How to Present a Financial Plan: 4 Tips for Greater Engagement
How to Present a Financial Plan: 4 Tips for Greater Engagement
FINANCIAL PLANNINGChris MaurielloJanuary 10, 2023
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Updated on: November 3, 2023
When financial professionals know how to effectively present a financial plan, they can better engage clients in the planning process and earn clients for life.
Presenting a financial plan, however, isnt as simple as running through the numbers. Financial planners need to make sure clients feel included, that the plan recommendations are understood, and they need to navigate clients potentially negative emotions while also motivating them to take the next steps.
If youre looking to make more impactful plan presentations as a financial planner, here are four tips to make sure youre maximizing engagement.
1. Address the Clients Why
Its critically important that your clients feel heard. Otherwise, theyll feel that youre not tailoring your recommendations to their situation.
Make sure to revisit their why for the plan youve createdin other words, the reason they sought your advice in the first place. What was the event that prompted them to reach out to you? Has the client been making healthy financial decisions already? What are they looking to accomplish through the plan?
Answering these questions can help you connect with your client on a personal level. This shows your understanding of their situation, and how youre addressing the goals they intend to accomplish through the financial plan.
Make sure to also touch on any other specific concerns theyve explicitly mentioned, along with avenues for success. This will help clients understand the value of their plan and get excited about its execution.
2. Communicate Clearly and Effectively
Present your plan in simple terms, especially for newer planning relationships, and avoid getting into complex discussions about how specific numbers were reached. This may sound obvious, but its very important because it opens the door for clients to listen and learn, which will ultimately help them implement their plan.
When clients understand your recommendations, the reasonings behind them, and how they should proceed, theyll build confidence in taking action themselves. Through their education and better understanding, theyre likely to make better ongoing financial decisions in addition to staying aligned with their new plan.
To help facilitate client education, make sure you leave time and space for client questions during presentations. Its easy to get carried away presenting the plan recommendations, but dont forget to let the clients speak as well. Their questions or concerns can help personalize their plan and further engage them in the process of planning.
Its also important, when communicating to clients, to not make assumptions about their life or financial circumstances. Doing so could immediately alienate a client. Inclusivity, on the other hand, welcomes clients into your practice and shows that youre sensitive to their unique needs.
3. Keep Clients Focused on the Goals
Our recent research shows the top advisor-reported client challenge is having unrealistic goals and timelines for those goals. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to communicate to a client why their original goal may not be realistic, try to frame the conversation in a motivational way.
For instance, in the case of a client who wants to retire at an unrealistic date but knows they have bad spending habits, you can do three thingsconfirm, redirect, and motivate:
Confirmthat they are correct about their unhealthy financial habits, and how the continuation of those habits could affect their retirement age.
Redirectby letting the client know that these habits are the reason for reaching out to an advisor who can help and that they have already taken the first step towards succeeding.
Motivateby proving your plan to be effective in guiding them through the next steps theyre going to take to turn things around.
In these situations, demonstrating what-if scenarios with clients in real-time with visualizations will make your presentation even more dynamic. This will help the client understand which goals are realistic based on their own current and potential performance.
4. Divide and Conquer
Sometimes less is more! When wrapping up your financial plan presentation, be sure to summarize your full conversation and leave the client with only a few actionable items. Allow the clients to build momentum with those smaller items first, rather than giving them more responsibility than they can handle.
Explain the importance of the actionable items youre giving them, and how those items will directly affect whats to come in the next session. This will help the client shoulder the responsibility for the success of their plan by making sure the necessary items are completed in a timely manner.
Assigning next steps in their personal financial website or portal can help them get accustomed to using this tool throughout the planning process as well, which will further help with engagement as the relationship progresses.
Ending presentations with action items helps the client connect short-term actions with long-term goals and can be a powerful motivator to keep the plan moving in the right direction one step at a time.
Remember: Its not about creating THE planits about creating A plan!
Financial Plan Presentations Are an Opportunity for Better Relationships
There are countless ways to present a financial plan. By reiterating the clients why, communicating clearly, utilizing progress models, and dividing and conquering, you can make your presentation as effective as possible.
Presenting a financial plan is a great opportunity to build your current relationships and motivate clients for greater planning success. To further support your clients in achieving their goals, continue reading our recent postNudging Financial Planning Clients in the Right Direction.
Preparing your presentation
Minimizing stress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryXOW1QS0ZMEffective presentation skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZfqCBUpOsPowerPoint tips and tricks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GW4vT7d3ncHow to make a presentation in zoom and save it as an MP4 file HYPERLINK "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6cTbnUPwfY" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6cTbnUPwfY
Assignment Content
Top of Form
Your uploaded report should consist of 2 parts:
1) your typed report (following the format stated in the attached)
2) separate xls calculations
Your uploaded report should consist of 2 parts: 1) your typed report (following the format stated in the attached) 2) separate xls calculations REQUIRED (submission should be 8 pages (12-front & double-spaced) or less - excluding exhibits & engagement letter):
Your report (part 1 above should be no longer than 8 pages (12-front & double-spaced) or less - excluding exhibits of up to 2 pages plus engagement letter)
For projections/assumptions use the attached FP Canada Guide and use a client life expectancy of 95 years. Tips on effective presentations are below as is the 6-step CIFP guide to preparing a financial plan
You are a financial planner and have clients Tom and Sara. They have no firm plans yet to retirefrom their well-paying jobs in the health care sector, but they do have some questions about theirfinancial future. Tom is 57, Sara is 51. They have one child, age 15, and a mortgage-free housein a desirable part of southern Ontario.Tom earns $118,000 a year and is a member of a defined benefit pension plan. Sara makes$75,000 a year and contributes to a group registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) at work.Theyd like an assessment of their retirement readiness by the time Tom turns 60, the earliest ageat which he can get an unreduced pension. He may decide to work longer. Sara plans to retire atthe same time as Tom.Do-it-yourself investors, Tom and Sara have built a substantial investment portfolio mainly ofdividend-paying, blue-chip stocks. After they leave the work force, they would like to use theirinvestment income for their living expenses and ideally never touch the principal.They ask how to co-ordinate the drawdown of their registered accounts with the collection ofgovernment benefits. As well, they wonder what steps could be taken to preserve their estate fortheir son in the event they pass away while he is still young. They are both in good health.Their retirement spending goal is $130,000 a year after tax (other financial data is below). Theywant a financial plan and advice given the above information.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Monthly net income: $11,035.Assets: Cash in bank $30,000; joint investment account $900,200; locked in retirement accounts$302,200; RRSPs $863,200; TFSAs $260,000; registered education savings plan $53,000;residence $1-million. Total: $3.4-million.Estimated present value of his DB pension $1-million. This is what a person with no pensionwould have to save to generate the same income.Monthly outlays: Property tax $300; water, sewer, garbage $100; home insurance $100;electricity $140; heating $200; maintenance, garden $150; vehicle lease $950; transportation$800; groceries $600; clothing $100; gifts $100; charity $450; vacation, travel $1,200; otherdiscretionary $200; dining, drinks, entertainment $500; personal care $50; club memberships$100; pets $50; sports, hobbies $100; subscriptions $20; other personal $200; disabilityinsurance $100; phones, TV, internet $260; RRSPs $600; TFSAs $1,085. Total: $8,455. Surplus goes mainly to saving.
Liabilities: None
Your uploaded report should consist of 2 parts: 1) your typed report (following the format stated in the attached) 2) separate xls calculations REQUIRED (submission should be 8 pages (12-front & double-spaced) or less - excluding exhibits & engagement letter):
