Review your goals twice every day in order to be focused on achieving them. —Les Brown
This chapter details a structured meeting plan for each client as part of your wealth management deliverables and your client loyalty and retention efforts. This is also part of the “consultative process.”
Each client meeting needs to use a structured agenda. Objectives for all meetings need to be established, whether the meeting is simply a check-in call, a telephone-based portfolio review, or a face-to-face meeting. See Figure 6-1.
Figure 6-1 | Planning and Review process.
This process may be the most overlooked one of the six core client-facing processes. Do not take it for granted. It is an important and critical process because this is one of the limited opportunities you have to meet face-to-face with your best clients—the 20 percent to 30 percent of those who provide you with two-thirds to three-quarters or more of your revenues, your most important feedback, and perhaps your best introductions.
Client meetings create engagement and face-to-face meetings have maximum impact. Where possible, it is important to spend face-to-face time with your best clients in other settings as well, whether social, intimate events, or other opportunities. We fully understand the practical limits of time and cost. Nevertheless, it’s important to be face-to-face with top clients whether in your office, their office or home, or some social setting. Harvey Mackay once said, “The most important reading you can do is on your client’s desks and walls.”1 It is on the client’s and prospect’s turf where you learn more about their reality, what they are like, and what’s important to them.
A Forbes Insights article, “Business Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face,” made these points about business executives:
• Eighty-four percent preferred face-to-face communications.
• Eighty-five percent of those said face-to-face communication builds stronger, more meaningful business relationships.
• They also said face-to-face meetings are best for persuasion (91 percent), leadership (87 percent), and engagement (86 percent).
• Face-to-face contact generates a collaborative environment, inspires, and energizes a positive emotional climate between both parties.
• Lunch or coffee meetings also build relationships and camaraderie, credibility, and trust.2
Face-to-face meetings are important! Having said that, it’s important to recognize that meetings with clients should also be convenient. Some clients, even if relatively local, do not like to travel to their advisor’s office. As our society is so mobile, we don’t want to lose great clients because they move. We don’t want to put in the client’s minds that we must meet in person. Creating an in-person requirement can cause issues, even though it adds value. So, consider options where appropriate: Give clients a choice, including the option of having a telephone meeting or a videoconference. Being local is not mandatory with technologies like Skype and GoToMeeting, which can make meetings more convenient for clients.
This is the process where regular client interaction has the most depth; therefore, this is where client engagement takes place. While there are a number of definitions of “client engagement,” the one by Leslie Pagel at CustomerThink is excellent: While the focus here was on the “B-to-B Customer Experience,”3 the metrics used consist of four elements that apply directly to FAs and clients. For most organizations, the ideal definition of customer engagement is based on four factors—product usage, sentiment, involvement, and competitive status.
Product usage refers to the number of products and services you offer that the customer or client uses from your “basket” of capabilities. The more products and services used by clients the more they are committing to you (i.e., the more “engaged” they are). While more products and services increases “stickiness” because it becomes more complex to undo the relationship, the key point is that it is about the client’s commitment to you. In financial services we can measure cross-sell, such as the use of services like banking and lending, insurance, credit cards if offered, and online services. It’s not only about the revenues from those products and services; it’s mostly about loyalty and retention.
Sentiment means how the client feels and thinks about you. How important are you to your clients’ lives, including their families? Do you have a meaningful relationship with the spouse, children, parents, and others in the client’s family? Are you seen as a resource for decisionmaking when the client wants to purchase an item that isn’t in your “basket” (e.g., a vacation home or travel package or an automobile). Do you know about the health and welfare of their young children, their parents, their millennial children? Have you had a family financial planning meeting? Would they trust you for that? Do you check regularly about how they feel about your services and what more you might be doing? Do you know the depth of feeling they have about your importance to their lives? These ideas are certainly critical to HNW client retention, but at some level, you can know about most of the clients you want to retain over time through a proactive contact strategy. As an advisor you can measure loyalty to some degree by the longevity of the relationship, the answers to questions you should be asking at review meetings, formal surveys, and introductions to others. But as we always say, past loyalty is no promise of future longevity. It’s all about doing the next right thing frequently.
