By
BT Financial Group
Westpac Group
Designed in
Australia
Description
When clients first see a Financial Adviser, the conversation often jumps straight into financial details. This type of discussion can be difficult for clients to engage in. It also risks leaving Advisers unaware of what's behind a client's financial goals: human needs, supporting family, travel, education, etc. 'Your World' is a paper-based tool designed to help Financial Advisers engage in a more human conversation with their clients. It guides the adviser to uncover what's important, enabling them (and not the client) to translate these into financial solutions. The tool has increased client trust, the quality of relationships, and better advice.
Key Features
and/or Benefits
Initially, clients often feel pressure to articulate their financial needs and goals. They find these discussions difficult and risk asking for the wrong thing. Conversely, Advisers are quite comfortable talking about financial details, but are not equipped to fully understand their client's personal circumstances. 'Your World' provides an open structure for Financial Advisers to focus on what's important to their potential client. By clarifying this, clients can remain comfortable talking about their lives, and Advisers can use the meeting's results to begin translating personal needs into financial outcomes.
‘Your World’ encourages structured discussion and reflection around clients' needs, hopes and desires. Most people have loose aspirations, but rarely take the time to make them tangible. ‘Your World’ helps individuals and couples clarify for themselves, what it is they want by prompting conversation. Working examples include, sisters learning about each other’s business goals and a couple who discovered they had completely different ideas about what life in retirement would be like. Using ‘Your World,’ advisers can assist clients like these to prioritise, set tangible goals and help make them happen.
Gaining a truly holistic understanding of a client in a short meeting can be a challenge. Financial Advisers are trained to put financial strategies in place, but effective tools are lacking to guide them through client conversations about the multiple aspects of their life. Some create systems to do this, but they don't always cover everything required. ‘Your World’ is designed to be approachable; paper-based, components are laid out in a circular fashion to encourage open conversation led by the client. The range of 'life components' presented prompt deeper conversations around topics that mightn't usually come to the fore.
Clients across Australia all reported that the single most important thing to them in the adviser-client relationship is trust. There is no silver bullet for trust, but deep understanding of a client and empathy for their needs is a large factor. Where advisers jumped straight to product (e.g. which managed fund should they invest in?) clients felt that they were being 'sold' to. ‘Your World’ helps clients feel as though they have been truly heard and understood. Encouraging the capture of verbatim comments and using them in the financial plan demonstrates a clear link between customer needs and solutions.