To Deliver More Value, Simplify Your Financial Plans

Deliver massive value

I don’t care if a prospect has Vanguard accounts or is an avid DIYer. My job for the next 60 minutes is to deliver as much value as possible. But the concept of delivering value is often misunderstood.

For something to be valuable, it must provide actionable advice that the client can follow to meet their financial goals.

Many advisors confuse value with volume. Doing more doesn’t make you more valuable to prospects or clients.

Advisors who aren’t confident in their value share 100-page tomes with Monte Carlo analyses and force clients to sit through two or three-hour meetings to validate their fees.

This financial “planning” style creates noise that clients must filter to find constructive bits – there’s hardly any value in that.

Put your plan to the test

Let’s test your financial plan to see how valuable it is:

Take whatever you call a financial plan and highlight any lines containing specific, actionable advice for your clients.

You may have highlighted a few lines. But if your financial plan does not contain any advice specific to your client with action items, you’re missing an opportunity to add value to your client’s life.

Monte Carlo analysis is not a financial plan

Our profession holds the Monte Carlo analysis as the gold standard for financial planning.

But Monte Carlo is not a financial plan – it's the theoretical risk-return potential of an investment portfolio.

No software can use Monte Carlo or any other mathematical model to adequately address risk management when someone dies. It also fails to address estate planning, tax planning, cash flow management, and long-term care.

Sure, we understand what it’s saying, but Monte Carlo doesn’t make sense to a layperson.

A 73% probability of success does not give any consolation to your clients. They see their retirement plan has a C grade – only a 73% chance of retiring!

That’s terrible.

Instead, seek ways to guide clients toward their financial goals using language and advice that laypeople can follow.

What is a one-page financial plan?

The best financial plans have actionable advice specific to your client, are easy to understand, and are trackable.

You won’t find that in a Monte Carlo analysis or CRM reports.

But you can use a one-page plan with your clients to convey the next steps they need to take to reach their financial goals.

A one-page financial plan is just as it sounds: It contains specific and actionable advice for your client in each area of financial planning, all boiled down to bullet points on a single page.

Reducing the financial plan to a single page forces advisors to focus on the bullet points that are most important to the client.

As advisors, we often get carried away trying to demonstrate value by showing clients every way they can improve their financial situation.

But giving clients their entire roadmap at once is confusing and overwhelming for clients who have turned to you for help simplifying their lives.

Through over 20 years of experience in this profession, I’ve found that the simplest plans, which only entail the next round of steps in each area, are more eagerly implemented by my clients.

Following a financial plan is like picking a diet or exercise program: The best one for you is the one you’ll follow.

I don’t care how fancy the latest planning software is, because none of that matters if the reports are too complex for the client to follow.

It’s simple, not easy.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of a one-page plan – creating one isn’t as easy as it looks, especially if you’re making one from scratch.

Mark Twain once wrote a friend, “I could have written you a shorter letter, but I didn’t have time.”

Creating one-page plans is the same: It takes more energy and effort than most advisors are willing to spend on creating financial plans, so they spew information across dozens of pages instead.

But the ROI of creating a solid one-page plan will be extraordinary!

One-page plans and the dishwasher rule

Every advisor has had a client come into their office, sit down, and ask, “What have you done for me lately?”

You know you’ve been grinding away, restructuring their estate planning, taking care of survivor needs, long-term-care planning, axing their insurance bill that wasn’t providing necessary coverage, and so much more.

But your client wasn’t privy to what happened behind the scenes, and even if you’ve already told them, clients often forget these things throughout the relationship.

If you do the dishes and your spouse doesn’t notice, does it count? That’s what I call the dishwasher rule. One-page plans tie directly into the dishwasher rule – and I love getting credit for my work; who doesn’t? To satisfy the dishwasher rule, your clients have to recognize the value in the plans you provide.

The beauty of one-page plans is that they show progress in a trackable way. You can review with your clients all the great things you’ve done for them.

And as the plan is frequently updated, clients can see how what you’ve done last quarter or year will tie into the next step forward.

Advisors who fail to project their plans into the future miss a massive opportunity to build on the client relationship. If you’re treating a one-page plan as a “one and done,” then your client relationship will only last until your initial time period is up. Then it's over.

Instead of dismissing your next DIYer, use a one-page plan to show your prospects what they’re missing and the value they gain from working with your firm.

Action items

Look at your prospect process and simplify it to work in tandem with a one-page plan.

What areas must you iron out for prospective clients or your team? Figuring out how to streamline the process will help it run more effectively.

Matthew Jarvis, CFP®, ChFC, is the co-founder of The Perfect RIA, one of the industry’s most recognized advisor training platforms. Just 10 years prior, Jarvis was buried in debt, with a badly struggling practice and a morning routine of trying to figure out how to quit the industry without looking like a failure. Through several turns of fate, Jarvis clawed from near failure to the top of the industry. Today, alongside running his incredibly profitable and successful practice, Jarvis guides other advisors on duplicating his success in their practice.

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