Involvement is a very interesting metric in the advisory business. Many clients are reticent to attend events (seemingly especially in New York City), but this is a worthwhile point to note if the events are “presold” and designed for client interest. Even getting clients to in-person review meetings can be challenging, so hopefully you have presold involvement as part of your intake process. Face-to-face is where relationships develop. Will your clients act as a reference where appropriate? Would they be willing to act as a case study and engage via social media? Over time you can get a sense of their involvement. If you send them a card or a small gift, do you get a thank-you call or note? Are they willing to have you meet with them in their home or office under appropriate circumstances? Does your relationship go beyond the office? Would they be willing to introduce you to their family members and/or friends? You can clearly see these clients are “engaged.”
Finally, where do you stand with regard to being your client’s sole or at least primary advisor? How committed is the client to you? Do they work with a competitor and measure you against the competitor’s performance? If you have done a financial plan and were able to uncover all their assets, liquid and illiquid, you can know the answer, assuming the data is truthful. If the client is not willing to share complete data it could well be that the client is not “engaged” and you have to determine if this client fits the way you choose to conduct your business. There are reasons and times you will be willing to continue the relationship and work toward “engagement,” but recognize this may become an issue over time because your competitor may well be applying the same strategy.
We have not seen advisors typically measure “client engagement” in a structured/formal manner or an unstructured manner. It costs time and therefore resources, but simple measurements for those top 20 percent to 30 percent of clients can have significant value to your practice.
One of the key benefits of having “engaged” clients is that engaged clients have a higher propensity to refer, and your client meetings are key to creating engagement. Julie Littlechild, who speaks to client engagement, says, “Engaged clients meet three key criteria—a client who is satisfied, loyal, and actively provides referrals.” It is in your face-to-face client meetings that you have the “right conversations” that can lead to those introductions.
Littlechild’s study says the “right conversations” lead to:
• Deeper connections with clients, which are reflected in higher levels of contact (e.g., 68 percent of engaged clients expect three or more portfolio reviews/year).
• Stronger personal relationships between advisors and clients, who look to the financial advisor to lead.
• Ongoing conversation; beyond reviews, client input is solicited with respect to the business. Engaged clients are more likely to have been asked for feedback, and they are more likely to believe that feedback will have a real impact on the relationship.4
Relationships with “engaged clients” are more expensive than average in part because of the increased contact (as shown in Chapter 4 and discussed further in Chapter 9). The extra time and cost is an investment in your best clients and provides you the many benefits5 you want from your best clients:
• Engaged clients are more than satisfied and more than loyal.
• Engaged clients go out of their way to show their association with you.
• Engaged clients support you during both good and bad times because they believe what you offer is superior to others.
• Engagement takes your client beyond passive loyalty to become an active participant and promoter of your solutions.
• Engaged clients will want to give you more feedback—and you should be ready to handle it!
• Engaged clients will spend more money with you over time.
To move a client toward engagement, several elements must be in place:
• Clients need to have a written financial plan. There are a broad range of financial plans: from a basic cash flow analysis and retirement income plan to the plan with financial goals, funding for a college education, buying a larger home, starting a business, retiring “on time,” leaving a legacy, personal net worth statement, cash flow analysis, debt, savings and investing plans, retirement strategy including accumulation and distribution strategies, comprehensive risk management plans, long-term investment plans, customized asset allocation strategy, investment policy statement, performance benchmarks, tax reduction strategies, and estate plans.
• The FA needs to develop a strong personal relationship with the client.
• Clients expect and need to receive a much higher level of contact than clients who are “just” content.
• There needs to be a greater sense of ownership and control when clients are asked for, and provide, feedback on the client experience.
This level of service and relationship management has significant time and cost implications. Because of the time and cost involved, engagement is typically part of the A client experience and evaluated against the value of the client and the client’s potential.
To reiterate, a key part of creating engagement is taking the opportunity to seek client feedback and introductions. (We will discuss requests for introductions in Chapter 9.)
There are a number of attachments as part of this process. We will discuss each attachment in context of the process. This process is designed not only to inform clients about their portfolio but also to:
• Determine any changes that have taken place in their lives that may have affected or could affect their finances and/or plans and/or wants and needs.
• Continue the ongoing process of building and deepening the relationship.
• Ensure that the client is satisfied or, if not, develop plans and actions to improve satisfaction.
