Just tell them the truth. It might sound like, “I have decided to take my business in a direction where I exclusively work with people who want to do comprehensive financial planning, are delegators – in other words people who will follow my advice and do everything I recommend pretty much no questions asked, and are willing and able to pay me $________ / year for my services. I have the impression that the way I will be running my business from now on may not be a good fit for you. What do you think?” It’s very likely they will recognize that it’s time for them to move on and find another advisor and tell you so. Express your appreciation for having them as a client and agree to course of action for them to find a new advisor and time-frame for them to move their accounts and business to the new advisor. At Commitment to Hire: just don’t offer to be hired, instead say something like, “Well, I hope you got some value from completing your FRM today. You can take this with you and use it as a guide for making better decisions about your money on your own or find it useful in selecting the right FA for you.
Please click the attachment below for Bill Bachrach's audio version of this answer.
