What if their goals are out of line with their resources and/or expectations? This is not always obvious to us in Financial RoadMap interview. What is your recommendation for addressing after you've already done the plan?

Article ID: 594

Last updated: 20 Nov, 2019

When you have your clients or prospects bring in all their financial documents, it should be quite obvious whether or not they have the means to achieve their goals. You may need to ask some additional questions to determine if there is money that is not represented in their docs. eg: Are you expecting an inheritance or other financial windfall?

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I had a great Financial Road Map® this week however the length of the meeting was way too long. I went through four goals and on one goal the clients had a disagreement on what that goal would be; a retirement date or the option to work or not. We took some time to come up with an agreement on what that goal would be. Effectively, we created one date/goal for each partner. How many goals are ideal and what do you do when they disagree on a goal?

When you have multiple similar goals (2 college funds for kids, 2 wedding funds for kids)… Do you combine them into one shield on the Financial Road Map®?

What should you do if a client's goals are unattainable or unrealistic? I have some clients who are looking for unrealistic levels of income from their retirement portfolios. How would you handle an Implementation Meeting Conversation™ if your analysis shows the goals, as the clients stated them, are not realistic?

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?

If the customer doesn’t think of a tangible goal that should be considered, do you recommend that we continue to set goals until it’s identified or should we offer suggestions?

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