Client Values Matter More than Your Tech Stack

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Human beings are fascinating creatures. We have the motivation to plan, yet we fall down when it comes to implementation. This is no different in the profession of financial planning.

The first meetings with a new client are some of the best. Advisors are in a unique position during these initial sessions to quickly achieve a deeper understanding of the people we’re working with, more so than in any other profession. Our clients open up and tell us what they want to achieve in life, their aspirations, and how they want to support and protect the people they love.

Then we turn those fantastic conversations with clients into risk profiles, performance reports, and various financial documents that have little meaning to clients and their values.

Why? Because their tech stack doesn’t support the advice process or a client-centric experience. Instead, it supports product recommendations, compliance, or financial performance and dresses them up as client outputs that require financial understanding and interest from the client.

Speaking from experience as an advisor, only one person typically reviews these outputs: the spouse.

Being reliant on the spouse as your advocate is a red flag that restricts your referral, retention, and revenue potential. Even more concerning, this “tried and true” process that places financial expertise at the heart of the experience stifles implementation. We don’t buy a car to understand combustion engines or how spark plugs work. We buy a car to get from point A to point B. It’s the same with financial planning. Yes, you need some understanding of how you're going to get to B and how it all works. The advisor should support the client in mastering it – they are the satellite navigation, driving assistance, cameras, etc.