I Don't Need to be Your Friend

We don’t need to be buddies for me to be the perfect Financial Planner for you. 

As Planners attempt to separate themselves from the herd and create a unique approach, a lot are taking it upon themselves to interject their life into yours fully. You know the, ‘I want to have REAL relationships with my clients’ type.

Do you have a REAL relationship with your dentist?

How about your lawyer? Are you crushing happy hour margaritas with them after reviewing the update to your will?

Did you choose your realtor based on their social media posts that claim, ‘It’s so much more than a transaction - it’s a personal relationship!’ If so, how did that go for you?

Above anything, you want the professionals in your life to be damned good at what they do, right? 

A Good Financial Planner is Like a Good Wizard

My key goal is to bring knowledge, experience and emotional intelligence to the table. I’m talking about complex topics like investment strategies, retirement planning, life insurance, taxes, and all those other money-related mysteries you’d rather not spend your brain power on. 

My real value is in making an incredibly complex and emotional subject approachable and feel attainable. A financial plan is half science, half art. I am a coach, a motivator, and a human calculator all in one.

Boundaries

My job requires me to be objective. I work with friends, with family, and those that were complete strangers to me before I started working with them.  

Unless my clients tell their friends or family that we work together, no one will ever know.  The mere existence of a relationship is a secret I consider sacred. Money matters. Money is personal.

I don’t do lunches with clients nor do I golf with them.

Do you need your lawyer to buy you a burger in order to ‘win the file’? Exactly.

I Put the Fun in ‘Funancial’ Planning 

This might all make me sound cold, but I assure you I am anything but. Ironically, my longest tenured clients are with me BECAUSE of our relationship; we enjoy each interaction, our communication occasionally takes a detour down the ‘look what I found on IG that reminds me of you’ path, and 85% of client meetings are spent talking about the softer things - not impressing them with my fancy graphs and charts.

Being a great planner isn’t as cut and dry (or boring) as being a great lawyer. Everything about how I present myself and interact with my clients is designed to be disarming. I’m not the cold suit and tie ‘expert’ that a lot of planners pride themselves on being.

Striking a Balance 

My biggest fear is that clients - or potential clients - would have to work themselves up to deal with me socially at the end of a hard day at work or managing their families. I’m an introvert that has been labeled an extrovert; I am acutely aware of the concept of ‘social batteries’.

I need to be approachable and warm, not exhausting and needy.

Money is emotional and complex, and dealing with it appropriately requires someone that you can trust and enjoy - not besties or golf travel buddies.