Last week I was working with one of our Certified Wealth Mentors with my role to offer some behavioral insights on some difficult client cases. The cases were difficult because of the clients’ attitudes not only to financial decision-making but also to life. These cases reaffirmed to me how much trust is core to all dimensions of every client situation. This is why when we redeveloped our DNA personality system in the past year we made trust a new stand-alone personality factor. Often when we ta...
Mar 25, 2010•3 min
No matter the industry, providers of products and services are always saying something to the effect of: "You are blind as to who is going to walk in the front door for their first meeting with you. As you work with the client a bit you have a greater collection of knowledge but still not the whole picture. It can still take 10 years or more to really know who you are dealing with". Do you truly know the life and financial motivations of your clients? Their deepest desires? Do you know their ris...
Jan 27, 2010•2 min
In recent weeks we have strongly focused our messaging around "business transformation". In particular, the need to address the client experience that is being provided in order to transform. So often, leaders regularly talk about getting the right people on board, developing the team and the leadership, having the right product, focusing the business plan, improving execution etc. These are all important dimensions; however, they are not all of it.
Jan 21, 2010•3 min
For advisors, growing your financial planning business is about getting more of the right clients who you can profitably serve on a sustained basis. This means you must have financial planning clients who will pay for the value you provide and will allow you to do so efficiently and with minimum wasted energy. I am sure this sounds logical and for many financial advisors this will sound obvious. The question is: are you acquiring clients and managing relationships as well as you can?
Dec 07, 2009•11 min
Have you considered what is going to propel growth in your business in the coming months and years? Schwab conducted a research study in March 2009 which shows the greatest 3 enablers of growth are: 1. Closing the deal with prospects - 75% 2. Maintaining quality service - 73% 3. Adding new technology for scalability - 67% So what is your strategy for closing more prospects more quickly and improving client service?
Nov 02, 2009•2 min
The theme at this week's FPA Conference in Annaheim centered on trust. Becoming the trusted advisor is not a new idea however, it is increasingly talked about. The question is how do you become the trusted advisor? How do you accelerate trust in your advisory relationships, and for that matter in any relationship? Building trust is directly related to how you behave in relation to others. What many do not know is that the starting point for trust starts with your behavior. If you do not trust yo...
Oct 19, 2009•31 min
In my work with entrepreneurs and family business owners there are quite divergent views about whether to bring children into the family business when they are young adults, or even at any stage. Some say never and others have a desire to perpetuate the family association with the business. There are cases for both. Of course, rationality plays into it and the family legacy. In my own case, I had to work through many of the issues because our family had a pastoral (cattle ranching) business whic...
Sep 16, 2009•3 min
Risk tolerance is a much talked about area in financial planning and it is one core component of an investor's unique financial behavior - what we call their Financial DNA. It is so fundamental that we are always talking about it and making decisions with reference to it. A huge difficulty has been reliably measuring an investor's risk tolerance. One of the problems is that an investor's risk tolerance is assessed today but then a portfolio is developed for the long term which has to cope with f...
Sep 02, 2009•4 min
In recent times I have done a lot of talking about your "success impediments". What is getting in your way to success? A lot of the time it is our own mind. We allow negative thinking to get in the way. This will be true at any time particularly when times are tough and we are fearful. Or it will happen because we have limited experience or a lack of confidence. However, we should never let the big thoughts go away.
Aug 12, 2009•2 min
Last week I participated in a learning program for fast growth businesses conducted by Verne Harnish (founder of Gazelles, Inc) who is world renowned as "The Growth Guy". Verne has run training workshops for and coached many great entrepreneurs all over the world. He has a very straightforward approach to helping an entrepreneur stay focused.
Aug 05, 2009•2 min
When one looks at business, it is easy to miss or not appreciate the importance of private businesses and entrepreneurship. How often do you look to the larger public companies for opportunities, marketing and jobs? Probably a lot. This is what many first think of doing.
Jul 30, 2009•1 min
I have just read KPMG's Swiss Financial Services Newsletter for August 2008. The newsletter provides very sharp insights into the increasingly complex international needs of high net worth individuals. The outcome is that the consulting team will need to have a greater global outlook and more sophisticated approach to the technical and human issues impacting the HNWI client.
Jul 23, 2009•3 min
In recent months I have written a few blogs about corporate governance and business risk management. I have expressed the view that many of the corporate problems we have today are related to ineffective board governance. It has been interesting being in Europe for the past 2 weeks where this subject has come up in many discussions with business leaders and in the press. Clearly, the topic of corporate governance is high on the agenda. It needs to be because this is the source of so much corpora...
Jul 15, 2009•2 min
Back in March of this year, I wrote a blog about managing the human risks in your business. This issue has not gone off the radar screen. Identifying the human behavior risks in your business is critical to success. Every person has natural "blind-spots" which, if they go unchecked, can lead to individual performance failures, team failures, leadership failures and ultimately significant business problems. Regardless of the size of your business, the behavior of your people will influence the re...
Jun 24, 2009•2 min
At the moment, more than ever, the whole notion of trust in every aspect of our lives is important. For many, trust is very low, if not shattered, with our leaders, advisors, partners and family members. Furthermore, trust in ourselves is low, which is the core of the issue. If your business and personal relationships are not working as well as you would like, or your performance could improve, see whether it is because your trust is low. “Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look...
