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Using ‘Magic Wand’ Questions To Help Clients Articulate Financial Needs And Goals (That They Otherwise Struggle To Express)

January 10, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

In initial discovery meetings, financial advisors face the challenge of eliciting specific goals from new clients – a crucial step for crafting a comprehensive financial plan. Asking direct queries may elicit vague responses like "I want to be on track for retirement", which tends to lack the detail needed to plan effectively and spark the client's motivation to actually accomplish those goals. Moreover, probing into a client's financial aspirations might inadvertently lead to negative emotions if past failures are brought to light, potentially eliciting feelings like anxiety, guilt, and shame that could ultimately hinder the client's ability to discuss their goals openly.

If a client struggles to discuss their goals, one way for a financial advisor to redirect the conversation in a more productive direction could be to reframe the question with a positive focus; rather than being reminded of their previous emotional baggage around money, the advisor encourages the client to imagine a more hopeful financial future. For example, they can ask the client: "Imagine you had a magic wand that could let you change anything about your current financial situation – what would you change, and why?"

Techniques like the 'Magic Wand' question are effective because they are solution-focused; they emphasize envisioning positive changes rather than recalling the anxiety or frustration that the client may be experiencing because of the issue. This approach encourages the client to separate their goal from any emotional pain associated with that goal, helping them to focus on the actions they are able to take without the emotional burden of past setbacks. Not only can Magic Wand questions be used as an effective way to recover a conversation veering into negative emotional territory by shifting the mood more positively, but they can also be used to proactively initiate positive brainstorming sessions about financial goals and needs. And for client couples, the Magic Wand question is a gentle way to help partners reveal their individual financial concerns with each other by keeping the conversation light-hearted and solution-focused, steering clear of blame and other negative emotions.

The key point is that in a society where financial status often reflects on personal character, financial difficulties can provoke feelings of guilt and shame – and it may be easy for people to focus on those negative feelings instead of actionable improvements. For financial advisors, having tools like the 'Magic Wand' question can be invaluable for steering clients away from the emotional turmoil of their current financial issues and towards clear, solution-focused strategies for achieving their goals!

#FA Success Ep 367: When Being In Business With Your Spouse Doesn’t Work Out And You Have To Start Over, With Kimberly Enders

January 9, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Kimberly Enders Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome back to the 367th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Kimberly Enders. Kimberly is the Lead Financial Planner and Managing Partner of Enders Wealth Management, a hybrid advisory firm based in Sterling Heights, Michigan, that oversees $50M in assets under management for 85 client households.

What's unique about Kimberly, though, is that after building a practice jointly with her husband, in 2015, she had to reinvent herself after a divorce left her without a practice and starting over with just 12 clients and $7M in assets and how, in the 8 years since, she has built herself up by developing a highly customized 12-month onboarding process for new clients that has driven her ability to generate rapid growth through referrals .

In this episode, we talk in-depth about what Kimberly learned through entering and then exited a business relationship with her husband that was, unfortunately for her, not structured in a way to fully protect her claim to the clients and revenue of the practice, what Kimberly did to turn her career around through honing in on her ideal target client and steadily pruning away those who are no longer a good fit , and how Kimberly has structured her 12-month onboarding plan for new clients that focuses on comfort with the technology and advisor/client relationships with her before she even starts to approach financial planning after a full 6 months with a new client… a system that has allowed Kimberly's firm to grow almost entirely from referrals alone.

We also talk about Kimberly's journey of trying every "Food Group" in the industry (all the different industry channels where you can work as an advisor) before starting an independent practice with her now-ex-husband , the way that Kimberly and her ex-husband grew the practice but each focusing on their individual strengths (where he drove marketing and business development, and Kimberly was focused on the client portfolios), and how Kimberly realized that while growth is good, too much growth too quickly can be detrimental to both her clients and her own ability to serve them to her high standard (which helped her get comfortable with letting go of early clients who were no longer the right fit).

