When Jason Hamilton added coaching to his financial advisory business in 2015, he focused on helping clients who felt unfulfilled working in a corporate environment.

“One client was working in the same company for eight years and kept getting passed over for promotions,” Hamilton says. “She really wanted to start a business, but was fearful of losing her paycheck.”

Hamilton’s coaching sessions were about building her confidence so that she could eventually transition out of her full-time job and launch a start-up.

“I helped her start the business she is currently working in and pay down debt,” says Hamilton, whose financial advisory practice and coaching business, KIS Financial Planning, is based in Santa Ana, Calif. “I do it as a differentiator in the market because I know few advisors who do life coaching as well. It’s how I give my clients value for the money they pay month to month.”

Hamilton is among a growing number of financial advisors who are expanding into life coaching as a way to bolster financial planning revenues in the face of fee pressure and dwindling commissions.

A financial advisor in Dallas, Andy Raub, noticed that many of his boomer clients felt uneasy about being out of work even though they would be officially retired. “Coaching gets them ready before their last day on the job,” Raub says.

Many advisors get paid to provide financial advice and product suggestions but don’t know how to engage clients in a deeper conversation about life goals, opines Raub, who developed a curriculum that helps clients focus on what they are good at, what they love doing and what they care about.

“We lead participants through exercises that help them discover this,” says Raub, author of the upcoming book The Encore Curve: Retire with a Life Plan that Excites You (Brown Books). “My three-prong approach helps people within a few years of retirement to define a plan for their future. As boomers reach retirement age, they want more than money-first planning. They want to know how to overcome the jarring life changes of retirement, and they fear losing their sense of purpose and identity when quitting work.”

The average age of Raub’s clients is in the 55- to 60-year-old range, and coaching is priced at a flat fee of $600 for a live four-hour workshop and $400 for the web-based downloaded version. His methods include worksheets and group discussions including three to four people.

Another advisor who has turned to coaching is Jason Kirsch, who launched his Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm, Grow, in December 2016. About 35% of his revenue comes from coaching.

“I charge $500 per month for one-on-one coaching,” Kirsch said. “The fee includes monthly sessions and weekly assignments that are personalized based on a rotation of topics.”

The topics he covers include personal growth, professional development, entrepreneurship, vitality, relationships, time management, organization and motivation, and focus and clarity. 

“One of the goals of these assignments is to hold our clients accountable and give them actionable ways to build strong, powerful habits because over time consistent progress compounds and leads to tremendous results,” Kirsch says.

Since life coaching often includes concerns about money, financial advisors are, in many instances, at the right place at the right time to collect on the human need for guidance.