Meeting with a financial advisor for the first time is a significant step towards securing your financial future. This initial consultation, often called a "discovery meeting," is crucial in establishing a productive advisor-client relationship. Here's what you can expect during this important first encounter.
However, most people don’t wake up in the morning and think “the one thing I want to do today is talk to a financial planner about my money”. And if they do take that step and schedule a meeting, they are full of fears about being tricked into high pressure sales meeting that’s worse than a timeshare presentation!
So, let me try to set the stage just a bit…
A Collaborative Approach
The first thing we do as real financial planners is a thorough diagnosis. We can provide the greatest advice, recommendations, and solutions in the world. But if they aren’t solving the problems and pains that you have, then they are worthless!
When people go to a financial advisor and are unsatisfied with what they were given, it is often because they financial situation wasn’t thoroughly diagnosed. They felt like they went to a surgeon because their knee was hurting but the surgeon did heart surgery!
So, we want to be sure we are performing the right procedure. We leave out the high-pressure sales tactics. This first meeting is an opportunity for both of us to determine if we are a good fit for each other.
We never have anything to sign or ask for any decisions in this meeting.
Understanding Your Financial Objectives
The first part of thoroughly diagnosing is understanding what you want to accomplish. We do this by asking a bunch of questions such as…
What brings you in today?
If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about your financial life, what would it be?
What is important to you about money?
What is most important to you in a relationship with a financial advisor?
What are you looking for in a financial advisor?
What are your short-term and long-term financial objectives?
How much do you think you need to retire?
Ideally when would you retire?
This is not a comprehensive list, and we do not ask all of these questions in every meeting. But this should give you a flavor for what to expect.
We want to understand your values and goals. This helps us provide the best advice for your specific needs.
Assessing Your Current Financial Situation
Next, we dig into your information and current financial situation. This can include…
Reviewing your income and expenses
Looking at your assets and liabilities
Reviewing your insurance coverage and risk management strategies
Reviewing your investment portfolio, current asset allocation, and account types
Looking through your tax return
Discussing your estate plan and beneficiaries
This gives a good grasp on your financial situation, which helps us know if we have the expertise to help you!
Discuss Planning and Investment Philosophy
At this point we usually pivot and go through our investment philosophy. This involves drawing out our buckets approach to portfolio management. Here is our philosophy in a nutshell…
We do not build or invest based on emotions. We build portfolios that will generate retirement income that lasts your entire life.
We are not trying to time or beat the market. Imagine we could beat the market by 2% every year but run out of money at age 84. Did you win? I don’t think so.
Then we cover our Four Pillars of Financial Planning…
Cash flow
Risk management (e.g. insurance and estate planning)
Tax planning (my personal favorite!)
Investments
Address Fees and Compensation
We wrap up the meeting by discussing how we work with clients and our service models. We also talk through our fees.
The fees other advisors charge for the type of service we provide for asset management clients, can range from roughly free to over 3.00% of managed assets. The good news is, we fall somewhere in the middle. And even though we charge an average fee, we provide a high level of service.
For project-based planning (or stand-alone plans), we have seen other advisors charge over $12,000 for a plan. The good news is our fee is based on complexity and is usually significantly less than this.
Your Path to Financial Confidence
The key things to remember are…
In your first meeting with our office, we do NOT ask you to make any decisions or sign anything.
The sole purpose of your first meeting is to be sure that we thoroughly diagnose your situation so that we know if we have a way to help you.
If we do feel confident that we can help you, we will offer to send you a proposal after your first meeting with our exact fees and specifics on what it would like to work with us going forward.
If you are looking for financial planning, schedule your Introductory Call with our office here: