Good ‘bedside manner’ is still underrated in financial planning | Clifton’s Markwick

What turns a good financial planner into a great one? With the busy tax year-end period in full swing plus stockmarket volatility from the Middle East conflict adding to the frenzy, Christian Markwick, senior manager for adviser development, Clifton Wealth Partnership, serves up a timely reminder of what it is that clients value most when it comes to their relationship with a trusted financial planner.

Who else remembers what training for financial advisers used to be like? I first dipped my toes into financial advice in 1999 and back then of course the training on offer was heavily linked to products and solutions-based advice. But one excellent element to the training I do recall – and I’m sure some of you will remember similarly – was the emphasis on strong communication skills.

The sector has certainly come a long way since then, evolving into a true profession with chartered qualifications, technical skills and client outcomes at its core. However this technical shift has also meant that the importance of so-called ‘soft skills’, good communication and bedside manner sometimes get lost along the way. 

What it takes to build trust

A nationwide adviser study was brought up during a panel I was recently part of, which found that around 30% of clients who had IHT planning recommended by their adviser didn’t take any action. There was understandably concern about why this type of important advice wasn’t being taken in so many cases, to which I made the somewhat unpopular suggestion that perhaps there was a problem with how the advice was being delivered. Bear with me while I explain further.

A complex area of financial planning such as IHT certainly requires technical expertise from a financial planner. But perhaps what gets missed is the incredibly careful hand required to guide clients gently through the sensitive and highly emotional subject of planning for a day when you or your partner won’t be around anymore. Really good questioning and listening skills, empathy, emotional intelligence and understanding of vulnerabilities can make all the difference here. Yes it may sound simple, but this is often what makes these skills all too easy to overlook.

Legacy planning is just one example of the many key life moments that financial planners will help their clients navigate, during which time they will build up an incredibly detailed picture not just of their financial situation but their family life, hopes, ambitions and struggles too. There is arguably no one who knows more about their clients than a financial planner – not even someone like an accountant or doctor would have quite such a varied and comprehensive insight into their client or patient’s life.

No wonder then that trust is so important in building successful long-term relationships between planners and clients. People connect with advice in very different ways and this is where nuanced and adaptable communication is critical, translating technical subjects into digestible information so that clients can easily see the personal value in the advice being given. A financial planner who can adapt their behaviour, language and writing styles to the individual client sitting in front of them and talk to them on their level is best placed to establish and maintain trust over time. 

We know that clients who do receive advice really value the services and support of a financial planner. According to the lang cat’s recent Advice Gap report, the top three reasons why clients said they chose to pay for advice are because they value the service provided, they need help with a complex matter or are looking for peace of mind. These all require a strong relationship, built on years of getting to know someone and their motivations intimately.

What it takes to attract more talent

For young people or career changers coming through academies or training to become financial planners, a huge amount of effort will go into passing exams. While I wouldn’t want to burst the bubble of anyone working hard in this position, I would argue that getting through your exams will leave you only 30-40% qualified to be a financial planner.

The rest needs to come from thorough training and a chance to practice good communication and interaction with different clients. However at present, the balance is off and not enough new advisers are getting access to this type of experience. Here at Clifton, that’s why we’re approaching training differently for both our new and existing advisers, by building a development programme that gives these skills the proper time and attention they deserve.

Putting greater emphasis on things like emotional intelligence and bedside manner in financial planning could also help draw a much broader pool of talent to the profession, potentially attracting people with a background or degree in psychology or behavioural science, for example. Widening the net like this feels more important than ever as many firms continue to struggle to attract the volume of new advisers needed to sustain our industry going forward.

One very simple but meaningful step we can all make today is to change how we talk about these vital aspects of financial planning, which for too long now have been referred to as ‘soft skills’. Doing so inherently downplays their importance as something non-essential or a bit vague. We need to ditch the term soft skills and instead recognise what these actually are – absolutely core skills for any modern financial planner.