When clients don't bring in any financial documents how do you handle the ..."so this is what I've come up with" part of the Financial Road Map Interview™?

Article ID: 139

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

Before you jump to it being their error, are you certain that your team has adequately prepared these Clients for this meeting by sending them a list of the documents you require when they confirm this meeting?

Next, find out what is missing and ask them to deliver/courier/mail it to you by a specific date so that you can complete the plan long before the Implementation Meeting. This is similar to what you want to do if they name a goal for which they don’t have enough or the specific information needed to incorporate it into the comprehensive plan. An example is a vacation home: they don’t know how much a home costs in the area they want to buy. They need to contact realtors and discover how much they’ll need to achieve that goal. So while you’re completing the plan, they’re doing homework on their goal.

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I have several existing clients and prospects that have zero debt and range typically from $3-$10 million in liquid net worth. Many of them have believed in “Term and invest the rest” mentality and therefore don't like to discuss insurance needs and their term policies have expired. By this, I'm referring to clients who are past the accumulation phase and confident in their mind that they have been adequately insured and no longer need much insurance (I realize this may not be true), and have the notion typically to only buy term and put the rest of their money into savings. When we get to the Commitment to Hire Conversation™. Many of my existing clients have zero debt, more cash then they need to have sitting around (I realize this needs to be addressed), and don't feel they need much help with insurance. Therefore the step-by-step plan addressing these four areas only has one area where they typically want, or feel, they need help in creating a plan. I'm curious if it would it make sense to change the "What you get” discussion to something that could provide a little more value than the 4 bullets currently in the script? Can you please tell me perhaps a different word track then the Financial Road Map® script since two of the four areas are not of much interest to these types of clients?

We charge an Initial Planning Fee of $4,000. We also plan on charging a flat fee for the Three Meeting Process™, 5 Critical Reports™ and for helping them keep their financial house in order. When do we start charging the flat fee which we plan on billing quarterly? We are taking three weeks to get the initial plan done.

After the initial Financial Road Map Interview™, when do I collect more details from the client to put together a detailed implementation plan, which is the next meeting, if the person becomes an Ideal Client? The Financial Road Map Interview™ does not collect the detailed information needed for a detailed implementation plan.

I had a client who referred three friends to me at an Implementation Meeting. After my client contacted her friends, one did not want to receive the Values-Based Financial Planning™ book. I am not sure here whether I should enquire at our next meeting to see why they did not want to receive the Values-Based Financial Planning™ book.

I am struggling not discussing an ongoing fee in Financial Road Map® Meeting. During this conversation the clients ask me how much? The Financial Road Map® Meeting has been around 45 minutes so far and going well. I say $5,000 for the initial plan. They say what do you get? I then run through my 2 page letter of engagement which outlines upfront and ongoing service offering and takes another 45 minutes. After 1.5 hours I feel like the clients are tired and the "would you like to proceed” has lost its presence because of the meeting time. How do I avoid this? I would love to skip the letter of engagement all together, should I just briefly talk about deliverables team (which I have) best-in-class Subject Matters Experts. I am also struggling to understand in the Implementation Meeting how to address the ongoing fee is $1k-$3k per month and not go over the plan in any detail.

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