Frequently Asked Questions

Have a few questions?

We have put together a series of the most frequently asked questions and answered them below. But if you have any others please just email us and we'd be delighted to help.

Question 1: Every financial planner I talk to seems to be talking about lifestyle planning at the moment. Can you tell us what you mean by Lifestyle Financial Planning?

Question 2: Lifestyle planning has been around for a few years now. Where is the profession currently positioned on the life cycle of this new skill - are we only just starting out or have we developed our systems and processes to deliver this service to clients?

Question 3: My research among financial planners and their clients suggests there is a new breed of advisor emerging, driven by the issues of consumer activism, transparency and value for money. What role will lifestyle planning play in this new adviser model of advice?

Question 4: Why should financial advisors skilled in technical aspects of advice giving become better skilled in lifestyle planning?

Question 5: The cynic in me must ask how do financial planners make money from lifestyle planning?

Question 6: Many financial planners say they already do Lifestyle Financial Planning to some degree, so how is this approach going to enhance things for them?

Question 7: The New Generation Advisor Program and your new GoalsUnlimited.com system looks excellent, but at the moment is this for all advisors and all clients?

Question 8: Do I really need to change my skills and get more training. anyway I'm going to retire in 10 years. Is it really for me? Isn't Lifestyle Financial Planning just a trendy fad? Will all advisors be doing this in the future?

Question 9: How do planners become Lifestyle Planners without having to become a counselor or psychologist? Some financial planners may have a concern of being out of their depth.

Question 10: Do I have to do lifestyle planning, or could I subcontract, or have another team member do this important lifestyle planning roll?

Question 11: How can I become the best New Generation Advisor as quickly as possible? What is the best approach?

Question 12: What sort of on-going support & coaching is available to make sure this lifestyle planning approach is implemented into an advisor's business as seamlessly as possible?

Question 1:

Every financial planner I talk to seems to be talking about lifestyle planning at the moment. Can you tell us what you mean by Lifestyle Financial Planning?

Our current definition of Lifestyle Financial Planning is: "A consistent system that specifically identifies lifestyle goals and integrates them into the financial planning process, resulting in a more meaningful and engaging experience."

Many say that they already do that to some degree, but the keys are:-

1. "A consistent system"

Most processes are very ad hoc and unstructured. Most clients like a consistent, logical system; it gives them more confidence in the process.

2. "Specifically identifies lifestyle goals"

Most planning processes don't dedicate enough time on getting clarity

around detailed, specific and inspiring lifestyle goals.

3. "Meaningful and engaging experience"

If the lifestyle goals developed together aren't specific enough (i.e they are vague) the client may not be inspired and fully engaged in the process.

How well would you rate in each of the above three areas?

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Question 2:

Lifestyle planning has been around for a few years now. Where is the profession currently positioned on the life cycle of this new skill - are we only just starting out or have we developed our systems and processes to deliver this service to clients?

I believe we are towards the beginning of the life cycle, but many of the new generation advisors who see the opportunities and benefits of Lifestyle Planning are shortly about to be on the crest of the wave.

Over the last few years I have seen some very basic and naive approaches to what some think is Lifestyle Planning. Fortunately the industry has woken up and has increasingly realised the importance of, and business case for a complete Lifestyle Planning solution that can be integrated into their existing planning processes.

But it has only been now that a comprehensive system (The New Generation Advisor Program - which incorporates The Lifestyle Planning SystemT) is available to all planners.

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Question 3:

My research among financial planners and their clients suggests there is a new breed of advisor emerging, driven by the issues of consumer activism, transparency and value for money. What role will lifestyle planning play in this new adviser model of advice?

Lifestyle Planning will help the new generation advisor get clients more of what they really want. It will help provide a better service with greater personal value for the client and a much more rewarding experience for the advisor.

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Question 4:

Why should financial advisors skilled in technical aspects of advice giving become better skilled in lifestyle planning?

Clients don't really want financial planning, what clients want is what financial planning can give them, and that's a better lifestyle. So if clients really come to you for a better lifestyle, shouldn't we be better lifestyle planners rather than simply financial planners? Research shows us that 95% of advisors by 2007 will be actively planning the lifestyle goals of their clients (Source: Intellectual Capital)

Times are changing. We need to focus on what we can control and not waste time, money and energy on what we can't control. We can't control the economy, but we can control the client experience. And if what clients want is a better lifestyle, doesn't it make good business sense to have a proven lifestyle planning process as part of your client experience that you can control and trust.

