Financial advisors should be prepared to reveal personal details to clients and prospects if they want to establish trusting relationships that last, according to Jessica Jones, senior financial advisor with BOK Financial Advisors, a financial services firm with offices in eight states in the West and Southwest and an arm of BOK financial.
Sharing personal details creates a bond between the advisor and client, said Jones, who has 17 years of experience onboarding and serving clients for BOK Financial Advisors. Jones focuses her practice on the questions advisors should be ready to answer from clients and prospects.
The job of the advisor, particularly when dealing with female clients, is to empower them and assure those who may be new to handling the family finances because of divorce, death or other circumstances that they are capable of handling their personal situations, Jones said.
“The advisor for both women and men needs to be prepared to get to know the prospect or client on a personal level and to share personal details of her own,” Jones said in an interview.
Advisors should be ready to tell clients how much experience they have and in what areas, she said. They should talk about why they became a financial advisor, and they should be prepared to explain what types of clients they have helped in the past.
“If an advisor can tell a client that she counseled another person with a similar life situation, it goes a long way to building a trusting relationship,” Jones said. “This is not just a business transaction. We should not just slap some numbers on the table and tell them, ‘This is what you are going to do.’”
Women, in particular, who have suddenly been thrust into handling the family finances and investments, should be assured they are capable of handling the situation with the advisor by their sides providing support, Jones said.
“Clients also should ask themselves questions: Am I connecting with this advisor? Can I relate to her? Do I trust her judgment? Does she make me feel confident and empowered?” she said. “If the answer to these questions is ‘no,’ the prospect should be willing to look elsewhere.”
Advisors also must realize women clients will want to know why the advisor is suggesting a particular plan of action and be ready to explain their reasoning.
“Advisors should support clients by assuring them they will gain the knowledge they need to make the proper decisions by the time they leave the advisor’s office,” Jones said. “My job as an advisor is to listen actively.”
There is no room for the outdated assumptions that women do not know about finances, she said. “The family’s finances are not just the man’s job any more,” Jones said.