The 7 Best Questions You Aren’t Asking During Onboarding
Financial advisors understand that conversations about money are never just conversations about money. Money is the means people realize their biggest dreams and bring their hopes to life. On the flip side, it can also be a trigger for feelings of fear, hopelessness, failure and uncertainty.
With all the potential angst, joy and other emotions tied to finances, building meaningful advisor-client relationships requires far more than shop talk about investment options. But it’s difficult for advisors to come right out and ask direct, pointed questions about money, since the topic is so nuanced and can be fraught with biases.
Instead, advisors need to shift seamlessly between the roles of counselor, therapist and money manager to make their clients comfortable enough to open up about a tough and sometimes taboo subject. It’s a delicate tightrope advisors have to walk to gather the insights and understanding they need to help their clients ultimately reach their financial goals.
The best time to do this is in the first client meeting. Advisors who can establish trust and empower their clients to be vulnerable about their experience with money will set a stronger foundation for the ongoing relationship and increase the likelihood of improving financial outcomes for their clients.
Breaking the Barriers to Better Conversations
We put together seven of the most compelling and disarming questions that advisors can use to encourage their clients to share what they might never have felt comfortable talking about before.
1. What’s more valuable to you than money?
The answers to this question will set the foundation for a client’s entire financial plan. It’s likely the response will be “family,” or something similar, and advisors can encourage the client to continue exploring what they value, why, and what their ultimate goals are.
2. What’s your earliest memory of money?
Asking this question can help advisors uncover what experiences shaped their current feelings about money.
3. Tell me about how your parents viewed money.
Did they grow up with parents who saved every penny? Parents who overspent on lavish vacations? Something in between? Knowing where their financial basis came from can help advisors better figure out how clients are likely to approach spending and saving.
4. If you had an entire day to spend however you wanted, what would you do?
Not only will this be a fun exercise, but it also encourages a deeper relationship between advisors and clients. It’s a more open-ended and creative way to learn more about clients without simply asking, “What are your hobbies?” Ask the latter, and you’ll learn they play pickleball. Ask the former, and you’ll find out they love brunch at the diner on Third Street, their best friends lives 45 minutes away and they wish they’d studied film in college.
5. Describe how you picture your life five years from now.
This open-ended invitation allows clients to essentially tell advisors their short-term dreams and goals without asking those questions directly, which can elicit limiting and abrupt responses.
6. Where do you feel you need the most help or support?
What the client says may not be exactly where the advisor thinks they need the most help, but it’s important to understand where clients feel they’re struggling most.
7. What makes you feel content?
The answers to this question can vary from “watching my kids play” to “knowing I have enough savings to send my grandchildren to college.” This is a great way to get to know clients’ motivations and values, as well as anything making them feel uneasy.
The Power of Ongoing Communication
These questions aren’t just reserved for onboarding. Advisors can also use them to check in with existing clients to continue deepening those relationships. In fact, doing so will generate important feedback for advisors themselves as to the value their clients are getting from their partnership, and whether they should consider making any adjustments to their financial plan.