Framing is predicating on discovery, which lets you determine the appropriate wealth management solutions (Exhibit). Discovery is the process of developing a deep understanding of another person.

Adept discovery enables you to ascertain another people’s worldviews from their opinions and viewpoints. It opens the door to their needs and wants, their wishes and dreams. You also, over time, are able to learn their concerns and anxieties. Discovery is a combination of adroit questioning and empathy.

Based on discovery, you are able to determine what is meaningful to people, enabling you to match up various wealth management products and services that will help your prospects and clients achieve their agendas. Your and your team’s technical expertise is being focused through the lens of discovery. Although the strategies and solutions you identified might be very appropriate, your prospects and clients must still agree and take action.

Framing is the ability to communicate the value you can provide or are delivering to prospects or clients. Very importantly, framing is not necessarily about the wealth management services and products you are recommending or delivering per se. Framing also may not be about educating someone concerning ideas and concepts. Instead, skilled framing is all about communicating the value you are delivering in a way that strongly resonates with the other person. By effectively framing, you are helping your clients and prospects see worth in your recommendations.

Your ability to effectively frame your message so that it strongly connects with clients and prospects is incredibly important for two reasons …

• Ensuring your prospects and clients are well served. If your message does not resonate, there is a high probability that no action will be taken—a loss for your prospects and clients.

• If your prospects and clients fail to take action, over time, your practice will suffer. If people lack confidence in your recommendations or they do not feel comfortable with the choices you are proposing, then they will not implement. Prospects will not become clients, and clients will stop being clients.

For many financial advisors, much of this has more to do with poor communications than in your recommendations themselves.

A Failure to Connect

From using jargon (often as a verbal crutch) to being unable to explain ideas and concepts with just the right amount of technical information, a great many professionals are very good at NOT getting their message across. These professionals are certainly not able to show the value they can provide. They lack an understanding and facility with framing.

Essential to the art of framing is being able to link your recommended financial services and products with the agendas of your prospects and clients. To get optimal results, the language you use must be in line with what they find comfortable. Moreover, the language as well as the timing and ordering of the conversation must powerfully support the perspectives and desires of the people with whom you are conversing. The more your conversations are well framed, the more likely they will take action.

Using the High-Net-Worth Personality Framework

High-net-worth psychology is a psychographic framework that is very potent in helping you frame your messages. There are nine high-net-worth personalities, and each one responds to a different way of communicating information and insights. To gain perspective of using high-net-worth psychology when framing, consider stress testing.

Stress testing challenges a prospect's or client’s wealth management solutions to assess their likelihood of holding up in different scenarios and delivering desired results. The rationale for stress testing is twofold:

• To avoid potentially economically and legally destructive situations;

• To ensure the person is benefiting from all possible wealth management opportunities.

Stress testing is close to normative among the exceptionally wealthy and is becoming increasingly common among those less affluent. It is proving to be an astoundingly effective way of providing substantial value to accomplished and wealthy individuals and families. Moreover, whereas financial services and products are commodities or nearly so, skilled stress testing is a truly powerful way for you to differentiate yourself from competitors.

Being adept at the process of stress testing is not enough. You still need to meaningfully communicate the methodology to prospects and clients. The following are examples of how to introduce stress testing to the different high-net-worth personalities.

Family Stewards: The aim of investing and wealth planning is to take care of their family.

“In order to make sure your children have the security you want for them, we can evaluate your current investment portfolio and planning to see if there is anything that was overlooked.”

Independents: Exhibit drive for the type of persona freedom money makes possible.

“As you never want to worry about finances, are you really certain you’ve done everything possible to make sure you’re completely covered?”

Phobics: Avoid focusing on investing or planning.

“We’re going to carefully look at what you have, and if there are any holes, we’ll fill them. You can rely on me and my team to take care of you.”

The Anonymous: Confidentiality is a dominant concern.

“Most professionals are not adept at ensuring client privacy through wealth planning. By dissecting your current planning, I can either show you some ways to increase your privacy or I will let you know you are completely secure.”

Moguls: Personal financial actions are another way of creating personal power.

“It’s more common than you might think for influential people like yourself to miss significant investment and tax mitigation opportunities. If you would like, my team and I can evaluate what you’ve done and see if there are any ways to increase your advantages.”

VIPs: Investing and wealth planning results in prestige.

“Among the people in the know, stress testing is the way they make sure they’re not missing out. All the biggest names are stress testing.”

Accumulators: The sole goal is to make more money.

“If you want to ensure you’re doing everything possible to maximize your personal wealth, you will probably need to carefully evaluate your investment and wealth planning approach. If you don’t, the odds are you’re going to miss something substantial.”

Gamblers: Relish the process of investing and related activities.

“For someone like you, it’s actually pretty exciting when we dissect what is going on financially to see what else can be done.”

Innovators: Focused on sophisticated wealth management solutions.

“A lot of times, even some of the wealthiest and shrewdest entrepreneurs miss out because the people they’re working with are unfamiliar with cutting-edge wealth management strategies. By going through the stress testing process, we can make sure all possible alternatives are available so you can decide what actions to take.”

Implications

High-net-worth psychology is one—albeit effective methodology—you can use to frame your recommendations to prospects and clients. What is most important is that you modify your messaging so that it best resonates with the people you are talking to. It is a matter of adjusting the way you say things, not what you are advising someone to do.

With competition becoming more intense and the wealthy more astute users of wealth management expertise, your ability at discovery, determining the best wealth management solutions, and framing will be instrumental to your ability to deliver value to prospects and clients as well as build a highly successful practice. 

Russ alan prince is president of R.A. Prince & Associates. Brett Van Bortel is director of consulting services for Invesco Consulting.