• Secure introductions to new prospective clients.
As far as scheduling your Client Planning and Review meetings, whether face-to-face or on the telephone, meetings need to be set up in advance and put on the client’s and advisor’s calendars. First of all, we suggest that FAs set aside an appropriate number of client meeting blocks on their Model Week and CRM calendar based on their workload calculations.
• For example, schedule a meeting every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. This allows four two- and-a-half hour time blocks for preparation, client meeting, and follow-up. Select whatever time works for you and block it on your calendar.
• The assistant can fill those times with actual client meeting times. This method limits the assistant from overscheduling the advisor, and the advisor has a structure for her or his calendar.
• Naturally these times may not work for all clients, and adjustments will be made where needed, especially for A and B clients.
Organization and structure saves time and increases efficiency. Meeting preparation time can be separated from actual meeting times as desired, as long as they are planned and blocked. Times not filled by the previous week can be released in a manner to be determined between the advisor and assistant.
• We recommend the assistant lists the meetings that are on the contact plan for the ensuing month by the 10th of that month (e.g., by April 10, May meetings are listed).
• The list is given to the advisor, who validates or modifies the meeting plan by the 15th of the month (April in this case).
• The assistant calls the clients on the list by the 20th of the month (April) and schedules the May meetings.
• The assistant sends (emails) the tentative agenda to the client by the end of the month (April in this case.)
• The assistant confirms the meetings by telephone two days before the meeting and prepares the appropriate package for the advisor after confirmation and provides the package to the advisor 48 to 72 hours in advance of the meeting. These are standards that can be modified by practice.
As desired by the practice, the assistant can ask the advisor to use a list and check off the preparation material the advisor wants for the meeting. This checklist, shown in Figure 6-2, can be modified to meet the needs of the practice.
The Client Planning and Review Meeting Process starts with planned client meetings, face-to-face or by telephone. In addition to engagement, face-to-face meetings are highly preferable for seeking introductions.
Every meeting must have a client meeting agenda. An agenda does several things, including:
• Displays professionalism.
• Gives the clients an advance view of what will be discussed so they can be both mentally prepared for what you are going to address as well as have an opportunity to modify the agenda to their wants and needs.
• Makes sure you cover everything that’s important.
• Keeps you on time.
• Gives you a reminder to seek feedback and introductions.
• Sets client expectations. Too often the meeting goes too long and these critical topics are unaddressed. It’s important to plan your time so that these subjects are discussed.
Figures 6-3 and 6-4 are two sample agendas for the Client Planning and Review Meeting.
Figure 6-2 | Client meeting checklist.
Street Smart Research Group, LLC
Practice Optimization for FAs
Client Meeting Checklist
Agenda
Most Recent Statement
Quarterly Performance Review
Copy of Financial Plan
Client’s Scorecard
Client’s Goals (to Guide Decision-Making)
Current Client Fact Finder (to Ensure Updated Personal and Financial Information)
Notes from Last Appointment
Other Key Notes
Actions Taken Since Last Appointment
Outstanding Communication Information
Preferred Contact Information
Monthly Newsletter
Quarterly Research Overview
Website Access
Other Account Statements Based on Relationship, Household, Authority, etc.
List
List
List
Tax Return (Insert Years)
Referral Form
Discovery Sheet from Advisor Notes
Client Goal Plan
Insurance Policies
Life
LTC
Health
P&C
Other
Other
Other
Figure 6-3 | Client Planning and Review Meeting agenda (sample 1).
Street Smart Research Group, LLC
Practice Optimization for FAs
Planned Meeting Agenda for M/M First and Last Names
Month, Day, Year, and Location
• Review and Modification of Agenda
• Recent or Upcoming Life Events
• Review Goals, Priorities, Issues, Concerns
• Has anything changed regarding your goals?
• Review Progress to Goals
• Are they on target?
• Current Events and Status of the Markets
• Review of Portfolio Content and Why We are Invested in the Way It Is
• Questions and Answers
• Portfolio Review
• Discussion of Any Necessary, Suggested, or Desired Portfolio Changes
• Questions and Answers
• Net Worth Analysis
• Additional Financial Needs
• Other (Specify)
• Meeting Summary and Next Steps
• Service Feedback
• What are we currently doing that you’d like to see us continue?
