What Clients Want, and What Clients Need

How often does a client or prospect come to you with a simple request—“I just want this . . . [fill in blank]”—but you know that what they need is something very different?

Imagine a doctor confronted by a patient who says to them: “I just want to get this prescription renewed.” It’s wise to ask the patient some questions first, which in turn start to ring alarm bells. What this person actually needs is a thorough medical examination, some comprehensive blood work and perhaps a prescription for some better lifestyle choices.

It’s no different for financial advisers. Many conversations with a new prospect start with what seems like a straightforward request:

“I just want to sort out this old company pension I’d forgotten about . . .”

“I just want to invest this small inheritance in an ISA.”

“I just want . . .”

The client believes they’re facing a simple task. A loose end to be tied up, a form to complete, a product to be selected, a transaction to be done. But the financial professional knows that it’s rarely that simple. A few questions later, and alarm bells are going off in the adviser’s diagnostic brain. This person has no meaningful pension provision; they are woefully underinsured and their spending is unsustainable. What they need is a comprehensive financial plan, some appropriate financial products, a prescription for some better financial lifestyle choices and the discipline to implement them consistently. All things that the adviser is best placed to help with.

And herein lies the adviser’s quintessential problem:

How do you communicate the value of financial planning to someone who doesn’t think they need it?

In the 20 years I worked as an adviser, I found that you couldn’t tell people they needed a comprehensive financial plan; you had to provide them with a simple, yet profound, demonstration of its value. This would lead them to that “a-ha” moment of revelation—a financial plan was exactly what they needed.

I fully acknowledge that financial planning can indeed be complicated—and very daunting for the uninitiated. It requires qualifications and experience, and an understanding of the technicalities of pension legislation, tax, asset allocation, investment selection and insurance. Moreover, it requires the ability to employ the right tools, such as cash flow planning software, to illustrate potential outcomes and model uncertainty.

Fundamentally, however, I believe the basic elements of a financial plan to be simple. So straightforward, in fact, that I could sketch them on the back of a napkin in the time it takes to have a conversation over a cup of coffee. A few basic levers—what you earn, what you spend, what you own, what you owe—summarised in a clear illustration that leads to the big reveal: “In the future, when you are no longer working and earning, what you have saved and invested will have to pay for what you spend.” It’s enough to make them pause and think: “No one’s ever shown me that before.” And in that moment of clarity, that’s when they start asking the right questions—like, “Do I have enough?” Now they’re ready for planning.

I would always tell people that the simple plan I sketched on the back of a napkin is not a financial plan—it’s the doorway into a proper conversation and the start of a financial planning process. When they asked, “What can I do about it, what’s the next step?” I would invite them to come to the office with their financial documents and their partner, if appropriate, so we could start the process of getting them on the right track.

When you show them something they’ve never seen before—a clear view of their financial life on one piece of paper—they stop saying, “I just want to . . .” and start asking, “Can you help me figure out if I’m going to be ok?”

And that’s when you know you’ve earned the right to do the real work.