20 Nov How can working with a financial planner add value? Getting Things Done
“A strategy, even a great one, doesn’t implement itself”
– Jeroen De Flander, author of Strategy Execution Heroes
“Thanks for the nudge – I’ve signed the letter and it’s back in the post to you.”
“Appreciate the gentle nagging 
– I’ve finally dealt with this and their response is attached.”
“Sorry for the delay – a few hectic weeks travelling with work. We’ve now set up to meet with Paul to review our wills and get LPAs organised. Thanks for staying on the case.”
“I know, I know, we were supposed to do this weeks ago – now done.”
“Guilty as charged. Thanks for the reminder – I’ve signed the paperwork and put it back in the post to you today.”
“I appreciate you staying on top of this. We spoke to her yesterday and things are back on track.”
“I bet you never thought you’d get an email from me telling you I finally got round to doing this!”
“We would never have done this without your help. Thank you.”
Our clients, quite rightly, expect us to be experts in our field. That’s a given, not a value-add. However, we’re not unique in being experts.
Our value is not so much in what we tell our clients but in what we can motivate them to do. We can spend a lot of time working with our clients to create, and then refine, their financial plan but we can’t force them to implement it – and it’s not our job to do that.
What we can – and do – do, is to follow up (politely) with our clients to make sure that they complete the actions we all agreed they would take. This happens not just when we are implementing a new plan for a new client but as part of our ongoing annual reviews with them where we identify things which need to be done which we cannot do for them and which therefore require action on their part.
Having a strategy (i.e. the plan) is not the end goal, it’s only the start. Unless our clients act on our advice, we haven’t made their lives any better.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
– Nelson Mandela
Warm regards
Carolyn