What To Expect From The Initial Meeting With A Good Financial Adviser

What to expect from the initial meeting with a good financial adviser? 

In our last video we helped you to understand what to look for in a good financial adviser. Now once you have found that adviser you’d like to catch up with, I really want you to have an understanding around what to expect from that person in terms of the initial meeting. 

Let’s be clear and to the point on one thing before we get into it, it shouldn’t be a sales pitch, a best product, a get rich quick scheme or providing a structured plan that day, it’s about learning more about each other to see if you are a good fit to work together. 

As an adviser, I understand that you are busy, it’s the beginning of a new relationship and it isn’t easy to share your personal information … we appreciate it comes with a level of anxiousness so we don’t add to it by rushing on-boarding contracts to you on the same day.

The key theme of this meeting is collecting data and getting clarification. The goal of the first meeting is to book a second meeting, nothing else. Second meeting will be a separate video. 

From an adviser’s point of view, how can you confidently say what the best thing for a person is without knowing them at all. This meeting is the beginning of getting to know you process. 

I’ll go into more detail, but here are some basic key outcomes you should expect from that meeting. 

1. An opportunity to learn more about the adviser – discuss experience, clients they typically assist, financial services guide and privacy policy, value proposition. 
2. An opportunity for the adviser to learn more about you, obviously being unable to change the past, it will be a focus on where you are now and what you want to achieve in the future. 
3. To book in another meeting within a week or two to keep the discussion fresh and front of mind where it’s likely the adviser will need more information from you so they can confirm the above conversation. 

I have mentioned previously that you should know what services your adviser provides. So for today’s discussion, we are going to make the assumption that the adviser you have chosen works holistically aka looks at your entire financial situation. 

When meeting with the adviser, please do your homework and gather some information. Things such as, employment income, assets, liabilities, investment income, expenses, Insurance policies, estate plans, and even details to other professionals – the more information you can provide, the better the service can be.

Here’s what the structure of the initial meeting can typically look like: 

It usually begins with some rapport building, and initial identification. From the Adviser’s perspective, we really want to understand what type of people you are. 

My biggest goal is to understand how the client best interprets information, is it by drawing a diagram or detailed numbers? 

You will also receive an FSG and Privacy Policy. A guide that contains information about the entity providing you with financial advice. It should explain the financial service offered, the fees charged and how the person or company providing the service will deal with complaints. You really should be looking at this prior to the meeting however, they can be found on the advisers website. 

Now, every adviser does their meetings differently, however we really want our new clients to be comfortable and relaxed. We will give you a guide on how the meeting is typically set out and the way it progresses. 

We then begin asking the tough questions… What are your financial or lifestyle goals? Just remember, there isn’t too much we can do about the past.. the meeting is all about the present and future! 

Let’s gather the information, this should be all of the homework you had prepared earlier 😊 .This might involve a lot of questions and will allow us the opportunity to explain some different strategies that you might not have considered which may add significant value to your situation! 

Don’t forget on top of the technical financial work (given),  some of the key value add’s of a good adviser should always be:

• To help you set realistic goals.
• To help educate their clients. They will teach and not preach. 
• To help you achieve your goals – keeping you accountable. 
• Being transparent in all aspects of the relationship. 
• Knowing more than just investments.
• To be proactive, not reactive. 

Now, ending the meeting is where I see 2 different approaches across the industry. 

Some advisers will look to engage the clients there and then – push for the yes or no on the spot. 

Or some will spend time, demonstrate value and then book in a second meeting to go through the next steps, what to expect in terms of timeframes, pricing and service agreement.

We do the latter. 

Main reason for this is that we want to gather some more accurate information for the clients,  and secondly, we want to make sure they are comfortable with our approach. At the end of the day, our goal is to build a long term relationship with our clients, and we really don’t want to rush into anything! 

I hope this helps, as always feel free to reach out to us to ask any further questions and yes, we are open to taking on new clients.