What exactly is Lifestyle Financial Planning?

We have seen quite a significant movement over the last few years of Financial Brokers extending the services they offer to their clients, through the delivery of lifestyle financial planning. While this service may not be suited to every client, or indeed you cannot justify delivering it to every client, the shift is happening. This is because of the value that lifestyle financial planning brings to people’s lives and because of the deeper and more engaged relationships that develop between the Financial Broker and the clients that it suits. So what is it all about?

 

What is lifestyle financial planning?

Lifestyle financial planning consists of four main phases, and each of them in turn are required. The four phases are

 

1. Discovery

This is the phase that gets skipped over the most, which is a shame as this is the most important of all of the stages. This is the phase where the planner finds out the lifetime goals and ambitions of their client, where the client can visualise the outcomes in their own terms – the type of life that they will lead, the possessions that they will own, the impact they will be able to have on the lives of others, what they will do and achieve in their lives.

Until you know the answer to these questions, what are you planning for? Just building a pot of money with no idea of what it will allow your client to do?

This phase is carried out by careful and well thought out questioning by you. And then listening intently. It is not “airy fairy”, instead it is the most important conversation that you will have with your client as you get to understand their hopes and dreams

 

2. Planning

This is where the planner then uses his/her expertise to develop the roadmap for the client to get from where they are today, to achieving the life they visualised in the discovery phase. This is generally a comfortable area for Financial Brokers, where you can utilise all of your experience and technical skills to develop a plan for your clients. As a result though of the comfort at this stage, some brokers rush to it without properly completing the discovery phase – when that happens, you are no longer carrying out lifestyle financial planning.

Important also to this phase is the use of future cashflow planning. Without it, it’s not really lifestyle financial planning. When using this process you can demonstrate to clients if they are on track to lead the life they visualised, and if not what they need to do to get on track. You can show them the impact of unforeseen events and how to plan for them, the impact of changing goals and of course the actions they need to carry out, or products they need to put in place to achieve the plan.

 

3. Implementation

The most straightforward of all of the phases and an area that Financial Brokers excel in. This is where you assist the clients in carrying out the required activities (e.g. budgeting, wills, power of attorney) and where you put the required financial products in place that will play a role in achieving the goals of the plan.

 

4. The ongoing journey

This is again a really important stage that sometimes doesn’t get enough attention. Regular contact and scheduled meetings sit at the heart of lifestyle financial planning. The ongoing interactions turn the plan into a real journey towards the client achieving their lifetime ambitions. They are the opportunity to review and restate / change goals, review the progress and performance of the actions and products that were implemented and keep the client on track in terms of their behaviours with their money and their investments.

Without these meetings happening as scheduled, it is akin to pushing a boat away from the harbour wall to sail the stormy seas alone… You need to be beside your client at every turn, helping them to navigate their way towards their dreams. These review meetings also give you the opportunity to stay close to your client, and to gently remind them of the incredible value that you are bringing to their life.

Equally importantly, having a robust and valuable ongoing service also enables you to justify your ongoing charges to the client.

This shift towards lifestyle financial planning is to be welcomed. It increases the value of Financial Brokers in the eyes of their clients, provides a richer client experience and builds value in your business through easier justified ongoing charges.