• What aren’t we doing that you’d like to see us do? or Is there one area where you think we could do a litle better in meeting your needs?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being exceptional, how would you rate our services?
• Introduction Discussion
Figure 6-4 | Client Planning and Review Meeting agenda (sample 2).
• Topics or Areas of Most Interest/Priority
• Short-Term Goals for 2016?
• Long-Term Goals for 2017 and Beyond?
• Investment Policy Statement
• Asset Allocation
• Portfolio Review/Performance Reporting
• What “One Thing” Can We Do Better for You?
• Action Items/Modifications
• Goals _______________________________________
• IPS _________________________________________
• Asset Allocation ________________________________
• Other _________________________________________
• Suggested Next Meeting Dates
Financial Planning
Potential Short-Term and Long-Term Expenses
Annual Review
Status of Financial Needs
Annual Income Needs
Though optional, we recommend the assistant email a note/letter and agenda to the client in advance of the meeting so they can review it and ask for any modifications they want. This also serves as a reminder. The email is intended to increase the level of importance of the meeting so clients are more willing to attend. Workload would determine if and for whom (e.g., A and B clients only) this part of the process is done. The letter shown in Figure 6-5 would be sent once the advisor has approved the meeting list. Compliance approval may be required.
The Client Planning and Review Meeting is primarily for the client’s benefit—to review their current situation, discuss their goals and portfolio, and identify any changes that have taken place since the last meeting and any changes necessary based on your review. We also want to use the meeting to make sure the breadth and depth of the client’s financial needs are fulfilled, as well as ensure high client satisfaction and, as appropriate, seek introductions to potential new clients.
We would like the advisor to benefit from the meeting whether it is to ensure high client satisfaction, secure introductions, or grow the relationship. We recommend advisors ask several key questions of themselves before each meeting so they have their goals clearly in mind in advance of the meeting and plan how they are going to get their desired goals met. See Figure 6-6. (Introductions, again, will be discussed in Chapter 9.)
Once the meeting is complete, the advisor would record notes in a client relationship management (CRM) system and record any potential prospects in a Prospect/Suspect Tracker (spreadsheet). The advisor would also identify actions to be taken by client and firm, assign due dates and tasks, and prepare a summary letter that is sent to the client with action items and dates to be completed. Follow-up in some form may also be required. The summary letter or email sent after the meeting would include a thank-you to the clients, with any “to-dos” and the associated due dates called out. (See Figure 6-7.) Discuss the feedback and introductions with your teammates.
Figure 6-5 | Sample letter/email sent before the Client Planning and Review Meeting.
Street Smart Research Group, LLC
Practice Optimization for FAs
March 28, 20XX
Client Name
Address
Address
Dear Bill and Billie,
First paragraphs change regularly, perhaps every 3, 6, or 12 months.
The last months have seen significant volatility in the markets and concerns in the socio-economic and international and domestic business environments. Most important as always is for investment professionals like me to ensure that my clients have the best distribution of assets to enable you to reach your goals while managing volatility and risk.
Given the changes that have taken place in portfolios due to changes in equity and fixed income values, the current environment, and laws affecting estates and investments, my colleagues and I conclude that it is more important than ever to review your entire portfolio.
This review should be conducted with an eye toward both making sure that you are not taking more risk than necessary to reach your financial goals and objectives, and making sure that your tax burden is not more than you are legally required to pay.
I look forward to meeting with you in the next several weeks. We will call you to schedule an appointment or call us at any time to schedule a time we can get together to make sure that you are optimally positioned, not just with assets that you have with me, but also to ensure that all of your assets are working in harmony together.
Attached is an agenda of the subjects I would plan to address. Please let us know if there are any other subjects of interest or concern to you.
I look forward to speaking with you soon.
FA
Financial Advisor
Private Client Group
Phone Number
Figure 6-6 | Client goal plan.
Street Smart Research Group, LLC
Practice Optimization for FAs
Client Meeting Goal Plan
Client _______________________________________________________
Questions
What is my business goal for this client? e.g., Improve ROA?, Gather additional data?, Gather assets away? Move to fee-based? Get introductions? Seek other business?
What is it about this relationship that would make this client willing to work with me toward this goal?
