What Keeps Your Financial Advisor Awake At Night. Spoiler alert: They’re about You.
At 3:00 AM, your financial advisor lies awake, eyes wide, heart thundering in their chest.
With the covers pulled high, they ruminate, “Does Bill have enough saved for retirement?” “Will Teressa outlive her current investment?” “Are the Jones’s children set up for financial success?”
*Insert haunting scream.
While it may not be as dramatic as the above scenario, a good financial advisor will still be thinking hard about the financial future of each of their clients.
A good advisor wants the very best for Bill, for Teressa, for the Jones’s kids – for you. And getting the very best means staying ahead of issues before they arise, managing them efficiently when they do pop up, and providing quality resources and education to help each client make the most informed decisions about securing their financial futures.
The top 5 client concerns for financial advisors
Number 1: Is my client saving enough for their retirement?
Your financial advisor has one main concern – making sure you will never run out of money. Having a solid retirement/investment portfolio goes a long way toward making sure you have a relaxing, well-funded retirement, but when it comes to retirement, saving on its own is not enough.
A smart financial plan becomes your roadmap to success for reaching your own personal goals. With a good financial planner, you can continue to monitor and optimise your plan right up until retirement and beyond, to make sure you stay on track and get where you want to go.
Bayview Financial’s Solution:
Have a plan and periodically check in with your financial advisor to keep goals up to date and discuss how you can make your plan the most effective for you
Follow a time tested and disciplined investment process
Know some basic rules of thumb such as the Multiply by 25 or the 4% Rule
Number 2: Have they considered bumps along the road like death or disability?
Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” We work to create sound financial plans for all our clients, but life often gets in the way. Years of debt loads or exciting investment opportunities can often blind clients to dangers and lead them down shaky financial paths.
All it takes is for a client to veer off plan to cause their financial advisor to bite their nails through the night. What if they allow market trends to take their eye off the goal, or start acting like speculators, and not investors?
This is where a good financial advisor can help you invest wisely and keep your eyes on the larger picture.
Bayview Financial’s Solution:
Pay close attention to your debt levels, and don’t allow yourself to normalize debt
Get Life and Disability coverage to ensure life’s punches don’t push you off target
Know the difference between saving, speculating, and investment. If the excitement of speculating calls to you, do it with money you can afford to lose.
Learn how to avoid blind spots through carving a path to infinite wealth
Number 3: Are my client’s children being set up for success?
One of the greatest responsibilities of being a parent is preparing your child to go out into the world and succeed. Money is too often considered a taboo topic, especially when it comes to our children. Because we want to protect them, we often shield them from the stress of money management, and so, we leave them in the dark, uninformed and unprepared.
If our children are afraid to talk about money, they’ll most likely avoid the topic into their adult lives – even if asking for help or advice could help make their lives better!
Bayview Financial’s Solution:
Bring the topic into the light: educate your children about money and show them your own tips and tricks on how you manage your finances
Ask your financial advisor if they have any helpful hacks for kids and money and learn some tips on how to talk to your kids about money
Number 4: Will my client outlive their investments?
A good plan anticipates your needs and desires, but no one has a crystal ball that allows them to clearly see what the future holds. With new technology, and climbing cost of living, it’s almost impossible to anticipate exactly how much money you will need to carry you through retirement.
Sitting bold up right in the middle of the night wondering if you’ve taken into account the rise in the cost of living is terrible. But, with proper cultivation of your plan, your financial team, and you, can address these issues before they become problems.
Bayview Financial’s Solution:
Creating a financial plan isn’t ‘set it and forget it.’ By regularly checking in with your financial advisor and updating your plan, we can address any pitfalls that come up.
Educate yourself about the path to infinite wealth
Number 5: When the market take a tumble, will it have my client questioning their plan and my advice?
Just like you, advisors worry about the volatility of the marketplace. For advisors, the risk is more than investment-losses. – it’s also the potential loss of clients. Clients who haven’t had the experience of following a solid financial plan in action and over time, may be more apt to get spooked if the market suddenly does fall into a tailspin, it can make them question the advice, want to abandon the plan and even feel that their trust was ill-placed in their financial advisor.
Bayview Financial’s Solution:
Follow time tested disciplined investment processes.
Look for an advisor who helps clients to know what they are invested in and why.
Look for an advisor who communicates regularly with clients and in plain language.
Have a financial plan and come back to it regularly.
Ask your advisor what they’re investing in and why they are invested in it. Are they invested in the same assets as you? If not, why not?
We can all enjoy a good night’s sleep with a sound financial plan
At Bayview Financial we understand how volatile the market can be and how that volatility can breed distrust and fear. The markets go up, and you want a piece, the market goes down, and you want out. It’s understandable.
In the end, discovering financial ease almost always boils down to maintaining a solid financial plan that’s been tested, tweaked and perfected. This plan will supply you with the right vantage to ride out those temporary storms – we know this from experience.
But sometimes, the hardest part is letting go and trusting the plan your financial advisor has for you. Trusting is the most important part, because it’s not those temporary dips in the market that will destroy wealth, it’s fear-driven, spur of the moment financial changes or decisions that will.
Trust your financial advisor and always ask questions to make sure you have all the resources to make the best decisions for you and your loved ones.
Now we can all enjoy a good night’s sleep!