The Ultimate Financial Planning Question…

What they don’t teach you in Financial Adviser school!

For the last 15 years, I’ve been helping financial advisers all around the world knock their clients' socks off with Lifestyle Financial Planning. In this post, I’m going to share what I believe is the Ultimate Question a Financial Adviser can ask their new and prospective clients… that is IF they want to deliver REAL financial planning. It’s simple but highly effective if used correctly.

(IMPORTANT: This is intended for use only by advisers who genuinely want to deliver PROPER life centered financial planning - not just transactional product and investment advice)

I’m not just going to give you the question, but more importantly, I’m also going to explain WHEN to use it, WHAT the build-up to the question is, AND what happens AFTER you’ve asked the question. These are the crucial elements that will turn you into a financial planning superhero.

Here’s what this question will do for you.

• Demonstrate that you have your client's REAL interests at heart and that you are truly interested in what’s most important to them
• Take the focus OFF financial products and investments and move your relationship towards REAL financial planning (It will help you avoid what I call The Transaction Trap)
• They may have come to you for investment or product related advice, but this question gracefully turns them into a REAL financial planning client.
• It’s a meaningful question that clients just love to answer - it’s not weird or too touchy-feely and you’re not at risk of opening a can of worms - but it’s a question that they will sit back and think about… saying “That’s a good question!”
• It will elicit an answer that YOU can easily handle - so you can feel confident and totally congruent asking it.
• It allows you to take control of the client relationship - in fact, it funnels the client down YOUR WAY of doing things - so clients follow YOUR process. It’s your life too, remember!
• It will help you dig deeper and get the focus on the BIG things that everybody wants
• It will identify and confirm their need for REAL financial planning - something that your service truly delivers (or should!)
• Most important of all, it provides the perfect segue for you to powerfully explain - in a compelling way - what PROPER financial planning is really all about and HOW they will benefit by moving forward with you
• This then leads to the perfect opportunity to pitch your fees.
• Better still, most clients tend to provide EXACTLY the same sort of answer, so you can feel even more confident about asking it, and just know it will lead things towards the next stage of your service.

WHEN TO ASK…

OK, let’s talk about WHEN you ask this question. And I'm going to hit you over the head with it.

My advice is NEVER to ask prospective clients a BIG question too soon. And certainly not touchy-feely ones. They are expecting a conversation about money, not the meaning of life!

So, you DON’T ask this question early in a meeting. You ask it towards the end of the discovery/fact-finding meeting. In fact, it comes across as almost a summing-up type of question. What it actually does, is it leads to a fantastic close to the meeting where you can convey, visually, the incredible benefits of working with you.

You therefore ask this question AFTER you have conducted a thorough fact-finding session - where they have done most of the talking, not you - in which you have gathered hard and soft facts about that client, always focusing more on their life, not just their money.

Why at the end? I believe you have to earn the right to delve into a client's future and you can’t do that UNTIL you have built some trust and rapport. And that’s easy to do when you demonstrate that you are interested in them, their life and their story, more than you are their money.?

So, I've said it a few times... only after getting a really good understanding of their life and life situation, then you can start to move towards asking this, the Ultimate Financial Planning Question… it goes like this:

THE INTRO TO THE QUESTION

After you have conducted a thorough fact-finding session... say:

"...what I'd like to do now Fred, Jane, is to start summing up....?

Firstly, I'd like to thank you for answering all my questions and for being so open and honest with me - and for trusting me with such confidential and personal information. Thank you.

You've been good enough to tell me about your business, you’ve told me about how you started your business, you’ve told me about your hobbies, your interests; You've told me about what you'd like to do more of - and what you'd like to less of; you’ve told me about your children, and your plans for their education; you’ve told me about some of your worries and some of your concerns - and of course, you’ve told me about X and you've told me about Y.”

Here I mention several of the things Fred and Jane have told me. This demonstrates I’ve been listening, and tees up the following:

You continue…

“What I would like to do now, Fred, Jane, if it's OK with you, is ask you, probably, my MOST important question of all. Is that OK with you?”

Now, from Fred and Jane’s point of view, you’ve already asked loads of great questions… you’ve hopefully demonstrated more interest in them and their life than anyone has ever done before - and now... you are going to ask your most important question! This gets their attention. (Notice how I’m getting permission to ask it.)

They always say “Yes, of course!”

