I have an existing client worth a million dollars (Richard Clarke) who has not been introduced to Old World/ New World™ yet. He could potential be an ideal client and I plan on doing a Financial Road Map®. I was previously trained by CEG Worldwide John Bowen and company. He would like me to manage his mothers’ million dollars and before doing so his sister would like to meet me prior to them hiring us. This opportunity occurred before I starting training in the Values-Based Financial Planning™ program. Can you please provide some insight and perhaps an agenda of things that you might discuss in this initial meeting with the sister? My goal would be to do Financial Road Map® meetings with the whole family. I’m interested in hearing your thought process regarding this scenario. The meeting is in the client’s home. I understand the meetings should be at my office and in the past Richard comes to see me at my office. He asked me to do him a favor and have a cup of coffee with him at his home since his sister was in town and staying with him. The mother and sister both live in Arizona. The mother has 1 million liquid and the sister has around 16 million liquid.

The initial meeting is always the Financial Road Map® interview. I suggest that you conduct the Financial Road Map® with the mother. Unless she is somehow incapable and the brother and / or sister have Power of Attorney. It's also okay for the brother and sister to be at the Financial Road Map® interview with the mother. They just can't interrupt or answer questions for their mother, but they can ask questions during the Commitment to Hire portion of the interview.

Another approach could be to complete the sister's Financial Road Map® also so she can experience, first-hand, how you approach doing business.

Also, you can't really do Financial Road Map® interviews with "whole families." Each member of the family has separate money, goals, and values therefore you do separate Financial Road Map® interviews with each of them.

As far as stopping by Richard's home for a cup of coffee to meet his sister, that's fine, just don't do the Financial Road Map® interviews there. Keep the meeting over coffee relaxed and informal and when the topic turns to business articulate the value of having a Financial Road Map® and schedule a time in your office to complete hers.

If they try to "suck" you into a conversation about the specifics of what you do and how you do it, the safe response is something like, "I really don't like to talk about generic financial planning without having context that's personal / individual. The way that we do that is by completing a process called the Financial Road Map®. It's part of what I think is the best approach to helping people make smart choices about their money called 'Values-Based Financial Planning™.' It's not something that can be easily explained, but it is something can be experienced. Richard has a Financial Road Map® and I think you would find it helpful to have yours completed. It only takes about an hour. When would you like to do that?"