Those new generation advisors using lifestyle planning now will lead the pack and uniquely position themselves with clear differentiation and added value services. We can choose to be market leader or risk playing catch up - the choice is ours. If we don't constantly grow ourselves with the skills of tomorrow we may risk being left behind, and worst case, redundant.

It is human nature to resist change. Change is constant, for example years ago nobody had ever heard of personal trainers, yet now they are a common and well accepted profession. More recently coaching (which you may be interested to know was started originally by an American financial planner 15 years ago, who identified that most peoples problems needed life coaching before financial planning) has increased and has become a widely accepted personal and business enhancement technique.

Similarly, when we started Life by Design® in 1997 we were predominately a career development company. Career development like financial planning was a more mainstream accepted profession. But we found that 99.9% of the time client issues were lifestyle based - and it's the same if we look at financial planning.

I actually wrote an article on this which you may like to check out:-

http://www.lifebydesign.com.au/financial/articles/soft-and-fluffy.html

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Question 5:

The cynic in me must ask how do financial planners make money from lifestyle planning?

The bottom line is lifestyle planning makes you money as it helps to:-

•  attract more clients

•  achieve higher value clients

•  retain your most valuable clients

• engage your clients wholeheartedly

•  create a unique competitive edge

•  increase your referrals

•  increase fees

•  create greater client trust

•  enjoy greater success

•  make your work more rewarding

Lifestyle financial planning should be looked at not to get a quick and easy sale, but rather many years of client's loyal return business and referrals.

Costing lifestyle planning into the service offering will vary from advisor to advisor. Some will provide it as either added value, built into the annual package price or charged as an add on.

One approach we recommend is to provide initial introductory lifestyle planning as an added value differentiator and then as clients see the value and your expertise increases, move towards the fee for service model.

Most people don't know what they don't know and may not realise the benefits of doing this sort of lifestyle planning process until they have been exposed to it and experienced it. We believe that the fee for service model is the way of the future.

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Question 6:

Many financial planners say they already do Lifestyle Financial Planning to some degree, so how is this approach going to enhance things for them?

"I already do lifestyle planning" is a common misconception made by many advisors. In most cases we don't know what we don't know. Just as financial advisors have years of experience and training in financial planning, at Life by Design® we have years of accumulated training and experience in areas such as psychology, counseling, holistic coaching, financial planning and career development and have developed what many believe to be the world's best lifestyle planning system for the financial planning industry ( The New Generation Advisor Program - which incorporates The Lifestyle Planning SystemT) .

We do lifestyle planning full time and have done so for many years. So as mentioned, in most cases advisors don't know what they don't know regarding lifestyle planning - it isn't taught at any level in the technical training requirements needed to become a financial advisor.

In fact recently we researched advisors nationally and asked them how many do lifestyle planning. In 52% of cases they said they did lifestyle planning. From our years of experience in the industry, saying that 2% of advisors did lifestyle planning would be being very generous indeed. What is needed is a complete lifestyle planning process, with systems and tools.

Because we specialise in lifestyle planning, we have developed processes, systems and tools that are easy to implement for advisors and really get to the bottom of peoples lifestyle issues.

How is lifestyle planning going to enhance my business? Two of the main reasons clients defect from their financial advisor is that they are:-

1. not getting where they want to get, and

2. not feeling cared for sufficiently

Lifestyle planning helps overcome both of these key issues and benefits advisors through better client attraction, conversion and retention. Focusing on your client's lifestyle provides the added benefit of almost endless dialogue potential which can only enhance the client/advisor relationship.

The focus of financial planning needs to swing back more from IQ to "I care", and lifestyle planning can help the advisor do this and really enhance the lifetime client relationship and referrals.

Note: You may also like to know about this on-line assessment tool which may be useful http://www.lifebydesign.com.au/products/assessment-tool.html

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Question 7:

The New Generation Advisor Program incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT looks excellent, but at the moment is this for all advisors and all clients?

This program is not for all advisors, but it certainly is for the progressive new generation advisor. It is for those advisors that really want to attract and retain their key clients. So how quickly you get into this lifestyle planning process really depends how much you value your key clients, your business and what steps you are willing to take to ensure your business is successful and secure moving forward.

Overwhelmingly, the research is illustrating that lifestyle financial planning will be increasingly the advising model of the future, as it provides real client value, advisor differentiation, meaning and opportunities for additional revenue streams.

The entry level The New Generation Advisor Program incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT isn't expensive and provides a step by step process which includes hours of self paced interactive CD Rom learning models, workbooks, a 12 month e-course, teleseminars and easy to implement worksheets and on-line tools.

