A client's typically response is gratitude—appreciation for having someone to talk to about things they’ve been thinking but hesitated to bring up because it’s supposedly outside the normal bounds of a client-advisor relationship.
That’s not to say this new and different approach will be easier or come with fewer hills and valleys. Like the weather on any journey, clients will need to supply their own sunshine from within and use everything from mittens, umbrellas and sun screen to manage the elements. Regardless of current conditions, however, it’s best to help clients sow more now in order to reap a full harvest later.
Remember, an advisor’s influence with clients is limited only by how far they are willing to take the relationship. It doesn’t matter how old a client is, or how much money or fame they have accumulated. They all desire inspiration and messages of hope and assistance in seeing who they are and what they can be through the eyes of another. If you have a child, you know you’re never really ever done parenting. The same holds true for advisors: We are never done advising, even when clients achieve their biggest goals.
In examining the method of helping people see and plan for retirement in a different way, it’s strange to realize how little of retirement advisors actually help clients understand and prepare for. Strange how all the assumptions and planning sometimes only enables people to become passive passengers on the journey of life.
Therefore, encourage clients to infuse their life with actions now. Don't let them wait for it to happen. Help them make it happen. Stop letting them wait or assume some miracle or opportunity will come knocking at their door in retirement because great personal stories and family legacies aren’t created by following the same path as everyone else. They are blazed by going instead where there is no path and leaving a trail for others to follow.
Robert Laura is President of SYNERGOS Financial Group, founder of RetirementProject.org, creator of the Retirement Wellness Report and DividendPaycheck.org, He can be reached at [email protected].