Stewardship tools or license to kill?
To put the world
right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the
nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the
family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must
first set our hearts right.
-Confucius
James Bond is special kind of spy. He has his "00"
license to kill. How he uses it is mostly up to him. Between charm,
justice and English empire preservation, he knows his power and its
implications. His license is a powerful asset in his regular struggles
with bad guys. Still, he must show judgment and restraint. After all,
his power is ultimate.
The image of the "00" license provides an intriguing
metaphor for Interior skills. This is especially true at our junctures
of life and money. Though the "kill" metaphor is, perhaps, over the
top, we can all acknowledge Interior skills can mortally harm when
wielded by inept or ruthless financial advisors.
We are all in the relationship business. Whether you believe that
financial planning is intimate or calculated, whether you resonate to
notions of so-called life planning, psychology of money or stewardship,
the Interior is the space and place of relationships. This is where we
ask for trust and confidence and where we communicate our trustworthy
reliability. Conveying expertise, competency and best intentions, this
is also where we ask for the order.
The Interior constitutes the locus for our
understanding of money wisdom and artful implications. As we all know,
there is nothing more intimate than money.
The Interior is where we work ... whether we think we
want to or not. We just can't help it. People bring their insides in
with their outsides. So, when we accept responsibilities for working
with someone, even ostensibly objective relationships carry
extraordinary Interior implications. Their emotions, histories, fears
and phobias are right there with them as our work bumps up against that
of psychologists, psychiatrists, coaches and clergy.
Yet, it is dark and dangerous in there. It hides
their irrational and psychotic aspects right there together with their
best stuff.
Increasingly, financial planners have such
sensitivities. Increasingly, we are developing our skills and
understandings, personal and cultural, for addressing them. It is
nothing but fundamental financial planning to grasp what clients care
about and understand, as Bill Bachrach puts it, what their "money means
to them." If we understand their issues, their goals and objectives, we
must understand their fears, their expectations and their fondest
dreams. This means their Interior. This means those dark and dangerous
places and our "00" license to kill. We must be mindful.
Yet, in our processes, we can rarely avoid
encountering their negatives. Why won't they do what we know is best?
Why do they short-circuit the intuitively obvious? Why are they
financially self-destructive? What about those credit cards? Those
incompletions and broken commitments? Those failures to understand the
financial implications of personal decisions? What's up with new cars,
timeshares or kitchens?
Of course, Interior responsibilities are awesome; their powers
extraordinary. Breakthroughs to trust carry huge clout-"00" level clout.
Movie villains are obvious. In real life, with real
money, villains parade as really, really nice guys. In Denver, at
least, their daughters love them, they really, really will pay back the
$15 million, they are just really, really sorry they took from trusting
clients and they really, really, really don't belong in jail. "00"
powers. Whoda thunk?
Because, unfortunately, trust creation processes are
replicable, regardless of character, knowledge or standards. When
fiduciary advisors can generate trust and confidence and have superior
knowledge, they have genuine power over others-whether or not they
deserve it. The power's exercise depends on its holder's character and
how they honor the "00" trust.
As much as many seek to avoid this legally
vulnerable status, we must recognize we have great powers for harm. We
can destroy lives.
The Interior skills of authentic advisors are
marvelous. They bring with them opportunities for enabling stewardship
and helping clients arrange their lives most productively and
rewardingly. Yet, such powers, in the hands of the ethically
challenged, lead all too easily to direct or indirect theft.
Regrettably, experience shows us that trust creation
skills, Interior powers, range from those who are thoughtful stewards
to others who are simply outrageous frauds and conscienceless thieves.
Lamentably, and less glamorously, our field includes, and has included,
fair numbers of people who simply have the "script" even though they
lack the character, skills and understandings to keep their promises.
Truth is, with a good script, we all sound the same.
We can acknowledge all this but we cannot avoid it,
either in ourselves or within our profession. The "Interior" is not
just where we explore hopes, dreams, loves, dangers and
responsibilities. It is where we make our sales and generate our
relationships. Even as we struggle with questions about our
profession's central purposes, functions and responsibilities, there is
always time to remind ourselves that book covers look pretty much the
same whether the contents are trash or treasure.
Good advisors work to make the client's experience
tolerable, even joyful. So do con artists. It keeps them coming back.
For innately talented Interior masters, money relationships are rife
with abuse opportunities. It's dark in there, but nobody need really
know what we did when then lights were out.
By the way, this is why they call us "fiduciaries."
Authentic financial advisors properly use the "f" word to self-describe
our roles and the operative legal natures of many of our relationships.
We know they are relying upon us and we freely accept the
responsibilities of their trust and confidence.
Of course, this has always been the case. But it is
different this time. There are changes within our promises and powers
as we move from sales to service. This is a big deal; one requiring
both noticing and thoughtful inquiry.
Though we have come a very long way, we, too, must
look inside at our own Interiors. This means understanding ourselves,
our profession and our "00" powers. It means grasping common emotional
and spiritual phenomena and social contexts, as well as comprehending
money in the world. It also means understanding our roots, including
our good parts, our bad parts and our motivations.