How will I go about achieving my goal? e.g., What is my work plan?
What feedback will I seek? e.g.,
• What are we currently doing that you’d like to see us continue?
• What are we currently doing that isn’t valuable or helpful to you?
• Is there one area where you think we could do better in meeting your needs?
• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 = exceptional) how would you rate our services?
Feedback is positive and I am seeking introductions—how will I ask?
Figure 6-7 | Sample letter sent after the face-to-face meeting.
Street Smart Research Group, LLC
Practice Optimization for FAs
Financial Management Group
FA Name, Senior Financial Advisor
Address
City, State Zip
(800) 555-5555
MONTH DD, YYYY
Dear Mr. and Mrs. CLIENT’S NAME
ADDRESS
CITY, STATE ZIP
Dear CLIENT’S NAME,
Thank you.
First and foremost, I want to thank you for being my client and tell you how much I appreciate the trust and confidence you place in me by choosing me as your Financial Advisor. I know you have many other choices you could make, so I am particularly grateful you choose me.
Meeting Summary
Second, I want to summarize our meeting of MONTH DATE. During our meeting we:
• Reviewed family, status, and financial changes during the past year and discovered you had an opportunity to roll over your 401(k) into the IRA we manage for your and you signed the paperwork. We were also able to update your financial plan with the additional data.
Congratulations on the birth of your new grandson, NAME III. It was a wonderful gift to fund his 529 with an advance contribution of $60,000. It would be great if in 18 years his college education is covered by your generosity.
• Reviewed and validated your financial goals and determined we were on target.
• Reviewed your portfolio to make sure you understand in what we are invested and in general in the way it is invested with regard to asset allocation and asset diversification.
• Reviewed your portfolio and performance since our last meeting. We have targeted a 4.8% return base on the risk we are willing to accept and the diversification we have established. We are on target with our goals based on rational markets and have achieved a return of 6.3%. I want to make sure we understand this has been a good year for the market. We have taken some cautionary actions by moving some mid and small cap funds into fixed income securities. While this will lower our 20XX target to 4.2%, we agreed this is a much better way to manage your assets for the coming year.
Month DD, 20XX
Page 2
• Proposed updating your Net Worth Analysis so we can make sure the modified portfolio remains able to meet your retirement spending plans. I will call you to set a date for that meeting.
• Reviewed your additional financial needs and decided to further discuss long-term care, which we will do when we review your net worth plan.
Feedback
Third, I asked you for feedback. Client service and satisfaction are my top priorities and my structured processes ensure a proactive contact management process along with a well-thought-out investment management approach to provide the best distribution of assets to enable you to reach your goals while managing volatility and risk. I do not want to wait a year in some cases to solicit your input and make any changes that would improve the way we work together.
In order to meet this objective, we want to ensure that we have an open, ongoing dialogue through:
• Regular, proactive contact
• Our best clients tell us when we are not performing up to their expectations and while we will check in with you frequently, we encourage you to call us immediately with any questions or concerns whether it’s related to account management, your statement, fees, or anything you may have heard from a colleague, friend, etc. Please call us, we are here to help.
Assistance
There are times when a family member, relative, friend, neighbor, or business acquaintance may be going through a significant life transition. I am available to help anyone you think can use me as a resource or to get a second opinion. If we can help any of the folks who are going through any of the following, please call us and we are happy to set up an appointment.
1. Work life transitions like retirement who may not know if they can afford to do that or have changed jobs and are not sure how to handle their 401(k)
2. Financial life transition like wanting a second opinion about their investments in this current market environment
3. Family life transitions like a change in marital status or seeking advice on funding their children’s education costs
4. Legacy life transitions like wondering how to handle inheritance or other estate issues
I look forward to our next chat and to meeting with you again soon.
Sincerely Yours,
Name
Senior Financial Advisor
Financial Management Group
There are many topics that can be discussed in a check-in phone call. What you discuss depends on the client, their interests, how sensitive they are to market conditions, and your relationship and knowledge of that client, among other factors. It also depends on whether the lead advisor is calling or an assistant or junior advisor who doesn’t know that client particularly well.