Jun 24, 2009•4 min
In the past few weeks we have had a number of people contact us who are starting some form of business partnership together. Most of the time their request has been to find out more about their differences. Some of the typical issues they are seeking to understand are: 1. What are our different talents? 2. What should our role in the business be? 3. What areas do we have to watch out for? 4. Do we have shared values and purpose?
Jun 04, 2009•3 min
In recent years there has been a lot written about how wealth created by the first generation (the entrepreneur) is lost by the third generation. Often the second generation has also added to the wealth. Then the third generation has lost it through being irresponsible, idle or simply making poor decisions. Research from a range of sources is consistently showing that this is happening in over 70% of family wealth transfers. A significant aspect of intergenerational wealth loss is related to the...
May 12, 2009•3 min
Today, I listened to a great presentation by Tal Ben-Shahar who teaches positive psychology at Harvard University. Interestingly, his 2 courses have been rated the most popular in the university. No wonder, he is so motivating.
Apr 30, 2009•2 min
The primary foundations of Financial DNA are "Know Thyself" and Know Thy Client". However, what I have not spoken up much before about is "Know Thy Investments". For both the advisor and the client this is absolutely critical to successful investing. Who at some point has been caught in an investment they did not fully understand and lost money?
Apr 21, 2009•3 min
The current financial crisis is bringing to light a huge workplace shift. For many baby boomers, they only had one career or expected to have one career. The thinking of this generation was that upon getting your qualifications you had one career - working up the ranks often in the same company. Today, it is expected that the Gen Y's will have 10 or more careers. They will job hop. Although, this may be more difficult to do in the current circumstances.
Apr 16, 2009•3 min
When I was a financial planner and even before that a CPA, I had regularly observed that people's behavior and decision-making patterns changed when they were under pressure; the pressure often being caused by money and relationships. This observation was fundamental to my thinking when I was building the Financial DNA Discovery Process with my team. We wanted to know what a person's natural instinctive behaviors are as this would be key to predicting how they would really behave when there were...
Apr 08, 2009•3 min
I have had some interesting discussions in the past week with financial advisors and managers of advisors. With the financial downturn everyone is evaluating where they are at. The big question being asked is: "Should you be in the business?" My feeling is that over the next 1 to 3 years many current advisors will give up or be forced out. When you think there is research showing that 89% of clients are considering switching advisors there is much to think about. The financial services landscape...
Apr 02, 2009•2 min
I have had some interesting discussions in the past few weeks with business leaders from many different industries and backgrounds in the United States. One of the areas that consistently comes up is poor corporate governance. As mentioned in my last blog most of the economic problems we have right now are due to the behavior of our leaders. Being direct, alot of leadership behavior is not properly monitored. So, a key step towards fixing the problems we have today would be to change the corpora...
Apr 01, 2009•2 min
At the moment there is alot of talk about the collapsing business and financial environment. For everyone it is having an impact in all sorts of ways. Of course, we all look at the numbers side of the equation; but what about the people side? What are the human risks in your business? How are your people behaving in these times? Then, also, how do you want them to behave to handle the crisis and then build your business going forward? We have been working with many companies all over the globe o...
Mar 24, 2009•4 min
In the financial services industry there are a lot of supporters for the use of behavioral profiles as part of the client discovery process and there are some detractors from using them. Like in any situation where there are detractors most have not yet had a positive experience or seen the full benefits or simply have been listening to the wrong information. This is human nature. Overall, I do believe that you can never have enough information about yourself, your clients and also your team. As...
Mar 24, 2009•7 min
A statement I have been making to many people for the last 10 years is: "Investment markets cannot be controlled, but how you manage your reaction to them can be". Generally, for most investors the reason that they obtain returns which are on average 6% lower than market returns is because of their behavior. Investors generally make poor investment decisions because of their reactions to events and also to their own life circumstances. This can be because they do not know who they are or how to ...
Mar 20, 2009•5 min
Hang on. Where is the market going to? Will the Dow be 5000 in the next few months by June 2009 or 22000 in 6 years? Who knows. They are interesting questions. I have placed my own personal wager on the markets reaching these levels in those time frames with some friends. I have often talked about this with friends and clients since 1999. Japan could still get messy for the world yet as it has many unresolved issues. These problems coming down the pipeline have been a big part of my move into th...
Mar 20, 2009•9 min
Well the stock market has gone to 10 year lows. Has it hit the bottom? That is not necessarily the crucial issue although this downward spiral will be raising more fears. What is crucial is how you handle this situation in terms of your own behavior and managing that of your clients. If you read my last blog you will see research is showing that advisors are on the whole not going far enough in client discovery and in particular understanding behavior. Here are some tips for managing your client...
Feb 24, 2009•2 min
With turbulent financial markets it is far more likely that your true financial behavior will emerge and strongly influence your financial decisions. The degree to which this true financial behavior emerges and your ability to effectively manage it will to a large degree depend on how much pressure you come under because of financial concerns and difficulties. How are you going to navigate these difficult times? To what extent will your emotions drive decisions?
Oct 15, 2008•7 min
For a few years now there has been an increasing trend toward people taking steps to find greater meaning in their life. Gradually, more and more people are having the courage to do it and not just talk about it. This may involve turning their back on what is a well paid job and years of study and even moving from where they live. I even believe that this desire to find meaning will increase with turbulent financial times which could be quite dislocating for some. To survive emotionally and fina...
Sep 25, 2008•3 min
