Bring your financial planning to life by bringing life to your financial planning.
Life-Centered Financial Planning: How to Deliver Value That Will Never Be Undervalued shows financial planners and advisors how to radically improve the service they provide to their clients by tying their decisions and strategies to their clients’ life events, stages, and goals.
Written by distinguished financial professionals Mitch Anthony and Paul Armson, Life-Centered Financial Planning provides readers with practical advice and concrete strategies to revolutionize their organization and client service by:
· Focusing on what matters most to clients, rather than maximizing assets under management or pushing products
· Understanding that a strong financial plan means more than simply accumulating as much money as possible
· Building a business model that is good for everyone involved: the financial advisor, clients, and the organization
· Moving from being a commodity to being your client's trusted advisor
The book is perfect for any financial planner or advisor who wishes to adapt to the radical redefinition of financial services taking place today.
Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
Part I: The End of Financial Services As We Know It 1
Chapter 1: The Masquerade Party is Over 3
Financial Advice in Flux 6
Expanding Your Reach 8
Comprehension of Context 8
Narrative and Understanding 9
Emotional Connectivity 9
Chapter 2: Erosive Value Propositions 11
Vacuous and Vaporous 13
Very Brief History of Distrust 15
Change Your Mindset 18
Tracking Your Client’s Life 19
Chapter 3: Deprogramming Advisory Magical Thinking 21
The Crystal Ball 22
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 23
RIP Comparison 24
Chapter 4: Misplaced Value 31
Becoming Financially Independent is Easy 32
Change Your Focus 35
Are You Embarrassed Easily? 36
Understanding the Three Hats You Wear 37
The Third Hat: Financial Adviser 37
The Second Hat: Financial Planner 38
The First Hat: Life Planner 38
Chapter 5: The Bottom Line is Not a Number 41
The Human Elements 42
The Central Question 43
Building Relationships: The Roles You Will Play 44
Return on Life™ (ROL) Manifesto 46
What We Need to Know and Continue to Know 47
Your Bottom Line 48
Part II: Making the Shift to Life-Centered Financial Planning 51
Chapter 6: From Money Centered to Life Centered 53
It’s All about Discovery 57
The Past 57
The Present 58
The Future 59
A Tale of Two Advisers 60
Adviser A 60
Adviser B 61
The Journey That is Life 64
Chapter 7: Values That Value 67
Decommoditize 68
Core Values 70
Organization: We will help bring order to your financial life. 71
Accountability: We will help you follow through on your financial commitments. 72
Objectivity: We will provide insight from the outside to help you avoid emotionally driven decisions in important money matters. 72
Proactivity: We will help you anticipate the key transitions in your life so that you will be financially prepared for them. 73
Education: We will explore the specific knowledge you will need to succeed in your situation. 73
Partnership: We will work with you to help you achieve the best life possible. 74
Making the Leap 75
Chapter 8: Soft Skills Are Really the Hard Stuff 77
The Self-Centered Self-Delusion 80
The Empathy Report Card 82
“I Feel You, Man” 83
Pathways to Resonance 85
Roadblocks to Resonance 86
You Gotta Serve Somebody 87
Chapter 9: Answers Get Questioned, Questions Get Answered 91
Monologos 91
Dialogos 92
Really Smart People 94
Meaningful Questions 95
Don’t Dive Deep Out of the Blue 96
Establish Context for What You’re Going to Be Asking 97
Anchor the Story; Link the Story You Hear to the Service You’ll Be Delivering 98
Questions for the Quest 98
Chapter 10: Delivering Reality Checks 103
Reality Check 1: Your Clients Need to Know Where Their Money is Going 103
Client Habits 104
Reality Check 2: Your Clients Need to Be Responsible for Their Own Assumptions 106
Financial Independence versus Financial Dependence 107
Reality Check 3: Your Clients Need to Understand That What They Do with Their Income Impacts Their Life Outcome 109
Part III: The Dialogues of the Future 117
Chapter 11: What’s Your Fiscalosophy? 119
Organically Speaking 120
Past→Path Forward→Pathos 121
Understanding Their Drivers 122
Chapter 12: What is Your Return on Life? 131
Resetting the Focus 141
Chapter 13: Money in Motion 143
What Was I Thinking? 144
Come Back from the Future: Life Transitions 145
The Here and Now, and Near Horizon 147
Transitioning to Transitions 148
The Ongoing Conversation - Life Unfolding 152
Cause or Effect 153
Chapter 14: Retirement Reframed 155
Individually Speaking 156
Retirement Staging 156
Step 1: Observing 157
Step 2: Visioning 158
Step 3: Working 161
Step 4: Personalization 165
New Heroes for a New Era: Retirementors 168
Chapter 15: Personal Values and Account Values 171
Scrambled Signals 172
Locate Your Values 173
The Time is upon Us 174
Righteous Profits, Happy World 175
Chapter 16: Enough Already… 185
Certain Uncertainties 187
Three Types of Clients 188
Not Enough 188
Got Too Much 189
The Just Rights 190
Epilogue 195
Appendix: Return on LifeTM (ROL) Manifesto 197
About the Authors 199
Index 203