The process shows you how to ease yourself and clients in small increments. It's been designed so it's a bit like painting with numbers. If you want to become a real expert you can then you can attend our face-to-face intensive training and then the 1 year Lifestyle Planning Institute Program. It all depends how much you want to get into it.

Note: For more information on the New Generation Advisor Program incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT you may like to check out now

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Question 8:

Do I really need to change my skills and get more training. anyway I'm going to retire in 10 years. Is it really for me? Isn't Lifestyle Financial Planning just a trendy fad? Will all advisors be doing this in the future?

Not all advisors will be using this approach, but the best planning practices will be. The market is changing and the common belief of the leading advisors is that those that don't change will get left behind. It's like graphic designers who didn't learn computer graphics, or the 1 hour photographic processing outlets that didn't go digital. Those that don't keep up with innovation will be at risk of being redundant dinosaurs, or at best they will only be looking after the very low level clients.

You need to decide if you want the depth or breadth of client business model. Lifestyle planning helps both models, but especially the depth approach which targets the higher wealth client.

Let's face it the current research shows us that 95% of advisors say they will be doing lifestyle planning by the year 2007. Paired with this is the fact that 90% of advisors say that they need to continue to be retrained to remain competitive.

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Question 9:

How do planners become Lifestyle Planners without having to become a counselor or psychologist? Some financial planners may have a concern of being out of their depth.

The evolution of the new generation advisors role will be one equally of wealth creation and dream creation. Therefore you or your practice will therefore need lifestyle planning skills and tools within your service offering to be competitive. The misconception is that you have to be a counselor or psychologist to be a lifestyle planner. This is not the case, although having empathy, people skills and understanding human nature obviously does help.

But the easy to use processes in the New Generation Advisor Program (incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT) is designed to give you the tools so you can be the valuable catalyst in the meaningful process for your clients.

So yes, guiding clients through the lifestyle financial planning process with empathy, understanding and listening is important (and you'll learn this in the CD Rom learning series), but anymore than that and you may like to refer them out to your strategic network of counselors, psychologists or lawyers etc. But you become the all important one stop shop and catalyst in the process, the portal to helping them increase the quality of their lifestyle and better achieve their dreams.

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Question 10:

Do I have to do lifestyle planning, or could I subcontract, or have another team member do this important lifestyle planning roll?

Yes and no. You can choose to what depth you go with clients, and if you do it in-house or outsource the role. But understand the methods of lifestyle planning first and use it in your own life before you make that decision as you might find it easier than you think.

Helping clients (and even your staff) with their lifestyle can make your work much more rewarding, and the processes we have designed makes it as simple as possible for you. Just follow the process and join the dots.

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Question 11:

How can I become the best New Generation Advisor as quickly as possible? What is the best approach?

I'm a little bias, but firstly get the New Generation Advisor Program (incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT). For most this is the best start possible as it is jam packed with heaps of tools, worksheets and hours of self-paced CD Rom training.

Then there is the 90 day intensives (which one of Australia's top 5 financial institutions already have their champion advisors onto). These specialist programs provide face to face training, a whole range of teleseminars, follow ups and self-mentoring for those that really want to supercharge their business over a fast-tracked 12 week period.

The ultimate with an annual in take of 30 participants each year, scheduled to be launched as soon as 2005, is the one year part-time Lifestyle Planning Institute. This program is for those who want to be industry leaders and the opportunity to become accredited Lifestyle Planners.

Note: For more information on the starting point, the New Generation Advisor Program incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT you may like to check it out now.

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Question 12:

What sort of on-going support & coaching is available to make sure this lifestyle planning approach is implemented into an advisor's business as seamlessly as possible?

All New Generation Advisor Program (incorporating The Lifestyle Planning SystemT) users get special password access to the unique New Generation Advisor Resource Centre. An e-course and teleseminars are also included at different levels in all the programs to help you achieve as much success as possible. Personal coaching and consulting is also available once you have completed the more advanced 90 day intensive. Get it now

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Ian Hutchinson (G.Dip.Psy, B.Bus, APS) is founder of Life by Design®, creator of the New Generation Advisor program and has built a reputation as one of the leading financial services conference speakers and program facilitators. Life by Design® is a lifestyle solutions and management group that educates, trains and coaches the financial services industry, helping them attract, retain and engage clients through lifestyle planning. Ian programs are in demand throughout the world including North America, Europe, Australasia and even the Middle East. Life by Design® can be contacted via

www.lifebydesign.com.au or 61 + 2 9979 4949