How Financial Advisors are Like the Shoe Cobbler’s Child
Did you realize that shoe cobblers still exist?
We call them shoemakers today, though they’re very few in numbers. You won’t see a shoemaker on every corner, but you may see a small mom-and-pop shop in an older part of a city.
In today’s disposable-minded society, shoemakers are often associated with a time long past.
Shoemakers still have something to teach us though, and it’s rooted in an old English proverb. In short, the proverb says that while the shoe cobbler makes and repairs shoes for everyone else in town,their own children go barefoot.
The point is, we often take care of others before we focus on ourselves.
Often times the financial status of an advisor is similar to the shoe cobbler’s situation. They spend so much time taking care of their clients that they don’t plan for themselves.
If advisors aren’t careful, they will build firms that ignore their own personal health and finances. And if that continues, it’s not out of line to think they could someday go the way of the cobbler and be thought of as more like part of a fable than a modern profession.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s how advisors can shift their mindset and take care of themselves and their clients.
The Lack of Time Excuse
As you look over your firm, what are some areas you might not spend as much time on than others? For most advisors, it’s things like marketing, sales, and sometimes even ongoing client communication.
The reason that these areas of a business don’t get much attention is because they’re seen as secondary to the financial planning or investment management responsibilities that can take up so much time in an advisor’s daily life.
That lack of time is the same reason why many advisors don’t invest in their own financial plans.
If a client needs a new or adjusted plan, then a financial planner has to put their time into that instead of planning for themselves. If they don’t create a plan for a client on time, they won’t have that client for very long.
Over time, this problem only gets larger—it’s one reason why so many older advisors have no succession plan. They haven’t taken the time to take care of themselves.
If that client with no succession plan passes away, then all the planning they’ve done for clients won’t be enough; in the end, the lack of planning for themselves means that ultimately their clients won’t be taken care of in the long-term either.
Why Advisors Need to Have Their Own Finances in Order
It’s no secret that clients want authenticity and transparency from their financial advisors, and that extends to more than simply honesty about client assets—it extends to how an advisor manages their own personal assets.
If an advisor asks a client to stay committed to a strategy, but they don’t want to commit to managing their financial life according to that same strategy, then it will likely be hard to gain that client’s trust and full agreement with a proposed strategy.
If you, as an advisor, need tips to get your own finances in order, you can get started like this:
Manage your money like you manage your clients. Invest in the same models and use the same processes. If you don’t want to adhere to the same strategies that you ask clients to believe in, you need to ask yourself why not. It might indicate that you aren’t as confident in your management as you should be.
If you are a multi-advisor firm, act as each other’s advisors. Don’t do it alone and try to fill in for yourself all the ways that you help other people. If you don’t have another advisor in your firm, it may be in your best interest to find one, if only for someone to ask for additional insight into your situation.
Use technology to help you manage your time more effectively. With Asset-Map, you can create your own visual summary in under 30 minutes—just like you would for a client.
When you have efficient technology bolstering your work, that popular “lack of time” excuse isn’t something you can fall back on any more.
Get a Stencil to Jumpstart Your Own Asset-Map
Want to get started understanding how an Asset-Map can change planning by making your process more efficient and more effective?
Grab our Boomer Stencil right now to get started. Download the Stencil for a snapshot of how a typical person in the Baby Boomer generation compares your financial situation.
Then, do the same thing for your clients—especially if they fit the Boomer profile.
Being a fiduciary means putting your clients first—but taking care of your own finances and building a solid firm is part of caring for clients.
With technology at your side, you can give both your clients and yourself the time you need to be a more effective advisor.