As a financial professional, you spend your days conversing with clients and huddling with colleagues to determine the best way to meet their needs. You also spend time prospecting for new business. Whether you work as an independent advisor, a broker with a firm or have your own fee-only practice, it takes genuine curiosity and compassion to be successful in this field. In a world where money creates anxiety, clients often feel apprehensive discussing it with their advisor. This can especially be true when the markets are volatile or a client experiences a life event such as death, job loss or divorce. In these situations, you must be able to calmly and clearly communicate with your clients so they can move forward with their financial plans.
Many people don’t know how to find the right financial professional mark litwin toronto to help them with their unique objectives. They may receive recommendations from friends or family or look to the internet for assistance. But when it comes to selecting a financial professional, not everyone knows what questions to ask (Garman & Forgue, 2018). A good place to start is asking the prospective professional about their qualifications. Specifically, you should find out if they are a fiduciary or held to a suitability standard. Fiduciaries are legally obligated to put their clients’ interests first, even in situations where they are paid commissions or sales fees. On the other hand, some financial professionals sell products like annuities that contain huge sales commissions built into their price and don’t disclose these conflicts of interest to their clients.
You should also find out how much contact you will have with the prospective financial professional. Some clients prefer to deal with a single financial professional, one on one. Others would rather have a team approach where they talk to different people throughout the year for different services. The latter can be beneficial if there is a sudden change in the financial advisor’s schedule or if they are out of town for an extended period.
Finally, you should also find out if the prospective financial professional is experienced in a particular area of planning. For example, you might need a specialist to assist with college savings planning, charitable planning or financial planning surrounding a divorce. Moreover, some financial professionals only offer their services on a fee-based basis while others sell products such as insurance policies or investments.
Regardless of how you decide to work, you must be able to develop deep relationships with your prospects and clients. This requires strong communication skills, the ability to use plain English and the willingness to reach out to your network on a regular basis. In addition, you must constantly stay informed about changes in the industry and what is available to your clients.
Developing these traits will make you a more successful financial professional. If you’re serious about your career in this field, then it’s time to take action! Download our free report, 7 Success Strategies for Financial Professionals, to learn more about how you can get ahead in this crowded and complex industry.