And be certain to listen to the end where Kimberly shares why she suggests all new advisors try out a lot of the industry's "Food Groups" before picking a path (as she notes that knowing and getting experience in the other paths in the financial advisor industry helped round out her own knowledge, and find the path that truly aligned to her own values ), the unexpected surprises that Kimberly struggled with while starting her own advisory firm, including managing coworkers, starting an LLC and the headaches that come with payroll and benefit packages for her employees (beyond the client and portfolio work she was so comfortable with), and how Kimberly's definition of success has increasingly focused on the autonomy and control she has over her time to do with it as she pleases… while recognizing that business and financial success are what provide the money that allows her to have more control of her time in the first place!

So, whether you're interested in learning about how not to run an advising firm with a close friend or spouse, how to maintain a stable job regardless of the number of different companies in your employment history or how to create a practice that is so client-centered that everyone you serve can't help but tell everyone about it, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Kimberly Enders.

The Future Of Financial Advice: How Tech and Approaches In 2030 Will Differ From Today

January 8, 2024 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Planning Profession

Professional service industries tend to evolve over time as the regulatory environment evolves and new technologies emerge. For instance, the financial advice industry has seen many changes to regulations (for both advisors and their clients), advisor business models, and the advisor technology landscape. These changes all have the potential to change the industry by shifting the current focus on selling financial products (including financial plans themselves) to providing a more in-depth and personalized experience that helps anticipate future issues in a client's life and better help them identify the goals that will help them thrive. And the wide scope of technology tools supporting advisors to shift into providing more client-centric services makes this new era in the future of financial advice possible!

The changing patterns in how financial advice is delivered can be compared to the similar trends seen in the evolution of medicine. Dr. Peter Attia, author of the book Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, describes the trajectory of medicine in 3 stages: Medicine 1.0 represents the time in history when healers believed that illness was attributed mainly to supernatural forces, Medicine 2.0 represents our current state of healthcare, in which genetic makeup and the environment play a major role in illness and disease, and where the focus of doctors lies primarily on the administration of treatments to cure and mitigate human ailments; and Medicine 3.0 is the projected future direction of medical care, where, instead of taking a reactive approach to disease and illness, healthcare practitioners instead invest more energy focusing on preventing illness and maintaining good health in the first place through more personalized plans for patients.

In the context of the financial planning industry, whereas Financial Advice 1.0 and 2.0 represent our past and present industry's reactive focus on coming up with solutions to address client problems, Financial Advice 3.0 offers an optimistic future glimpse of financial planning where advisors offer deeply tailored planning experiences, pairing human advice with digital service and support to fully engage clients in a more proactive approach to financial planning. Specifically, Financial Advice 3.0 improves on the previous iterations of planning by involving a more thorough technical analysis of a client's unique situation than it did before and drilling deeper to reveal more planning opportunities to present to clients.

Furthermore, with the efficiencies built-in to emerging technology (ranging from tax planning software that helps with the tactical aspects of executing tax planning strategies, to estate planning software that helps clients better understand their estate plan, to specialized planning software that lets advisors go deeper into various planning areas important to their clients, and even to advice engagement software that engages clients with the advice provided), advisors can focus more of their time on enhancing the 'softer' side of providing advice to clients and not just implementing a relatively static financial plan. And by building more empathetic relationships and having deeper conversations with clients, advisors who implement Financial Advice 3.0 build the trust needed to fully understand the client's unique situation and concerns while creating a highly engaging client experience.

Ultimately, the key point is that financial advisors have new technologies and approaches that increasingly support a shift into a more proactive, interactive, and dynamically engaging version of planning for clients – Financial Advice 3.0. This approach comes with a new generation of tools and resources that allow advisors to focus on building stronger client relationships and providing clients with a more meaningful planning experience. Which could lead not only to better planning outcomes for clients, but also to new opportunities for advisors to grow their firms!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (January 6-7)

January 5, 2024 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that comment letters submitted regarding the Department of Labor's (DoL) proposed Retirement Security Rule, which is intended to strengthen standards regarding the provision of certain retirement-related advice, reflect the contentious nature of the proposal, with brokerage and insurance industry groups arguing that existing regulations are sufficient to protect investors and questioning the legality of the measure and groups promoting a more consistent application of fiduciary standards writing in strong support of the proposal.

