• A Call from My Bank

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    Recently I had a call from the bank I deal with for my business account. They wanted to know about my experiences with their institution. I quickly fessed up that to some extent I compete with them and that my answers could be slightly biased. They insisted that was not an issue. Since I was trying to take some time off—and was having difficulty doing so—I thought, what the heck, if they want to know what I think, why make this the one time I don’t have an opinion.

    As the call continued, the representative asked me all sorts of questions about my experiences with the bank. They covered customer service, which I had to say was excellent—because it is. They asked about resolution of any problems that I had in the previous 12 months—again, excellent. 

    Then they asked the big one. They wanted to know if I would go to them for business or financial advice. To which my answer of course was a resounding, “no”; I almost went with “hell no,” but I figured that the poor surveyor didn’t deserve such an exuberant reply.

    You see, I know the ads on TV tell me all the wondrous advice I can get at that particular institution, but this has never been my experience. I’ve dealt with enough clients over the years to know that the image that is portrayed and what I can expect at my local branch are two very different realties.

    So the questions I ask you are these: Does the image you portray in your advertising reflect exactly what your clients experience? Do you ask them? Should you ask them? If your image and your reality aren’t quite aligned, please understand I’m not saying you’re bad, or how you work is wrong; I’d simply like to extend the idea that whatever services or products you  provide you should be proud to market them as they are.

    http://bit.ly/dJZHz9 Check out this great blog post by Seth Godin entiteld Raising expectations (and then dashing them)

  • Debt Amnesia Part 2: The Answer

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    Last year I wrote a blog post entitled Debt Amnesia http://bit.ly/eT0geP , where I asked, “Does he have a mortgage?”  Remember the gentleman at the party who was so happy to be mortgage-free? Then he tells me about that pesky little $50,000 line of credit at 3.5%. At first many of those who answered the poll in the original post got it wrong, but in the end 67% of you were bang on. So, was it a mortgage?

    In short, yes. The truth is in order to have a rate that low it must be secured against his home. This debt may not have a fixed amortization, but make no mistake it essentially is a mortgage. Clients (us too) do this all the time. I call it compartmentalizing debt. This is where we separate and categorize our debts in a way that we find more emotionally palatable. 

    The man I told you about is a very smart person, he’s no dummy and I’m sure he’s not deaf. While he may not think of this credit line as a mortgage, I can promise you someone told him when he applied for it that it was secured against the home. It is as much a mortgage as the one he was so proud to have paid off. 

    The good news is now he knows and his debt has been built in to his retirement plan. No more debt amnesia for him. The bad news is there are many more like him. Do you have any clients suffering from debt amnesia?  Perhaps you should ask, “Do you have a mortgage?” And follow that up with, ”Do you have ANY other debt? Can you tell me your interest rates on those accounts?”

  • Resolution Revolution

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    As the new car smell of 2011 wears off and the excitement of promises made during a champagne induced pledge to be better this year fades, I’ve got a challenge for you.  Let’s start a resolution revolution.  Every year millions of us make a resolution to do better with our money, but generally by the third week of January we’ve abandoned the thought and gone right back to what we were doing before.

    If you change nothing, you change nothing.  One thing I know is that our clients will not listen to advice that we are not willing to follow ourselves.  So for the next four weeks I dare you to be the change!  From today until midnight 28 days from now change the way you spend.   

    Go On A Cash-Diet

    Don’t worry; there are no pesky points or weigh-ins on this diet.  All you have to do is this:

    • Gather your family  (if your are single, get a few friends together to join you in your resolution);
    • Decide how much money you are willing to spend on a weekly basis on emotionally affected expenses such as food, clothing, entertainment, gifts, coffee, eating out, liquor, etc.;
    • Elect one person to retrieve your family’s weekly cash amount;
    • Divide the funds based on who normally does what, making sure everyone has at least a small amount to spend on themselves only;
    • And repeat for four weeks.

    Rules

    • NO ADVANCES.  Take the cash on the same day every week.
    • TELL EVERYONE.  The more people you tell about your little resolution the more revolutionary it will become.  Tell clients too; they might just start to open up about their cash flow knowing you are working on yours.

