You can do anything you want, but that’s not what we recommend. We recommend that you charge all of your clients the same amount or the same percentage of net worth or assets for delivering the same service. And our preference is a flat fee where all of your clients pay the same amount, regardless of how much money they have. It may take you a while to adapt to this approach, mostly mentally. It’s a simpler, therefore better, way to run your business and serve your clients.

If you are asking me, personally, what I would do… I would accept that as a “sign from God” that this person is not an Ideal Client and not meet with them. Just for clarification, do your Ideal Clients show up on time and prepared for their meetings? Fundamentally, this is why very few advisors build Ideal Client Communities… they are too busy dealing with all the idiosyncrasies of their non Ideal Clients.

You can partner with others in your office, firm, or community to deliver on the Values Based Financial Planning™ promise. The Values Based Financial Planning™ promise is a comprehensive, written financial plan, and implementation and accountability service and support. Who can you partner with to write the plan? Who can you partner with to provide the investment expertise? Who can you partner with for solid advice in various areas of insurance? Who can you partner with to take care of the tax and legal issues? We call this building your Deliverables Team. Your job is to be the Trusted Advisor and the Client Relations Manager. The Subject Matter, or technical experts, are your Deliverables Team. Nobody is smart enough or has the time to be an expert in all of the areas necessary to truly fully serve clients.

Give your clients a hand-written Financial Road Map® at every Progress Meeting. It’s more personal.

There is no “financial independence stage” built into the Financial Road Map Interview™. Everyone has goals related to their money. I have no idea why you would assume that a Financial Road Map® would be more applicable for less successful people rather than more successful people. Successful people and retirees love the Financial Road Map®. You ask clients what their goals are that require money and planning to achieve and they tell you. People who are already retired and living off their assets will often have a goal of being financially independent forever. They have many other goals as well. The exact same 3 questions for building out a goal apply. When you are actually doing Financial Road Maps® (versus just starting to practice) you will discover this for yourself.

You are the Trusted Advisor. The accountant may or not be on your team, not the other way around. Remember, it’s you who are going to make sure they get their entire financial house in perfect order and keep it that way forever… not the accountant. Explain how you work to your clients and get them on board. As you continue your journey and work through the Trusted Advisor Toolkit and attend the Values-Based Financial Planning Office™ for further Leadership development your skills and confidence in this area will improve.

Instead of thinking of them as referral sources, think of them as people who would benefit from Values-Based Financial Planning and having their Financial Road Map® done. Have them come in to experience the Financial Road Map® for their own benefit. Some of them will become clients and some may not. We do not advocate non-clients being referral sources for obvious reasons. Namely, it doesn’t make much sense for a person who doesn’t do business with you to refer others to do business with you. Focus on helping what you might have traditionally in the past viewed as “Centers of Influence / referral sources” get their own financial house in order and, after they become a client, follow the referral process that we teach.

First of all, one of the common experiences of advisors getting started with Values-Based Financial Planning™ and doing Financial Road Maps® is that they discover clients have money elsewhere that could make them Ideal Clients, so do yourself a favor and do not assume you have all their money or even know where all their money is. Have them come to the Financial Road Map Interview™ appointment, with both spouses, and bring all of their financial documents. There is a clear pause between All The Money Conversation™ and Commitment to Hire Conversation™. If you do not want to be hired, do not offer to be hired. Just tell the truth about why you don’t believe you should be their Financial Advisor and give them advice about what do next. It could be a referral to another advisor or guidance to connect with quality Do-It-Yourself resources. Not everyone is supposed to be working with you and not everybody is supposed to be working with a Financial Advisor at all. Please click the...

If they bring ALL of their financial documents to the Financial Road Map Interview™ and answer all four pieces of each goal you have almost everything you need to create their plan and prepare for the Implementation Meeting™. Do not waste their time asking them to fill out data in fact-finders for info like their Social Security Number when that information is contained in several of the documents they are leaving with you. If you need to do things like a risk tolerance questionnaire you have 3 choices to get that done: 1. Immediately following Commitment to Implement™. 2. As a homework assignment which they complete and return to you, preferably online. 3. During a phone appointment between the Financial Road Map Interview™ and Implementation Meeting™. It is common to speak with your client on the phone or communicate by email between the Financial Road Map Interview™ and the Implementation Meeting™ as you and your team are working on the plan to prepare for the...

