The 2 Most Important Questions Advisors Should Ask Clients

Why is it critical for FAs to know so much about a client's family?

Without fully understanding the components of the families you serve, you can't provide insight. But if you understand a client's family, you can help them make better decisions around how they want to eventually allocate the assets in their portfolio.

What's an example of how advisors can help clients once they have their Wellness Profile?

One of the challenges retired folks age 65 and older face is the cost of health care. Advisors can help them modify their lifestyle in ways that may reduce the [chances] of age-related disabilities and diseases. So, if you can cut [health care] costs in half, that's a substantial amount of money for most people in retirement.

How do advisors who feel uncomfortable asking lots of questions, especially personal ones, get the knack?

That's the same question farmers who lost their jobs to automation asked: "How do we acquire the skills to work in a factory?" The reality is that people have got to adopt and adapt to change. FAs will glean an enormous amount of information if they train themselves to be better listeners and better at formulating questions.

But thinking up questions and digging deeper take time away from the advisor's main work. Doesn't that present an economic challenge?

Advisors who are getting comfortable doing this are developing deeper relationships with the families they serve. They're ending up with bigger relationships. They're managing more assets but with fewer relationships and are able to penetrate more generations. An advisor's success will never be measured by the number of relationships they have. It's measured by the amount of assets they manage.

Does focusing on client well-being drive client loyalty?

Yes. The more you interact with an individual or organization, the greater the trust bond. As that bond grows, loyalty increases. But keep in mind that loyalty can retreat easily. So you need to continue to work on it, just like your practice. If you do something that's inappropriate, loyalty will evaporate instantly.

Has there been skepticism or resistance from advisors about following this strategy?

A change in behavior is very difficult for people to embrace emotionally: "I've been doing it this way for a long time. It's worked, and will work up till the day it doesn't." But if that's your thinking, you become obsolete, just like the farmers who got pushed off the farms because of agricultural automation. So you have to be much more nimble and innovative, and address how you can do more or reshape what you once called your value promise.

In light of digital advice's growing popularity, what will happen to full-service advisors who don't strive for deeper client relationships?

Typically, people who don't adopt, adapt, change or evolve with changing times find themselves on the outside looking in. Robo's came out with a blast. And while they've been somewhat successful, they have a very small portion of overall assets. So they, too, have recognized that there's got to be a balance between technology and human interaction.

What's the upshot, then?

Smaller investors will benefit from automation, but you're beginning to see many players in the robo world adding the human element. However, when you get above a certain level of assets and income, people find value in an intermediary.

What if veteran advisors insist, "I don't want to adopt and adapt"?

It's all a question of whether you want to change and are curious and have a desire to continue to provide value in your profession. I fully reject the notion: "I'm old, and I can't change."

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