THE SIMPLE BUT POWERFUL QUESTION…

I say “Fred, Jane, what I’d like to ask you is this, after everything you’ve told me today, what would you say is your ONE, MAJOR, OVER RIDING FINANCIAL OBJECTIVE? What would you say that is?”

I then shut up. And LISTEN!

(Notice the emphasis ONE… MAJOR… OVER RIDING….)

Fred sit’s back in his chair, having already told you a ton of stuff already about their past, present, and hopes for the future, and says….

THE USUAL ANSWER…

“Mmmmm. That’s a good question, Paul”

I keep my mouth shut.?

I emphasize the significance of their answer with attentive body language and refrain from interrupting their thought process. I might lean in to demonstrate I’m interested to hear the answer….

This is when Fred eventually says something like:?

“Well, as I’ve said, Paul, I want to be in such a position that I don’t have to do THIS anymore” (referring to his business or his work)

AND “I want to make sure that Jane & the kids never have to worry about money!”?

AND/OR, “I want to make sure that by 60 we can pack it all in and go and do what we want to do!”?

AND/OR, etc, etc.

I guarantee that what you will get as answers to this simple but powerful question are the client’s KEY objectives. NOTE: These should be congruent with all the things they’ve told you already.

Most probably… it will be what everybody wants - to ensure they can live the life THEY WANT without EVER running out of money.?

This is otherwise known as achieving Financial Independence, Financial Security, and Financial Peace of Mind.?

And this is perfect. Because these three objectives just happen to be the very things that we can deliver through PROPER lifestyle financial planning.

PLEASE NOTE: The answers to this question obviously vary, but (in their own words) they will always be ‘BIG wants’... which really mean ‘Financial Independence’, ‘Financial Security’, and ‘Financial Peace of Mind’.

This means you can now summarise it as exactly that. You are then talking the same language... about the benefits of REAL financial planning.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT…

I would then summarise what they said, by saying, “It sounds to me Fred, and Jane, that what you really want to achieve is to be financially independent, financially secure, and have financial peace of mind. You want to be able to live the life you want without ever running out of money. Am I right?”

Of course, I’m right! That’s what everybody wants!

They say “Absolutely!”

I say “That’s great. Because THAT is exactly what we do for our clients. May I show you how?”

They say “Of course!”

I then say “OK, so what I’d like to do is share an idea, and you tell me what you think about it. OK?”

Again, see how I’m always getting permission…

Can you see how it's all part of a system - that leads clients towards an amazing financial planning 'experience'?

I then share a visual and compelling presentation that demonstrates EXACTLY what proper financial planning is all about. It’s all about them and the very things they’ve told me in that meeting. I do this without mentioning any ￡/$/€ amounts. It shows them what has to happen for them to get and keep the life they want without ever running out of money - or running out of time.?

Quite simply it shows them what REAL financial planning is and how it will help them get what they want (a great life) and in the process achieve the very thing they want - financial independence, financial security, and financial peace of mind.

They often then say “THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS WANTED FROM A FINANCIAL ADVISER, WHY DON’T ALL FINANCIAL ADVISERS DO THIS!??”

Of course, when they say this to you, this provides the perfect opportunity for you to pitch your fees and for you to move the relationship forward in a way that is both great for those clients and highly profitable for you.

OK, this is just an overview that only scratches the surface of the incredible power of this question...

Here's what to do next...

First, ask yourself, could you use this question?

I bet you could! Give it a try. See what happens.

?? Let me know what you think about it in the comments.

? Better still, if you want to learn how to truly MASTER your first meeting, avoid The Transaction Trap, and learn how to turn EVERY client (that you choose to work with) into a highly profitable financial planning relationship where YOU have an awful lot more fun, where you get your MOJO back and where you take control of your service once and for all, then sign up for a 30-day no risk trial of my Inspiring Advisers Lifestyle Financial Planning 7 Step Success System .

It’s just ￡3.23 per day. A small price to pay for access to hundreds of short, inspiring, highly effective video lessons that will turn you into a highly profitable Lifestyle Financial Planner - and all within 12 months or less.

?? BONUS TIP: If need be, when they give me their answer, I might dig a little deeper by saying “So tell me, why is <X> so important?” but by this stage of the meeting, there's normally no need. (It's pretty obvious!) I’d prefer to ask “So tell me, why is that so important?” earlier and THROUGHOUT the meeting. I show why this is important and how to do this in my training. Here’s the link to check it out.