I have long-time clients who, for the most part, have been completing Financial Road Maps® with me. When I get to Commitment to Implement Conversation™ section, I haven't been asking for that firstly because I cannot charge a hard dollar fee and secondly, if I had a form for them to sign, the form would basically not have meaning as I work for Merrill Lynch and they would not approve of a form that the client to sign for implementing a plan. How do I handle this?

Article ID: 454

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

The Commitment to Implement Conversation™ has nothing to do with fees or forms. It's a conversation about their commitment to implement your future advice. I suggest you review the script again and apply it in your future Financial Road Map® interviews to discover the benefit for your clients and for you by having a candid conversation about their commitment to implement.

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I have a client who has been handled very improperly by her previous advisor. The fact is that moving her variable annuity under my umbrella is going to cost her a lot of money. What verbiage should I use during the Implementation Meeting when we get down to signing papers and moving her annuity to me?

I’m a little confused about the level of commitment we are expecting from a new client once they hire us. In the script and videos it seems that during the Commitment to Implement we expect that at the implementation meeting the client will follow all of the action plan items and sign all of the documents we have prepared for signature, no questions asked. However, on the most recent Webinar, it sounded to me that regardless of what we may have said at Commitment to Implement, at the actual implementation meeting, it is more of a “traditional” approach where we are presenting our “recommendations” and it’s up to the client to decide which items, if any, they implement. To sum up, it seems that at the implementation meeting the approach is much less “take it or leave it” than presented during the Commitment to Implement. Please help me understand.

During our Commitment to Hire™ and Commitment to Implement Conversations™, the clients expresses their concern that, “we not go too fast.” They agreed to all the money, but, that does not mean all the money RIGHT NOW (Or even the day we are scheduled to begin implementation). We are talking here about the entirety of their life's work, their health and the rest of their lives, their savings, investments, home, their children and grandchildren's future - and they are justifiably cautious about making a global decision - Trust - but verify. It is only prudent and wise financial planning! Are top advisors taking All The Money on that first implementation day? How does THAT happen?

We do not do tax preparation in our office so when preparing end-of-year tax planning are we meeting with the client and their Certified Public Accountant or just the Certified Public Accountant? This seems to be a fourth meeting. As we begin time-blocking the Three Meeting Process we are realizing that having these meetings with all 124 Ideal Clients (or their Certified Public Accountants) in September, October, and November will require a substantial amount of time. How do we keep on track with the Three Meeting Process with this fourth meeting?

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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