Financial Planners play a unique role in the lives of their clients for many years so, for clients, losing their planner due to retirement or business exit, can be a challenging and disconcerting time.
Planners build up client relationships over many years and I know from my chats with planners that many see their clients as friends and may have worked with them for two or three decades, or even longer.
Many planners are almost part of the family and the Financial Planning journey they make together, planner and client, is an important one, with often strong personal bonds.
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With this in mind, it was perhaps no surprise that a new study suggested this week that nearly half of clients were concerned about their planner retiring, according to a report by Investec Wealth & Investment (UK).
Of course, planners can retire and any age and many work longer than other professions. Financial Planning Today has covered many stories of planners working well past retirement age, 81 in one exceptional case.
Despite this many planners actually want to retire in their fifties, perhaps taking the advice they have given their clients themselves over the years about the benefits of early retirement.
While planners often have very strong and loyal relationships with their clients it’s often assumed that the client will be so attached too their planner that they will move on when the planner retires.
There is multiple evidence that this is not the case and, in fact, most clients understand the risks of only working with one Financial Planner and prefer a team looking after their financial affairs. After all, if the planner is run over by a bus who will look after their money? A team approach is a better solution than one person looking after your affairs. Clients are, after all, mostly practical, professional and business-like themselves.
The retirement journey for Financial Planners has, of course, become a more interesting journey in recent years with a queue of companies waiting to buy their business, or more likely their client book if they are smaller players.
This makes it more important that planners look after clients and keep them happy over the longer term, and nothing wrong with that, but I wonder how many planners ever discuss what would happen if they left the business or retired? I suspect few clients really understand what would happen if their planner headed off into the sunset.
These are, of course, tricky and commercially-sensitive questions to ask. Would clients ditch the firm if they thought their planner was not going to be around for long? Possibly.
In any event, there is much to improve about the long term nature of the Financial Planning relationship and what happens when it ends. Many planners tackle this question early on in terms of business agreements but many do not and that’s a shame. All business relationships end at some point and it’s only sensible both parties understand this and are clear about what happens.
The number of clients concerned about losing their planner to retirement is way to high and a better approach is needed. Perhaps less focus on facts and figures and more focus on the relationship, coaching the client and removing any unease about planner exit would help improve wellbeing for clients. It’s a thought.
• Our latest issue of Financial Planning Today magazine has just been published. Here’s link to view the issue with my compliments: https://bit.ly/2ZdVXWz. What do you think? You can drop me a line to editor@portfoliopublishing.co.uk.
Kevin O’Donnell is editor of Financial Planning Today and a journalist with 40 years of experience in finance, business and mainstream news. This topical comment on the Financial Planning news appears most weeks, usually on Fridays but occasionally other days. Email: editor@portfoliopublishing.co.uk Follow @FPT_Kevin >Top Tip: Follow Financial Planning Today on Twitter / X @_FPToday for breaking news and key updates
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