I have had a number of Financial Road Map® Appointments recently where the time of the appointment has gone to two hours. By the time I have thoroughly gone through the values of each partner and then cover their goals (in both instances this has been around 5 goals) and completed the All the Money Conversation™ and the Commitment to Hire Conversation™, it is going on close to 90-120 mins. I cannot see where there is time that we are wasting. There is little chit chat, however, at times, clients discuss some of their goals and that may take a little longer. I am not sure whether I am going too far with this. Can you please provide some comments around this or strategies I can use to reduce the time I spend on each Financial Road Map® Interview?

Article ID: 490

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

The occasional long Financial Road Map® interview happens. Unless your experience is that all of your Financial Road Map® Interviews are taking this long, I wouldn't worry about it. Hopefully, after a 2 hour Financial Road Map®, you either added a new Ideal Client or generated substantial survival revenue.

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Do you always scan or copy the documents that the clients bring with them?

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 having trouble with clients who seem to have no goals. So they are trying to answer questions they seem to have no idea about. I was thinking of creating a slide show similar to the one you did with us. "i.e. if you can see it you can be it" I myself found that truly inspirational and for me was then far easier to think big and open up properly. I was thinking of doing it before the values conversation to really get them in the right frame of mine about creating their ideal life. What are your thoughts?

I'm new to Values-Based Financial Planning™ and am looking forward to the Academy 1 in October. In the meantime, I wanted your guidance on the following: I've been referred to a young family man who is dying. I'm wondering about how he'll react to a question like, “What’s Important About… To You?” and probably more so to the question about his tangible goals... especially as he doesn't have much of a road to look down. How do you handle conversations with people who are dying, especially young people with families?

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