Written by Beth Yolland-Jones, Clinical Expert at duty of care assessment company Comentis
Even for trained clinical experts, identifying someone who’s at risk from vulnerability can be far from easy. After all, clients rarely consider themselves vulnerable, and those who do often want to remain under the radar, using surprisingly effective coping mechanisms to hide their vulnerabilities.
The truth is that there’s a great deal of stigma surrounding vulnerability, to the extent that even using the word ‘vulnerable’ can automatically bring negative connotations to a conversation with a client. But one way or another, those conversations need to happen. The FCA requires any client who is at risk of vulnerability to receive the same good outcomes as any other, so the issue has to be raised.
How, then, can an advisor discuss this topic in a way that will put clients at ease, rather than prompting them to close up? How can we talk about vulnerability without actually using the term ‘vulnerable’?
The first priority for an advisor should be to pin down exactly what we mean by vulnerability. It’s a coin with two sides: the clinical definition and the actual perception.
In clinical terms, to be “vulnerable” means to be at risk or exposed to potential harm. It’s nothing to do with fault or weakness in the individual, but rather with one of the factors in their environment or situation not providing adequate safety. So, it’s all about what’s happening around that individual and how an advisor can support them in moving forward to a different place in their life.
This sounds great on paper. But language shapes perception, and to be labelled as vulnerable almost becomes a perceived personal flaw. There can be a sense of powerlessness, that you’re weaker or less capable than others.
There’s a discrepancy between the clinical definition and the real-world perception of vulnerability, and it’s the perception that causes the feelings of shame or embarrassment that prevent people from accessing the necessary support. They don’t want to disclose their situation in case they’re met with judgement, so opening up to a financial advisor can feel like an intimidating prospect.
I think that it’s time we reframed financial vulnerability as financial wellbeing. This is about taking a more holistic, person-centred approach, so that you’re seeing all of an individual’s strengths, rather than just the negatives. Instead of asking what’s missing, ask how you can maximise what resilience is already there.
As for how to actually communicate with the individual, consider talking about financial stresses or financial challenges, rather than labelling them as vulnerabilities. The goal is to normalise this discussion, making it less stigmatised and less specific to that person’s perceived inability. You’re just talking about stresses and challenges any of us could face at any given time, speaking person to person about life’s difficulties. We all go through peaks and troughs, and we can all be vulnerable at different points in our lives.
Let’s be clear here – this is all about the human experience. In the context of an advisor and their client, we’re just recognising it in a financial space.
Assessing a client’s state of mind is difficult, so advisors are often taught to look for certain criteria or buzzwords. What we want, however, is to avoid making assumptions. If you hear a buzzword, like divorce or bereavement, you might immediately think you know what that client is struggling with, and there might even be some truth to your assumption. But there could be more beyond the circumstance that we’re not seeing, and we have to understand how it affects that individual.
The way to achieve this is through active listening. Perhaps a recent divorcee has just come out of an abusive situation and getting away has taken incredible resilience and planning. Perhaps there’s a sense of relief or even newfound financial freedom. By honing in on certain assumptions, we can often jump to solutions that aren’t right for that individual, rather than asking what would be helpful. But we can’t just assume that because we’ve heard a buzzword, we’re automatically looking at certain negative connotations. Remember every situation – and every client – is unique.
The key is to truly hear what the individual is actually saying. Whether it’s divorce, bereavement or mental health, if you really listen to that person’s experience – hear not only the negatives, but also the positives – you might also hear lots of strengths and resilience. It’s about seeing your client for all they are and working together to determine what’s actually going to be helpful.
If a client is really struggling to open up about their circumstances, I often use goal-setting as a way of exploring some of the challenges they’re facing.
Ask the client what their end-goal looks like. Then, work backwards and try to determine what steps would bring them to that goal. By mapping out a pathway, we often start to shed light on what the client’s life is like and what hurdles they’re facing, ultimately beginning to identify some of those big life events or issues. We need to move away from categorising individuals by life or health events and just asking where someone is on their path.
Other terms to avoid might relate to certain conditions or particular life events the client is navigating. Neurodiversity is a great example. Neurodiversity is a normal human condition – it’s just a different way that the brain works – but it’s the sort of quality that some advisors might immediately label as a vulnerability. This can be hugely detrimental to building a relationship with a client, so we have to be really careful about how we’re labelling or referring to certain things.
Keep questions open-ended to encourage further discussion without the pressure to disclose specific details they might not yet be ready for. Remember to work at the pace of your client, and keep responses reflective and empathetic. For example, you might say, “It seems like you’ve got a lot on your plate and it’s causing you a lot of worry. Can you tell me more about those worries?”
Try to keep an open dialogue for questions and feedback, demonstrating that their opinions and concerns are valid and valued. Don’t assume you’re getting it right because you’re following ‘best practice’, rather check these methods are actually working for the client.
This is a complex area, requiring so much more nuance than a simple set of questions or criteria. Certainly, what an advisor needs is the right technology and processes in place to properly support each and every one of their customers. A digital assessment, capable of removing subjectivity from the process and ensuring consistency across an entire client base is therefore paramount. Having a full overview of the customer will then allow the advisor to speak constructively about vulnerability in the right way. It will also allow them to assess how their clients are feeling and where they’re at with their financial decision-making, in a non-intrusive, non-judgemental way.
It would be brilliant for advisors to start introducing these ideas into their thinking and conversations with clients. But if you’re struggling to engage, you aren’t sure how to handle something or you think you might have it wrong, don’t worry. You aren’t alone in this. There are people and tools out there to help.