    You can do just about anything for four weeks.  I myself live like this most of the time, and I’ll be on it with you because I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I wouldn’t do.  The limit isn’t as important as the fact that there is a limit.  So, in the words of a very famous active wear company … just do it!

  • Happy 2011!!!

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    The post has been really focusing on our debt issues in this country.  I was all to happy to lend a hand.  Check out yesterday’s post article “Debt Comes Home to Canadians”  http://bit.ly/gKljWk

    Regular post to begin Tuesday Jan 4th!  Enjoy your these last few days of your holiday celebrations I know I will…..

  • My Gift To You!

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    Happy Holidays!

    This will be my last post for 2010.  I am taking time to complete my business plan for 2011, finish up some work on client files, write and of course spend some much deserved time with my family.  

    This year has been a blur.  It’s been a fabulous, wonderful, and amazing blur.  It was worth every risk I’ve taken.  The goals I set forth in last year’s 5 year plan are mostly met.  So it’s back to the drawing board! 

    In 2011 I will be announcing The Money Finder Bootcamps.  Whether you are considering making debt and cash-flow management a value-add to attract and retain great clients.  Or maybe you are looking to add a fee-for-advice component to your commissioned practice.  Even if your goal is to create a full-out fee-only practice you will get what you need at TMF Bootcamp.  Stay tuned in to my posts for more information, dates and locations for upcoming Bootcamps 2011!!

    Now on to your gift!  So many advisors ask me just how to get started with their clients?  How do I even get clients to identify their issues with debt and cash-flow without making the client feel bad, or feel cornered?  So I’ve decided to share.  I created my “Cash-flow Track” form to give myself a consistent guide to initial debt and cash-flow questions.  It keeps me on track, it gives me something to refer to but mostly it helps me shape questions that clients respond to without feeling uncomfortable. Below you will see a link called “Cashflow Track”. With my permission please take this form and add it to your process.  You might just be surprised by what your clients have to say.

    Cashflow track

    My plan is not done but by this time next year I will have:

    • Completed and published my second book
    • The Money Finder Bootcamp will be up and running
    • I will run my second half marathon
    • I will write a minimum of 24 articles
    • I will blog 104 times
    • I will complete 24 plans for private clients
    • And once again I will be the change I wish to see in the financial services industry

    Care to share?  What will you have done by this time next year?  Post your goal list as a comment.  Making goals public can help to keep you accountable!

    So until 2011, have a wonderful holiday season, enjoy the gift and by all means pass it on!

  • Do we have monkeys for clients?

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    I was doing some research on financial behavior as I do a few times a week.   I came across a great video of a presentation by Laurie Santos: A monkey economy as irrational as ours.  I just had to pass it on!  This fascinating associate professor at Yale has hit the nail on the head when it comes to the way most humans including advisors make decisions; especially when money meets emotion. 

    Do yourself a favor and make 20 minutes to watch this video.  Then ask yourself.  Do I have monkeys for clients?  Am I a monkey with my money too? 
    [ted id=927]

    The Bad News: It is hard to fight a 35 million year habit.

    The Good News: We can use our knowledge of this habit to change the financial destiny of ourselves and our clients.

  • Debt Amnesia

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    A few weeks ago at a local event a man I’d just met asked me what I do for a living.  If you read my last post you know what I said.  In any case we had a little chit-chat and the gentleman was telling me a little about his situation and was quite proud to tell me he had no mortgage.  He was a boomer (mid boom so still pretty young) so my response was “Wow, that’s amazing you’ve still got quite a bit of time to retirement how did you manage to get that mortgage paid down so fast?”.  Our conversation continued a little longer and as I suspected mortgage free doesn’t necessarily equal debt free!  In fact sometimes mortgage free doesn’t mean much at all.

