As all of us are starting to return to ‘normal’ we’ve found we’ve got a new influx of clients who, having reviewed what their ideal future might look like, want professional help to link what they want to achieve in their lives and making sure they’d built sufficient wealth to help them achieve their goals.

One particular client, who told me that him and his wife had built a decent level of assets came to us in a concerned state. He was in his mid 50’s and the wealth he’d built was pretty decent. However he was concerned (in his words) “might have to continue looking after me for decades” and both him and his wife “wanted to make sure we were clear whether we’ve got enough or not”

Thankfully we specialise in helping people of this age work out whether they’ve got enough and if they have make some important life choices and if they haven’t ensure they’d got a plan to achieve their goals. So this client I could certainly help.

However we do expect something else from our relationship with our clients…I really need to ensure that I like the clients we choose to work with.

I mentioned this to this prospective client, someone who I already felt I really liked, to confirm the way we worked and he started to laugh. Strangely I did too! However when we both calmed down I asked him why he found that so funny…

“Well Chris.” he said “I’ve never heard someone potentially use that as a factor for deciding to work with a client or not.”

It’s interesting, and I don’t know how you manage this particular dynamic in your business (particularly if you’re in professional services), but it’s important for me to work with people I’m really going to help, work with people I know I’m going to represent value to and work with people who share some of my values and I like…and in my opinion the feeling needs to be mutual.

Trusting someone to support you to achieve your financial goals is a big jump for many people, particularly in the UK where for many talking about money remains a taboo…and it’s why it’s important to like your financial planner and your financial planner to feel the same about you.

Thankfully this particular client is an amazing guy and after understanding a decent amount about his hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals (as well as hearing his really infectious laugh!) we both decided that we’d get along swimmingly! 

We’re about relationships at Cervello, not transactions…which is why we focus so much on making sure that our client relationships start out with a mutual trust, respect and, yes, liking, from the start.

If you, or any of your clients, would appreciate the way we work…we’re happy to speak to people who need some clarity in their financial lives and are thoroughly decent in nature! Of course…an infectious laugh also tends to help!

Have a lovely day and feel free to get in touch if we can help in any way.