By: Linda Leitz, PhD, CFP®, CDFA, EA
There are financial advisors who don’t take the time to get to know what prospective clients want before turning them into clients. Financial planners in the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP) take the time to find out what consumers want and have some sense of what they need before proposing a client relationship. The preliminary appointment that ACP members are taught doesn’t involve a long and tedious questionnaire that the average consumer finds overwhelming and intimidating. Simple data gathering and nature conversation about the prospective clients’ desires and their situation build the foundation for a relationship before any money changes hands.
This preliminary appointment gives the potential clients the chance to get to know the advisor and develop a sense of whether they might enjoy working together and benefit from the advisor’s approach. The advisor is simultaneously listening to the clients’ desires and assessing whether it is a good fit. ACP advisors are comfortable with working with a variety of client situations, and also with referring clients to another advisor if that’s best for the client.
What does this first meeting look like from both sides? From the prospective clients’ view, there is some general gathering of information, a relaxed and insightful conversation with their potential financial planner, and a chance to look at their finances with a new outlook. For the financial planner the appointment allows an opportunity to meet some interesting people, determine what concerns them about their finances, hone in on what they should be concerned about financially, and decide if they are a fit as clients. It’s liberating to everyone involved to know that both the clients and the financial planner are able to decide if working together makes sense.
Doing what’s best for the client is at the heart of the ACP methodology. It’s what impels the advisor to learn about prospective clients before they become clients. And when a financial planner does what’s best for the client, everyone wins. The advisor develops a growing practice with loyal clients and clients are positioned to gain financial independence and feel at ease with their finances.