I have a weird memory.
Particularly for far too many old TV ads.
Joe the Gadget man.
You need Palmolive Gold.
Mrs Marsh’s Chalk.
Louie the Fly.
It gets weirder.
Sometimes, my brain replays, re-visualising an old commercial during random conversations.
This happened last week when a very successful adviser said, “Thanks, but no thanks,” regarding the potential of implementing Certainty Advice.
I had an instant replay of Louie the Fly’s “…when you are on a good thing, stick to it!”
Weird.
But unfortunately true – there was no way his firm would alter the approach he had perfected with many clients over many years.
I understood.
His expertise, reputation, success, and growth are a testament to his approach.
Black and White Advice.
He explained how hard he and his team work to minimise shades of grey from the firm’s advice.
He prides himself and oversees his team to produce the near-perfect asset allocation, cashflow budget, tax structure, risk assessment, or scenario modelling for their clients.
Their office and email footers are adorned with Excellence in Advice awards, Masterclass High Achievers Certificates, Small Business Awards, and Paraplanners of the Year.
Got the idea?
Great advice lives here.
For this successful adviser, it is a case of ‘Black and White’.
If it is not great technical advice, how can it be considered great advice?
Good question.
Alternatives
Agreeing we wouldn’t work together, I asked him for feedback.
“That’s easy”.
He seemed prepared for my question.
This guy is good, for he quickly pulled up the core framework of Certainty Advice – used to support every Discovery conversation with clients.
He began reading out the following from my frameworks used to help advice teams position their Discovery conversations about what each client values:
“So let’s say through our advice you gain greater control of your debts, financial structures, spending and returns, we provide a higher level of the financial security you’re seeking, and we reduce the peaks of financial stress you’ve experienced. What then would you like to achieve that might require money, advice or planning?”
He doesn’t like that last question.
“Your last question in your framework has little to do with anything technical.”
“Therefore, it has virtually nothing to do with anything I am an expert at.”
“I have never used it, and I never will”
“I consider it a crutch for advisers seeking to build propositions upon personal relationships rather than best quality technical advice”.
Ok, thanks.
I’ll let myself out.
Open Minded?
There is no question that his adviser is a success.
There is also no question that the rich, deep conversations at the heart of approaches like my Certainty Advice differ from those purely built upon technical advice.
This adviser is currently not open to leaving room for the possibilities that might occur when his great technical advice is married with the outcomes of deep, rich conversations designed to identify what is of value to his clients, rather than his value.
Many advisers are uncomfortable asking questions that their clients often don’t know the answers to, or worse, that result in clients answering with outcomes that they, as advisers, believe they have little expertise in.
Advisers who have built their expertise using questions surrounding a client’s balance sheets, free cash flows, the Tax Act, investment markets, or financial structures find it difficult and challenging and are more uncomfortable asking broader questions in areas they don’t believe they are technically trained or qualified to deliver.
Advice, however, is rarely totally technical or completely lacking any technical aspect.
Ironically, though, the outcomes of rich conversations are often why many advisers became advisers in the first place.
They want to make a difference, helping others lead better lives.
Both technically and non-technically.
The perfect asset allocation won’t help avoid the financial catastrophe of a failing partnership in which one partner’s black-and-white thinking overly dominates another partner’s equally important but suppressed hopes and dreams.
Maybe Louie the Fly was right – when you are on a good thing, stick to it.
But it helps to be open-minded.
What do you reckon?
Photo credit: Shutterstock_1457918075
ABOUT JIM STACKPOOL
Since 1989, Jim has influenced, coached, and consulted financial advice and accounting firms across Australia. His training firm, Certainty Advice Group, skills comprehensive advisory teams to price and deliver valuable, methodical, non-person-dependent advice relationships with their clients. He has built a collaborative community of firms aligned to his firm’s comprehensive advice model – Certainty Advice – Australia’s only Certification Mark accredited by ACCC and IP Australia for impartial financial advice. He presents at conferences, has judged professional advice awards, written industry white papers, chaired practice management curriculum for tertiary institutions, and authored four books on financial advice – his latest being What Price Value.