1. Cover one Values Staircase™ completely, the one from the person you believe to be less dominant from the Phone Consultation™. 2. To the person who is less dominant, explain "When we spoke on the phone you told me What’s Important About To You is…." Recap their Values Staircase™. Once you are at the top stair completed during the Phone Consultation™ you have so far, pick up with "What's Important About… the last answer… To You?" 3. Go deeper into level 3 all the way to the top of the staircase. 4. Pre-Commitment™ as usual. 5. Switch to the other person and do the same thing. The important aspect to remember is to have the correct Way of Being™ when reviewing the Values Staircases™ done during the Phone Appointment. This will allow the client to get back to the right state of mind for completing their Values Staircase™ and get to Level 3 responses.

For a person, at any age, who has already accomplished a goal they likely want continue to enjoy the benefits of having achieved that goal. For example, once a person has achieved a goal of being financially independent it is likely their new goal is be financially independent forever. They may also like the idea of planning to distribute money in different ways and these are goals. For example: give $10,000 / year to charity. Have a fund set aside of $100,000 to distribute to children, grandchildren, or other family member as needed. An annual vacation fund of $50,000. Re-decorate the house every 5 years fund of $. Etc. The assumption that old, rich people don't have goals is a mistake many Financial Advisors make. Don't be one of them.

Current lifestyle is funded from cash flow. Future goals from savings and investments. Only a person who is no longer working and living off their assets will have a goals related to “maintaining our lifestyle” which would be funded from assets.

The Financial Road Map® handles this reality perfectly. Both of their value sets are captured on the two values staircases and there is no expectation that they be the same. (In fact, they never are.) The same is true for their goals. All of their goals are captured on the Financial Road Map® whether they are shared or a goal that is primarily more about one partner than another. You can tell that you are dealing with a couple in a good relationship by how well they each support each other in goals they would not have if they weren’t in that relationship. As far as “different ideas about how money should be used to accomplish goals,” that will no longer be relevant when you are their Trusted Advisor because they will have both agreed to follow your advice.

Personal financial planning always precedes business planning because until you know what a business owner and his / her family want to accomplish it’s impossible to know how to structure the business to make that happen. Keep in mind, that a primary purpose of a business is to serve the owners. Not the other way around. When you help business frame it this way you will become a much valued and Trusted Advisor to them. Don’t let the business owner suck you into business financial transactions first. The way you approach this is to say, “Is your objective to have your business running you and your life or to have you running your business to serve your life?” Business Owner: Unfortunately it often feels like my business is running me instead of me running it. But, I would like for my business to serve me better / more. Advisor: Don’t feel bad, that’s very common. I can help you with that. Most business owners are so involved with their business that it’s easy to put the...

First of all, PLEEEASE do not call it “the Financial Road Map® presentation.” There is no “presentation.” The Financial Road Map® creates a compelling and emotional interview experience for your clients and prospective clients. Your goal is to create an experience by asking really good questions and listening, NOT make a presentation. During the evaluation phase, you simply do whatever you have always done after you are hired. Now that you have their Financial Road Map® make sure that all of your financial planning and recommendations are in alignment with their most important goals and most deeply held values. At the Implementation Meeting (notice I did NOT call it the plan presentation meeting) you start the meeting with a recap of their values and goals and give your advice in the context of how it will help them achieve their goals for the reasons that are important to them. Your objective during the evaluation phase is to do at least 25 Financial Road Maps and achieve at...

I see no conflict here. Adding the Financial Road Map® which clearly defines their goals and values will only help you create a better plan which your clients will more enthusiastically implement.

I am not so concerned about the psychology of the situation. I just think it’s good business to get paid when you get hired. If you are able, with your current licensing and / or registration, to collect a fee during the Commitment to Hire conversation of the Financial Road Map® interview then do that. If not, do whatever works within the parameters of the law / regulators for you. We don’t have “work-around.”

I believe you will be much more productive if you do not include doing Financial Road Maps® for people who have no possibility of becoming Ideal Clients as part of your Ideal Client Acquisition time.

I believe you will be much more productive if you do not include doing Financial Road Maps® for people who have no possibility of becoming Ideal Clients as part of your Ideal Client Acquisition time.

Retained earnings from a business do not have a place on the Financial Road Map®. Money from the business is only relevant to the extent that it is distributed to the owner to spend, save, and / or invest. What does have a place, however, is the current market value of the business and a system for measuring the future value of the business. Business equity is often a substantial asset to fund future goals. As you evolve working with the Trusted Advisor Toolkit and Mark Little you will learn more about these kinds of specifics.