I recently completed a Financial Road Map® for a referred couple. At the end of the Commitment To Hire Conversation™ they enthusiastically said ‘yes’ to hiring me and we completed the paperwork to get things started. I am not sure if my answer to the couple’s next question was the best response: The client said, "You know I'm the President of Bradford Christian Academy, and as such I need to make financial decisions every day. One of the things we review on every purchase or project and this includes consultants who we bring in from time-to-time. One thing we look at is our Return on Investment. Since the services you provide are not necessarily financial, other than portfolio performance, how would we determine the dollar value of our business together to use to determine the Return on Investment on the relationship?" My response was, "Well Vicki, you and Bob do not have any plan in place now for retirement, college financial planning, and other major purchases, which is what has brought you to this point in our meeting. You are also concerned with your portfolio and how it is invested because neither of you are professional investment people and you're looking for help in that area. You have big dreams and values and right now are not sure how you will achieve them with your current process. So I guess I would ask you, what is the value, monetary value, you would place on a comprehensive plan that would give you the peace of mind to rest knowing you have a plan to give you the highest probability to achieve these items on your road map regardless of what happens in the world?" I felt guilty because I turned the question back to them and they said they would have to think about that answer and hadn't thought about it that way. Do you have a better answer that you would have used? I feel that I did not really answer their question, but I am not sure I could have come up with better answer than that.

Article ID: 466

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

That's a great question! I think it will be very easy for you to quantify your Return on Investment in terms of quality of life. The benefits of having a Values-Based Financial Planner™ are freedom and confidence. The physical freedom from having to do the work to learn everything you would need to learn and do everything you would have to do to be your own financial advisor; mental freedom from worry, stress, and anxiety about your money; and the confidence that your financial choices are in alignment with your most important goals and your most deeply-held values. You will have the confidence that comes from getting your entire financial house in perfect order and keeping it that way forever and the confidence that comes from knowing that you will achieve your goals regardless of what happens in the financial markets, the economy, or world events. You have this confidence because you have a Trusted Advisor, that's me, supported by a Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts in all areas of financial services delivering truly comprehensive financial services for you.

Our relationship is an at-will relationship where you can fire me any time you feel the value does not exceed the investment. At the end of every Progress Meeting, which we have every 4 months, I will ask you the following questions:
-Do you have more confidence that your financial choices are in alignment with your most important goals and your most deeply held values?
-Do you have more confidence about your entire financial house being in perfect order and keeping it that way forever?
-Do you have more confidence that comes from that you will achieve your goals regardless of what happens in the financial markets, the economy, or world events?

Your answers to these questions will be how you measure the Return on Investment for our relationship. Does that work for you?

Also listed in

Miscellaneous

Commitment to Hire Conversation™ -> Commitment to Hire Conversation™ Misc.

Commitment to Hire Conversation™ -> Ideal Clients Resisting to Hire/"Let Me Think About It for Awhile."

« Before the Financial Road Map® meeting, I find myself talking...

What would you say at the Commitment To Hire Conversation™ stage... »

Others in this category

Is there a point at which I don’t request an Financial Road Map with existing clients (accounts too small, don’t want to work with them, etc).

I am one of the newer converts to Values-Based Financial Planning™ so this may be a mindset issue for me, but I have had several prospective Ideal Clients ask me, "How are you going to help me have a 10 level of confidence with so much going on in the world? " I tend to repeat much of what I have already said from the Pivotal Questions, but I am not convinced I have that way of being with my answer. I have begun scripting some stuff out based on the answers to the pivotal questions, but I wanted your thoughts on answering the HOW question. It’s a little different from the, "What do I get for the fee?" and, "How do I know that I can trust you?" and, "What’s the process?" scripting, so I am piecing together my answers from there.

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?

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.

I really need some simple language to explain the following issues. We are charging a flat fee of $9,870 per annum, plus all the Deliverables, which will add up to a total of a minimum of another $10,000. Do I, for example, just state the total will be say $22,000 per annum, or do I just suggest our fee does not include the things you buy to advance progress towards their goals.

» More articles