As a financial advisor, how do you get your clients to keep their financial New Year’s resolutions? Connect their goals to their emotions, says Steve Lewit, CEO and co-founder of Wealth Financial Advisory Services in Buffalo Grove, Ill.
Saving more money and losing weight are the top two perennial favorites for New Year’s resolutions. But if clients are actually going to do either, the goals have to move beyond intellect and connect on an emotional level, says Lewit who coaches other advisors in client relationships.
One couple who are clients of Lewit talked with him recently about wanting a retirement home in Wisconsin. Instead of telling them to save for it, Lewit says he asked them why they wanted it. Their families had roots in the area and the couple wanted to connect with ancestors.
So he told them to think of it in those terms, not in terms of wanting property or a retirement home.
“I have found over the years that unless you can connect clients’ goals to an emotional desire, they won’t be able to keep on track,” Lewit says. Half of his clients are retired and half saving for retirement.
“If clients are saving for their children’s college, ask them what type of college they want their kids to graduate from and why. Have them post a note, or even better a picture, where they can see it frequently that depicts their goal. In this case, they could post a note saying how proud they will be when the child graduates from an Ivy League university,” he explains.
“If they are saving for retirement, have them post pictures of what they want to do after they quit working,” Lewit adds.
“As a financial advisor, it is my job to keep that vision in front of them; to eliminate the pain that will be caused if they do not save,” he says. “To accomplish that, advisors have to be psychologist as well as financial advisors.”
Many women who are single or divorced are afraid of ending up poor, or even irrationally afraid of ending up as bag ladies. An advisor has to move beyond trying to sell something and really listen to the client to connect their goals to their emotions and allay fears, he says.