Protocol: Initial Enquiry [Best Practices]

When clients initially contact you with their immediate need, you’ll want to convert their ‘burning issue’ into a broader advice discussion, and get a sense if they are a potential client before booking an appointment. This won’t be very different to what you currently do with enquiries, only now you’ll also assure them that you offer a values-based advice process, and explain how Lumiant can benefit them.

Start with what prompted them to reach out, get a feel for their current situation and needs, and position what you do.

For new clients, you may offer an introduction to Lumiant such as:

“We can certainly assist you with <whatever their burning need that prompted the enquiry>, but we don’t JUST <adjust to suit - eg consolidate super accounts/recommend investments/sell insurance policies>. We are indeed financial advisers, but we believe the financial element, your money - is just an enabler to help you live the life you want. Money is important, but we can only provide the best advice when we understand it’s context, it’s unique purpose for you. 

“Our advice process is centred around achieving a deep understanding of your values, which feed into the goals we set together. We use a values-based approach, to get to know you, and map out what your best life looks like. This approach is supported by our digital platform, Lumiant, which allows me to keep a record of all our conversations and goals we set together, and allows you visibility over these at any time through access to your Dashboard.

From there, we can set up strategies for both spending and investing, so you can get the most out of your finances. The platform we use, Lumiant, allows you to log in at any time, to look back at any of our past conversations, or track your progress over time. Each year we will look back at your previous goals, and refresh the activities you set for yourself to achieve them.”

• Capture necessary information for each client to set them up on Lumiant:

• • Title
  • Client name (required)
  • DOB (required)
  • Email (required)
  • Mobile

• Ask who the CFO spouse is. Eg “We find in most relationships, one partner tends to manage the finances more than the other - is that the case in your household?”
• Book an appointment (allowing two hours) and explain what to expect, including how you charge. Position the importance of both doing the Your Life survey separately (without colluding) and the importance of both partners in a couple attending the meeting.

For existing clients, you may offer an introduction to Lumiant such as:

“At our practice, we are constantly working to improve our services to provide you with the best financial advice available. Values-based advice has been around for some time, and now it is supported by our new digital platform, Lumiant. This allows me to keep a record of all our conversations and goals we set together, and allows you visibility over these at any time through access to your Dashboard.

Using a new platform is an opportunity to refresh your goals for this new year, in a fun and visual format. Goals we have set in the past will be transferred to your Dashboard too, so you can see your progress. Over time, your Dashboard will continue to grow, allowing you to track your financial life, alongside the evolution of your goals and aspirations. In this meeting, we may go over some of the goals and values we’ve addressed in the past, to ensure we haven’t missed anything, and to further extend what we know. We will also establish new ones, to reflect your evolving life situation.”

Preparation Cheat Sheet

• Set up a client on the Lumiant platform.
• Send out a meeting confirmation email with a sample agenda for the meeting, and include links to your FSG and Privacy Policy. Ideally, you’ll include a welcome video from the adviser.
• Send the Your Life survey via the Workbench.
• Track the reason the client wishes to see you (i.e. reason for reaching out) in your notes. This should have been gathered either from initial contact, or confirmation email, and the client will add to this in the Your Life survey.
• Ensure the client has completed the survey before meeting with them. Associate calls or texts to confirm the meeting two days ahead, ensure they’re both coming and they both have - or will do the questionnaire. *If not, reschedule meeting time.
• Customise Agenda for the meeting with client name, date and time, and pasting in the ‘Immediate events or issues they’d like to discuss with their adviser’ from their Your Life questionnaire.
• Prior to meeting, the adviser reviews Your Life responses to prepare for discussion. Note initial observations of obvious gaps that your advice will fill (e.g. not doing enough with surplus income, having non-deductible debt, paying high tax rates with no obvious tax minimisation strategies, insufficient insurance for debt and income levels etc).

Agenda Template (version to be sent with meeting confirmation)

• Discuss what prompted you to reach out.
• Review Your Life survey responses. Please ensure you have completed this before our meeting.
• Uncover your core values, and how they relate to your goals in life. From here, we can adjust the financial advice given to ensure it aligns with what you wish to achieve.
• Run through next steps in the process, and how we can get the most out of this partnership.