tools and suggestions that advisors can use to help them take better notes during (and after) client meetings.

Good notes documenting client meetings are important for several reasons. Most obviously, notes are reminders for both advisors and clients of the conversations and strategies discussed, as well as records of action items that need follow-up attention. Additionally, good notes help advisors and their teams stay updated with a client’s situation, allowing support staff to proactively service the client with account issues and other administrative tasks. Finally, meeting notes are essential should the advisor be accused of wrongdoing or brought to suit; a good, detailed note can be the key to a quick and easy resolution of the issue under investigation.

The best method for an advisor to use to take effective notes is highly personal and will depend on the nature of the meeting. Whether to handwrite or type notes is one consideration. As while studies have found students tend to remember lecture material better with handwritten notes (forcing them to think about material quickly as it is delivered and to summarize key points to simply keep up with the lecture) and that typing tends to be less thoughtful (as much of the information is simply transcribed verbatim), it may sometimes make more sense for advisors to type their meeting notes just to ensure the information is captured at all.  Especially since comprehensive notes are generally only created after meetings anyway, when advisors can thoughtfully process what transpired with the client (though taking brief handwritten notes during the meeting still may be most appropriate). Typing notes is also more conducive for advisors to enter such notes, details, and follow-up action items directly into an advisor CRM system.

Regardless of the medium, there are several traditional frameworks for organized note-taking. Two examples include the “Cornell Method”, which divides the page into functional areas for notes during and after a meeting, with space to create an overall summary, and the “Charting Method”, which organizes main points in a columnar format (useful for discussions bouncing back and forth between a few main topics). For advisors specifically, “Guided Notes” are customized templates useful for conducting meetings in a consistent, organized fashion.

Tech tools are also available to help make note-taking easier and more efficient. Redtail has introduced note templates customized for individual clients and that prompt advisors with reminders; MobileAssistant and Copytalk are apps that transcribe recorded notes; in addition to financial planning checklists and flowhcarts, fpPathfinder now offers interactive checklists with pre-populated questions to be used as a discussion guide with clients.

Ultimately, the key point is that, even though it may be difficult for advisors to take detailed notes during meetings, they should still make time to create complete and accurate notes afterward. There are many resources available for advisors to find out what works best for them to capture important details and to transfer these notes into their CRM systems. By developing excellent note-taking skills and habits, not only will advisors reduce the possibility that important details will ever be lost, they also empower their teams to proactively provide the best client service experience with access to well-organized, detailed client information.

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In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, many financial advisory firm owners are facing tremendous uncertainty about the future of their businesses. And even those business owners who have planned ahead for cyclical downturns may still have to make hard choices about how best to navigate the current turmoil and ensure the long-term survival of the business.

In this guest post, Angie Herbers – Chief Executive and Senior Consultant at Herbers & Company, an independent management and growth consultancy for financial advisory firms – walks advisors through six steps of crisis management that they can use to cope with the unique crisis we are facing today.  Because the truth is that even for experienced advisors who have been through market turmoil in the past, each crisis is different (posing unique challenges to firms at different stages in their growth), and in practice, the biggest risk to an effective crisis management response is one of “false equivalencies”, in which an advisory firm owner makes the assumption that the current crisis can be dealt with in the same manner as the last. In fact, while financial advisors may plan for aspirational growth, few businesses actually do the planning necessary to ensure they can maintain the stability of their business in the event a severe crisis turns into a protracted one.

Accordingly, there are certain steps an advisor can take to ensure their crisis management strategy is specifically tailored to the current situation at hand, and the risks that loom in the event that it does not recover quickly. The first step is an assessment of the specific crisis that needs to be addressed right now (which, in today’s environment, is the health pandemic crisis more so than it is the financial crisis) so that the advisor can focus their efforts on the right problem. This is followed by step #2, consisting of a SWOT analysis to identify the specific threats to their firm and its culture (without which, employees will leave after the pandemic passes, and just plunge the business into another crisis!) and how those threats might best be addressed. The third step is about continuity planning, and why flexible compensation and partnership pay structures are critical to maintaining resilience in times of extreme uncertainty. Next, engage in financial stress tests for the business, recognizing that stress tests that examine stability, focusing on capital allocation and cash flow instead of growth rates and profit margin, are more relevant than aspirational or functional stress tests during times of crisis. From there, it’s time to engage in strategic planning about what firms will do to fix (and prevent) the specific problems many firms are probably facing in today’s tumultuous environment. And the last step is implementation, in which strategies are implemented with a focus on the firm’s culture, clients, and long-term organizational stability.

Ultimately, the key point is that financial advisors, like many other business owners facing hard choices in light of the current crisis situation, can take a course of action to respond to their situation, and if the right choices are made with the intent to protect the culture of the business (as well as the employees entrenched in that culture) over everything else, chances are that the business will survive this crisis, and will be positioned to grow even stronger and better equipped to face the next crisis. But the starting point is to be ready and willing to make the hard choices necessary to ensure the business survives and has the opportunity to thrive in the long run!

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