Core issues do not revolve around Interior versus
Exterior. Core issues revolve around whether our motives for using
Interior skills are for keeping promises or artful manipulation.
The issue is not new. Advice/Sales dialectics have
been ever with us. For example, in my early years financial services
industry training was all about sales. "Advice" was for real
professions-and we were frequently reminded of the distinctions. Back
in the day, they taught us to know how folks thought and bought.
Serving genuine needs, putting client interests above our own? These
did not come up. Product quality reflected sales volume. As my former
partner frequently noted, sardonically, "If it sells, it must be
good." And, oh my, did some weird stuff sell.
In the early days, financial services companies
loved the concept of financial planning. As far as they were concerned,
financial plans were superior product delivery systems and they wanted
more of it. They read the industry studies where sales statistics
heavily favored financial planning product sales in strong contrast to
simpler, traditional sales techniques. "00" Interior skills meant
understanding a client's values and decision-making processes in order
to fully access our "share of the wallet."
Financial services companies taught psychology to
their representatives specifically for purposes of opening and closing
cases, not for making their representatives better advisors or
assisting clients with non-product financial issues.
Even today, I clearly recollect financial services
industry leaders universally declaiming that "we," after all, were
"just salespeople." Though many of us were, even then, participating in
the development and maturation of the financial planning profession,
for industry types, "interior skills" just meant good "sales skills,"
just as "producer" meant "One who sells a lot." It meant "funnel
talks," "nine second diamonds," "elevator speeches" and "closing
techniques." It meant putting one hundred of your closest friends and
relatives on your "prospect" list and making "cold calls." In my
environment, at least, nobody ever made "planner of the week" because
they taught their clients good budgeting skills or helped them learn to
shop efficiently.
This was not all bad. After all, sales skills are
essential business skills that we must all master. In fact, when
compared to law school training. our sales training was truly
impressive. "Listening" skills were valued. We "heard" meanings behind
words and learned fundamental respect for the person in front of us.
"Everybody got to be somebody...,"-a wonderful attitude of mutual respect
that continues to serve.
But there were always disconnects. Though we had the
words "financial planning" drilled into us, nobody ever really told us
what it was. They did not know. When an insurance sales conquest
generated the supervisor's proud exclamation, "And if that's not
financial planning, I don't know what is!"-at that moment, I saw the
man behind the curtain in magical recognition that Interior skills are
"00" dangerous. It remains vivid.
We are talking some real trash here. With advancing
age, many us are cheerfully forgetting our mid-'80s exposures to such
stinkers as most real estate limited partnerships, miscellaneous
collectibles, sundry tax shelters (oh how I miss bull semen stories),
penny stocks, tax-avoidance schemes, 9% commission annuities,
investment contracts, 12% cash value interest rate assumptions, 25%
interest rates for some truly nasty Ponzi schemes ... The "00" license
was accessed and abused.
Yet, even then, we were told it was "all about the relationship."
Truth is, I have been hearing that "it is all about
the 'relationship'" long before I ever had anything to do with the
underlying philosophies of financial planning, "To Think ... Like a CFP,"
"integralism," or "psychology of money," or, even, any single stage of
money maturity. The "relationship" was the mother's milk of sales in
the 20th century. It still is. And it is still "00."
"Figure out what people value." "Think about how you
can help them accomplish it." "Know what they value and who they love."
I did not learn such things as a part of my professional skill base so
much as for transactional purposes. And every one of them is a valuable
lesson.
When we are worthy of our craft and trust, the
implications of our "00" licenses are obvious and we honor the
attendant responsibilities. We can understand why people are scared,
and we treat them gently. We know their net worth is at the mercy of
our skills, understanding and senses of fiduciary duty. Yet, as
financial planning continues its maturation, extending its
understandings of Interior implications, it is wise for us to reflect
upon their full implications and the nature of our license. Whether we
call it "life planning," "financial planning done right" or other
terms, our intimate and Interior work is imbued with extraordinary
powers of persuasion and coercion. Our "00" status is no joke.
Financial planning's stakes, visions and promises
are profound. Taking our stewardship seriously, we know financial
products are clearly vital, and likewise their sales. Yet, we must know
we possess "00" capacities for intentional and unintentional harm. Done
right, we help clients marshal their assets most harmoniously with
their dominant values, priorities and ambitions. We help them best
utilize their time, treasure and talent for great lives. Done right,
this is fabulous stewardship. Done badly ... shame on us.
Let's face it. No other profession demands the depth
and breadth of skill and wisdom of what we now call financial planning.
Nor does any other profession have such a need to demand that its
practitioners absolutely grasp their roles as stewards and fiduciaries.
Accordingly, for each of us, as a thoughtful steward and confirmed
fiduciary, our "00" license serves both us and our clients for good.
It is an awesome power.
Richard B. Wagner, JD, CFP, is the principal of WorthLiving LLC, based in Denver.