by Tony Vidler 
The Annual Review process for financial advice clients is often seen as a rather hum-drum thing by the clients (if not advisers themselves), and getting clients to engage in it can be a real challenge.
It doesn’t have to be that way of course. With a little imagination it can be positioned as something which becomes desirable, and which clients are keen to participate in.
The first step in doing so is to get away from the compliance-focussed checklist approach. Sending a checklist to clients and asking them to do a bit of self-diagnosis on changes in their lives is rarely something which would make them change their evening plans enthusiastically. It is dull and boring. It is – if we are to be utterly honest – a process that the industry has designed to cover itself in the event of an audit or legal scrutiny.
The typical “annual review” process is usually not customer focussed; it is simply compliance-focussed.
It is done the way it is done to cover our tails, not help our clients. That in itself doesn’t spark their desire to engage further.
The ongoing review of financial advice and plans is an absolute necessity of course. What appears to be a relatively minor change in circumstances to a consumer can be quite significant when it comes to the financial plan actually being able to deliver. It is not just “good practice” to review the plans and advice, it is a valuable element of the original planning.
The issue is not the need to have a regular review process therefore, but how we position it and get clients to engage in it. The law never said we had to be dull, so why are we so often so dull about how we engage with them?
In this weeks Quick Tips video we discuss how to liven up one of the more routine functions of providing advice to help encourage and engage clients in the process…
…watch the video to learn more…
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