    You see my conversation companion had finished paying out his conventional mortgage earlier this year.  However, what he eventually told me was that during the course of the 20 years he and his family had been in their home other debts had crept up. Rather than refinancing “like all the kids do these days”  they’d used their line of credit to cover those costs as they came up.  While they had been actively paying it down they still carried a balance on the credit line ”of only $50,000″.    He felt pretty darn good about getting the mortgage monkey off his back.  But it was funny to me that he seemed to almost forget about a $50,000 liability as if it didn’t really matter. 

     I asked him what rate of interest he was currently paying on his line of credit.  His answer was 3.5%

    Watch for my next Advisor.ca article about the recent TD Survey which tells us just how much debt the boomber are really in.  Well the debt they haven’t forgotten about anyway.

  • Magic Words!

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    These past few weeks have been pretty intense and I’ve found myself on several planes and in many airports.  Add to that a four-day family trip to Cape Breton and I’ve gotten off track with my blog posts.  As I write this I am still traveling.  In fact I sit overlooking the beautiful waterfront of the coast opposite to the one my home is near.  All of this travel prompted an idea for this very post. 

    I wanted to make time to share with you what I call my magic words.   When someone asks me what I do, my answer is “I own a company called The Money Finder”.  These words cause almost all people to have an unconsciously automatic response “Can you find me some money?” which usually turns in to a great conversation, and often a productive one.  You wouldn’t believe the number of people have poured out their full financial situation, including what they are really worried about by the end of a 2hr flight.  I often ask if they’ve shared these feelings and details with their current advisor.  To which the response is usually “I don’t think my advisor deals with that” or “My advisor has never asked so I assume it’s not important to them”  

    What precious and important tidbits could you be missing because your client thinks they aren’t supposed to talk to you about their total money needs?  How vulnerable is your client to being stolen away by someone who has magic words? 

    Money and how we use it is a hot topic these days and people are eager to share what’s on their minds.   What they are not eager to do is hear about is how they should be investing or the latest product you’ve got on the shelf.  Study after study tells us that its debt and cash flow that keep people up at night so naturally given the chance to talk about it, they will!  

    So this week I suggest you come up with some magic words of your own.  My rules, if you’ll indulge me are these:

    1.  Your magic words cannot include typical mind numbing jargon that makes people want to change the subject and/or run away.  So no words like Investments, Insurance or Financial and no phrases like I help people reach their financial goals and nothing about road maps to financial freedom. 
    2. Magic words have to be original.  If yours start to sound like a TV spot or the latest mutual fund wrapper on your favorite financial publication they won’t work very well.
    3. Finally magic words must be short, sweet and create a natural interest.  The goal is not to get people to ask you questions about you.  Rather for people to connect your magic words with their own needs and dreams.   You want them to share and ask questions about themselves.
    4. Just for kicks make your magic words get people talking about just money in general don’t steer the conversation to your own profit center just let them talk you might be surprised where the conversation leads.

    Don’t panic of course you have to talk about the specifics when its time to get specific.  I’m just suggesting you don’t waste your breath sounding like everyone else. 

    My magic words have started many a magic conversation for me.  What will your magic words be?

  • Stones & Olive Branches

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    Last week I had the pleasure of having a conversation with a very popular personal finance columnist with the Financial Post, Jonathan Chevreau.  I know that many a stone has been lobbed at the financial advisor and our industry through the words of both national and international media. 

    This article is not a stone; it’s not even a pebble rather in my opinion more of an olive branch.  

    The reason I wanted to write this post is because I feel an article like this one is a small victory for advisors out there who already work on both sides of the balance sheet.   For those looking for the validation needed to let themselves “go there” this just might be it.

    I’ve had a very full inbox on this one, but you decide for yourself stone or olive branch?  I know how I feel!  http://bit.ly/aWgLk4

  • Ask them yourself TAKE THE SURVEY!

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    Imagine if you sent a survey out to your clients about this issue. You could gain substantial feedback using little time that could drive greater client satisfaction.  You could even offer a draw for a prize if they completed the survey by a certain date! What if you could make both you and your clients more financial successful as a result knowing who wants help in the areas of debt and cash-flow?  This example is a poll to see what the survey version looks like and answer the question click here http://bit.ly/ayNDLp or simply answer the poll below.

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