Also in industry news this week:

Recent data show that RIAs are gaining on wirehouses in terms of advisor headcount and assets under management, with these trends expected to continue over the next several years
The range of actions independent broker-dealers are taking to keep advisors under their umbrellas

From there, we have several articles on cash flow and spending:

A framework for determining whether a particular financial decision can be made relatively quickly or deserves additional consideration
Why "lifestyle creep", rather than inflation, might be more responsible for an individual's increased expenses and how to combat it
Why the hunt for good deals can be costly in terms of both time and money

We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:

Why the years immediately after retirement can be a particularly effective time to engage in (partial) Roth conversions
An analysis shows that "buffer" Registered Index-Linked Annuities (RILAs), where the product absorbs a certain amount of loss in the underlying index, continue to offer a better value proposition than "floor" RILAs, which cap the amount of downside risk the investor will face
Strategies that can help retirees get the most value out of of their Health Savings Account balances

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about New Year's Resolutions:

Potential New Year's Resolutions for financial advisors to consider implementing, from engaging in more targeted marketing to sharpening their technical skills
How a pre-commitment strategy can increase the chances that an individual will follow through with their New Year's Resolution
A range of tactics for creating and implementing a successful New Year's Resolution, from engaging in the "Minimum Viable Effort" to replacing, instead of trying to eliminate, bad habits

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

4th Quarter 2023 Economic And Market Outlook: Labor Market, Inflation, And Geopolitics

January 3, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

Niels Bohr famously observed that "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future!" The sentiment is especially poignant when it comes to economic forecasting, as it's nearly impossible to get an accurate picture of the current state of the economy at any given moment. As a result, uncertainty about how the economy may unfold, even along the shortest time frames, is the default. However, given the ongoing debate around the various 'hard', 'soft', or 'no-landing' scenarios that have dominated the headlines due to the Federal Reserve's campaign to tame inflation, it's safe to say that economic uncertainty is especially elevated at the moment. The good news is that by gaining a better understanding of some of the economy's key drivers, financial advisors have the opportunity to deliver more value to their clients by helping them better identify the opportunities and risks present in this highly uncertain environment!

As has been the case for several quarters, the prevailing characteristic remains a "tale of 2 economies". While the manufacturing sector (which makes up 'only' 8% of the U.S. economy) contracted for the 12th consecutive month, the services sector (constituting about 78% of GDP) expanded for the 11th consecutive month, serving as a primary driver behind continued wage inflation as well as tightness in the labor market.

While there's certainly a chance that the Fed will achieve its 2% inflation target without a commensurate spike in unemployment, there are still plenty of threats on the horizon. Notably, banks face pressure on several fronts, including declining values of longer-term debt holdings impacting balance sheets, savers shifting out of savings accounts as they seek higher-yielding money market funds, and record-level office vacancy rates that hinder the refinancing of low-rate real-estate loans into higher-rate loans.

Consumers, meanwhile, have just about burned their way through their post-COVID savings, which was the main driver for GDP growth in 2023. With credit card balances and delinquencies spiking and student loan payments resuming, it's unlikely that consumers will be able to sustain their spending levels and ride to the rescue once again in 2024. Businesses are also feeling the pinch from higher interest rates, as November saw a rapid increase in the number of Chapter 11 commercial bankruptcies.

The labor market, while still remarkably resilient, has also started to show signs of stress. Since the Fed started raising rates in March 2022, job growth has steadily slowed; continuing claims for unemployment hit a 2-year high; the average work week is getting shorter; and job openings, 'quit rates', and wage growth for job switchers have all been falling.

