Is This The Right Time To Pivot From Investments To Life Insurance When Markets Are High?

A Program Chair recently asked me to speak to a financial advisor audience about why there appears to be more of a focus of some financial advisors on providing their clients with investment products versus insurance products, particularly with younger financial advisors.

I asked the audience if they believe that they should be providing their clients with a complete service that includes a plan that grows assets, protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy.

The answer from the audience was yes.

I reinforced this by offering these slides from Dr. Frank Luntz’s “Words That Work” presentation from the 2016 NAIFA Performance + Purpose Conference in Las Vegas.

It stands to reason that clients want Peace of Mind / Financial Independence that can only be achieved through insurance, which is over and above the Financial Security of investment products.

Providing clients with a complete service that includes a plan, that grows assets, protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy is about both HOW & WHAT to do and about WHY to do it.

WHY is about providing full service to the client and their loved ones as investment products may not be able to sustain what insurance products can do, in the event of death or illness.

Most advisors have the resources within their association, company or network to provide their clients with a plan that grows assets, protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy. So it is not about HOW & WHAT to do, because the resources are there.

It is more about WHY to do it or WHY NOT to do it as success and failure are 90% about WHY or WHY NOT and 10% about HOW & WHAT to do.

So when one considers why there appears to be more of a focus of some financial advisors on providing their clients with investment products without insurance products, it would make sense that a financial advisor would have to also have Peace of Mind / Financial Independence / Financial Security at their core to provide this to their clients. This dovetails into ‘success and failure are 90% about WHY or WHY NOT.’

I’ve worked for years as a business coaching and values & behavioral analyst to help financial advisors identify their strengths and areas to strengthen.

This Values Graph #1 benchmarks the top three values scores of the most successful financial advisors that provide a complete service that includes a plan, that grows assets, protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy:

1) Utilitarian – capitalism, return on investment and time

2) Theoretical – information and knowledge

3) Individualistic – inner strength and personal power

The financial advisor has the inner strength and personal power to ask their client the uncomfortable questions about what is important to the client, research the solutions and deliver a solution that achieves a return on investment for both the client and the financial advisor.

This Values Graph #2 demonstrates the same top three values scores of financial advisors that only focus on growing assets, sometimes in the absence of a plan that protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy.

What is the difference between Values Graph #1 & Values Graph #2?

1) Utilitarian – capitalism, return on investment and time. Note the Utilitarian Score in Values Graph #1 is 60 and the Utilitarian Score in Values Graph #2 is 70 making the financial advisor more concerned with their own Financial Security, only looking after assets in the absence of a plan that protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy. Looking after assets is the easier, safe and secure sale without the risk of presenting a plan that protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy.

2) Theoretical – information and knowledge. Note the Theoretical Score in Values Graph #1 is 49 and the Theoretical Score in Values Graph #2 is 60, interfering with the financial advisor’s Peace of Mind as they would have to have the information and knowledge, over and above looking after assets to create a plan, that protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy. Looking after an asset is the easier, safe and secure sale that will not interfere with the financial advisor’s Peace of Mind.

3) Individualistic – inner strength and personal power. Note the Individualistic Score in Values Graph #1 is 52 and the Theoretical Score in Values Graph #2 is 44. The absence of Financial Security and Peace of Mind depletes the financial advisor’s Financial Independence to present a plan that protects assets, saves taxes and leaves a legacy.

Would it be worth having a conversation about what’s working in your business, what’s not, what you should do about it and in what order?

As a way of helping you to meet and exceed your goals for 2017 and beyond, we would like to offer you the following Business Building Blueprint Process:

• Step 1 – Complete a 30-minute Interview Call with Laura Reilly which will create the foundation for me to give you our version of what’s working, what’s not, what you should do about it and in what order – your personalized Business Building Blueprint 
• Step 2 – Complete our Online Business Building Assessment 
• Step 3 – Complete a 60-minute Business Building Assessment  / Blueprint Debriefing and again I’ll give you our version of what’s working, what’s not, what you should do about it, in what order, and the total time and money investment required; where we believe we could add the most value

At a minimum, I know we can share at least one or two best practices, some of which won’t cost you anything.

What’s the requirement? The only requirement is You:

• You are committed to making improvements in your business 
• You understand that most of the time, it requires someone from the outside to:

• • Help identify the improvements that need to be made 
  • Provide systems to make sustainable improvements 
  • Provide accountability 

Click here to Schedule the Business Building Blueprint Process.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service, 

Simon Reilly

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