Personal touches can spark stronger client connections. Sam Patterson APFS, Chartered Financial Planner and Head of Delivery at Equilibrium, explains why suitability reports should reflect people, not just products.
“It’s my birthday today, so I’m planning on having a walk around a lake somewhere rather than being at work. I won’t be looking at my emails during the day, but if the matter is urgent, I can be reached on my mobile phone”.
The above was my out of office email response that I put in place a few weeks ago. I had a number of emails while away strolling around a lake, and all of the responses to my email reply were incredibly positive. When I returned to the office, to meetings arranged the week before, meetings began with an easy conversation starter, proving how even a small personal touch, such as a personalised out of office response, can begin to create a connection.
Remembering that financial planning is about people
Sometimes we can forget that financial planning is all about people, not paperwork. Yet too often, our interactions with clients and colleagues within the profession can come across wooden and dull, in a seemingly never-ending pursuit of being professional. However, the cost of this is we can come across as being disinterested in the very person that we are speaking with.
My challenge therefore is this; if we can bring an element of personalisation to something as simple as an out of office message, why do we strip personality out of suitability reports, the very documents designed to help clients make potentially life-changing decisions?
Common shortfalls in suitability reports
Suitability reports can vary greatly depending on which company issues them, and even who writes them. However, suitability reports that fail to connect with clients often have similar shortfalls;
- they sound robotic, not personal to the client.
- clients don’t see their own goals reflected back to them through the financial advice.
- the language used often centres on the products or investments, instead of the people.
Making advice resonate with clients
The solution? Make suitability reports personal using language that connects with the individual reading it.
In my experience, clients rarely approach financial decisions in a purely logical way. More often than not, they make decisions emotionally and then justify them logically, meaning that our writing should reflect this. Studies into behavioural finance can provide an insight into this, and explain that cognitive biases, present bias and mental accounting can all shape how clients interpret financial advice.
Keeping the client’s perspective front and centre
Clients are people first and foremost. They don’t read suitability reports through the lens of a financial expert, picking up on the technical subtleties. They are reading the advice through their wish to achieve their own financial life goals. Therefore if our reports fall into the trap of leaning too heavily into the products and technical detail, we miss the chance to really connect with our clients in the way they wish to understand.
Using the BRAIN framework
One framework that has always worked for me is the BRAIN framework. A suitability report should outline the Benefits of a piece of advice, the Risks involved, any Alternatives, what the client’s Instincts were and finally, what happens if they do Nothing. By framing and communicating financial advice in this way, we shift the focus from the product to the person. Instead of leading with the technical features, the whole suitability report is positioned with the client in mind. How will your expertise benefit them and help them to achieve their goals, while also flagging any trade-offs involved. And by highlighting what will happen if Nothing is done, it is a great way of demonstrating exactly how that client’s life will be improved through your advice.
Connecting advice with what matters most
A framework like that can help both planners and paraplanners connect financial advice with what matters most to the clients. Anchoring recommendations in a client’s own words can make advice feel personal and relevant.
All practitioners within our profession will have different styles and different processes. However, we do all share the same desire of connecting with our clients, and adopting a more personal approach to written communication is vital for this.