When the advisor makes the check-in call, she or he can do a quick review of what’s going on in the markets as appropriate and ask if there is anything happening in the client’s life and family you should know about. Certainly you can ask questions (“How have you been since we last spoke?”) and always offer to answer any questions they may have.
Check-in calls continue to be about relationship building and having consistent communications with the client, to show you are protecting the assets they have put in your care.
Here are examples of check-in call talking points:
• Ask: “How is everything going at home? Are there any special expenses you are projecting over the next 6 to 12 months? Are there any significant changes or concerns in your life?”
• Identify key changes that have taken place in the client’s financial life (e.g., job changes affect retirement plans/rollovers).
• Give a quick market status and perspective.
• Discuss a thematic topic of the month (or quarter), such as longterm care insurance (LTC) or estate planning status, depending on the client.
• Give a quick portfolio status, in line with planned asset allocation, if appropriate. For example, “We are doing well.” “Everything is fine.” It’s better to stay away from portfolio discussions especially if this is a monthly check-in call, because we want to keep portfolio reviews to the regular schedule, from quarterly to annual, depending on the client’s tier. Unless necessary, we suggest not discussing portfolio changes or new solutions because the check-in call is not intended to be a sales call. Should clients bring up opportunities, you will of course address them.
• Gather “client wisdom”—that is, general information about contact numbers, changes in personal lives, preferences, sports, hobbies, etc.
• Ask about vacation plans. “Where are you going?” “Have you been there before?” Or, when they get back, “How was your vacation?” Check your notes.
• Gather information about the client’s other advisors such as CPAs and Trust and Estate attorneys. Chapter 9 discusses Centers of Influence (COI) marketing, but here are some questions:
• Are there times your CPA or Trust and Estate attorney may call?
• Is it okay to chat with them in general? If they want any specific data, would we need a letter of authorization?
• Do you highly regard this professional? Why?
• How did you meet this professional?
• Would you refer them to others? Why?
• Would you introduce me?
• Establish the desire for a face-to-face meeting to conduct a portfolio review and determine if there is anything the client would like to discuss (e.g., a financial plan, their estate plan).
• Close by asking, “Do you have any other questions?”
Always thank the client for working with you.
Note that check-in calls will vary by the frequency of the call. You need to vary the content for monthly check-in calls compared to semiannual or quarterly check-in calls. This is another reason note taking in your CRM system is important. We recommend recording notes for all client contacts. If spoken into the system or using a service like Copytalk, it can be done in one minute or less.
Every client contact is a relationship-building opportunity. Speaking to clients monthly or bimonthly about their business, their family, their children at college, their other interests, etc., is an opportunity to go beyond the business relationship with the people you never want to lose. Systematic contact, paying attention, record keeping in your client relationship management system—all are critical to your long-term success as well as to earning introductions to people they care about. This is about showing caring!
You can also use the call as a service check-in by asking one to three of the following questions about your service to make sure you are meeting your client’s wants and needs:
1. Are we adding value above and beyond investment performance?
2. Is our advice helping you create a better financial future?
3. Do you feel you have a clear plan in place to meet your financial goals?
4. Are you confident that the financial plan you have in place will allow you to reach your financial goals? Are you being consistent with the savings and spending plans we discussed when we did your financial plan?
5. Do you feel we fully understand your goals for the future?
6. Are we reviewing your objectives frequently enough to understand if your needs have changed?
7. Is the short- to mid-term performance (one to five years) of your portfolio meeting your expectations?
8. Is the long-term (six-plus years) performance of your portfolio meeting your expectations?
9. Are we contacting you frequently enough?
10. Is there anything else we need to be doing to make sure you are pleased with our services?
In some cases, a sales/service assistant can make check-in calls. When an assistant makes the calls, the discussion topics we’ve outlined would need customization.
Putting in place a structured process for Client Planning and Review delivers consistency and content, and displays competence, character, and comfort. The intent of this process is value-added contact. You want to:
• Display technical competence and know-how.
• Engender trust with ethical conduct and character.
• Engender trust with empathic skills and maturity.
• Create a positive emotional feeling so your clients can:
• Stay informed.
• Know they are on track to meet their goals.
• Sleep better at night.
• Garner benefits by:
• Creating engagement.
• Building relationships through face-to-face contact.
• Delivering on your promises.
• Gathering service feedback.
• Acquiring introductions.