The good news is that while there's little doubt that the economy is indeed slowing, there don't seem to be any "black swans" lurking around the corner, as was the case for 2008's severe recession. As a result, professional forecasters generally agree that there's less than a 50% chance of negative growth throughout 2024 and that unemployment could rise to a manageable 4.1%.

That said, plenty of factors can still impact the economy and markets, including the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, increased tensions with China, a spiking debt-to-GDP ratio, and chances for a government shutdown. Moreover, historically extreme valuations in a small handful of mega-cap stocks that account for about 30% of the market weight in the S&P 500 (i.e., the Magnificent Seven) means that any sort of correction in those names could reverberate through the broader market.

The key point is that, given the current economic uncertainty, there are several ways that advisors can help clients prepare for potential downturns. This can involve reducing exposure to high-risk equities and longer-term bonds while moving towards shorter-term, lower-risk debt. Additionally, diversifying towards assets that still carry a risk premium but have a low correlation to stock market cycles or traditional bond inflation risks (e.g., reinsurance, private lending, consumer credit, long/short factor funds, commodities, and trend-following) can be beneficial. Ultimately, while no one has a (clear) crystal ball or control over any of the myriad factors influencing the markets, advisors play a crucial role in helping their clients understand and navigate these risks, keeping them focused on their long-term goals!

#FA Success Ep 366: Avoiding The ‘Big Swap’ Of Wealth And Health As Your Advisory Firm Grows, With Stevyn Guinnip

January 2, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Stevyn Guinnip Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome to the 366th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Stevyn Guinnip. Stevyn is founder of Grow Wellthy, a health and wellness consulting firm based in Springfield, Missouri that specializes in working with busy – but not always healthy – financial advisors.

What's unique about Stevyn, though, is how she combines her family roots in financial advice with her decades-long career in wellbeing and health as a coach to financial advisors, primarily to address what she calls The Big Swap – where we start our careers being younger and healthier but with very little income, and then grow to the point that we're financially successful but at the cost of swapping out our health – a trend that Stevyn is trying to reverse given how it impacts not only an advisor's quality of life but, ironically, also their finances but impacting when they have to retire (or not).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Stevyn sees the current "state of the union" when it comes to financial advisor health, and how in providing for others, they often forget themselves, leading to long hours and high stress, especially when coupled with the demands of life ranging from scaling businesses to building families, how, although Stevyn often sees the focus of financial well-being take precedence in the preparation for retirement, in reality, she views both financial wealth and physical well-th as necessary for advisors (and our clients) to have success and freedom in their later years, and how Stevyn utilizes the way that financial advisors are already wired – that is, around metrics, goals, and data – to visualize and optimize helping them find the metrics and measurements that cumulatively effect their health.

We also talk about how Stevyn's first introduction to the financial advisor industry actually pushed her away from it, as she watched her father (and many of his colleagues) achieve the financial success that set them up well for retirement, but without maintaining their holistic health that would have allowed them to truly enjoy their 'golden years', how Stevyn's own near-death experience in Australia caused her to recalibrate her own metrics and definitions of health, as well as sparked a pivot into focusing on financial advisors in particular, and how Stevyn has leveraged the language and terms that we as financial advisors use to speak about wellness, such as using "bad debt" to frame up concepts of sugar, sleep, and other high health hazards, and motivate advisors into action.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Stevyn shares how she saw her own metrics of health slip when building and scaling her business, which in turn made her realize that she didn't have to do it all and outsourced and reprioritized parts of her own business, why Stevyn believes that the first step to wellness comes from confronting and overcoming one's own procrastination and belief in future self, and by aiming for more incremental, natural changes focused around rest and movement, rather than the traditional images of diet and exercise, and why Stevyn views wellness not as a top-down process of science to behavior, but as a curiosity-driven journey between best practices, one's own inclinations, and finding behaviors and habits that we can comfortably sustain.

So, whether you're interested in the common health issues that financial advisors face, how Stevyn uses financial terms to frame health hazards and motivate advisors toward better health practices, or why Stevyn believes that wellness is a top-down process, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Stevyn Guinnip.