Financial Advisor Checklists To Enhance The Client Meeting Prep Process

Before you shake your head and say, “There is no way we have time to conduct this kind of preparation for each client meeting”, hear me out.

For those clients with whom you meet with more than once per year, consider conducting focused meetings, which helps to reduce redundancy between meetings, and ease meeting prep. Here’s an example of a quarterly meeting schedule for a top client:

FIRST QUARTER

The client meeting prep checklist can be divided up into two, three or four prep sheets, based on the focus area and the number of times you meet with a particular client each year. For example, everything on the checklist related to assets can be combined onto one prep sheet. Everything related to financial planning can be combined onto another prep sheet. Everything related to taxes or tax planning can be combined onto its own prep sheet.

To break meeting prep down even further, you can delegate a portion of the prep to an appropriate team member. A client service associate can conduct some of the easier prep, or what I call “level 1” meeting prep. A Paraplanner can conduct the more difficult aspects of meeting prep, such as reviewing an updated in-force ledger for a Variable Universal Life (VUL) policy. I refer to this as “level 2” meeting prep. Delegating these tasks frees up the advisor to focus on gaps, strategy, and opportunities.

A FINANCIAL PLANNING GAP/STRATEGY/OPPORTUNITY CHECKLIST

While much of the process in preparing for a client meeting is simply about ensuring all the relevant details of the meeting itself are covered, it’s also a good opportunity to review the overall client situation, and spot any opportunities – both pertaining to their financial planning needs, and also their relationship with the advisor and firm itself.

So when you are preparing for client appointments, in addition to your normal review, pay attention to the following potential gaps/opportunities:

• Is it time to increase the existing planning fee?
• Should we be doing financial planning with the client (if not currently)?
• Should the wrap or investment advisory fees be increased?
• Should the automatic savings plan be increased (e.g., to accommodate higher IRA contribution limits since it was originally set up)?
• Is there cash (here or elsewhere) that needs to be invested?
• Are there non-revenue generating assets that should, as a benefit to the client, be converted? (E.g., old annuities, old mutual funds in an outdated share class, or concentrated stock positions that need to be at least partially unwound?)
• Is there the possibility of in-service withdrawals to roll over or Roth convert a retirement account?
• Are there existing annuities that need to be reviewed or serviced?
• Are there insurance opportunities, such as existing policies that should be replaced or upgraded?
• Can this relationship be improved as it relates to referrals?
• Has the client max funded their IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, or Individual 401(k)?
• Is there any previously-given advice that remains unimplemented and needs to be addressed again?
• Do they have a pension that needs to be decided upon (e.g., Pension Maximization strategy)?
• Have we talked about long-term care insurance, both traditional and hybrid LTC types?
• Have we reviewed the property and casualty insurance, to see if clients can reduce premium payments and free up cash flow?

TIMELINE TO PREP FOR A CLIENT MEETING IN ADVANCE

I am a big proponent of preparing for client meetings well in advance, allowing my subconscious to work on client cases and help me come up with the best advice and solutions.

Here’s a possible timeline leading up to the meeting itself, over which the meeting prep checklist can be executed:

• On Monday, the week prior to the client appointment, the person responsible for level 1 prep begins preparing for the client appointment
• Level 1 prep is completed by Tuesday morning, and is shared with the person responsible for level 2 prep
• The person responsible for level 2 prep completes their work by Wednesday morning, and shares their work, findings, and initial recommendations with the advisor
• The advisor begins his/her prep immediately following this meeting – opportunity, revenue and strategy focused prep
• The advisor compiles a list of items needed and gives it to the level 2 prep person by Thursday morning
• The individuals responsible for level 1 and level 2 prep have until Friday afternoon to complete these additional prep tasks
• Everyone goes home on Friday, with next week’s appointment prepared and ready to go
• Now, the subconscious can go to work on these client cases
• If you come in on Monday morning with someone out ill or you experience computer issues, you can relax because you are prepared for your client appointments!
• If you come up with an idea or strategy related to a client, you have time to do some additional prep and alter the agenda before the meeting

If this level of prep poses an undue burden on you and your team, start by conducting thorough meeting prep with just your top clients. Once you have mastered this tier of clients, move to your next lower tier of clients. Remember, not all clients have multiple accounts with you and thus require less prep time as many items noted on the checklists will not apply.

The Post-Client Meeting Checklist

Notably, checklists aren’t just for leading up to prepare for a meeting. They can be used throughout, including after the client meeting (for follow-up items), as well as other aspects of the financial planning process that can be checklisted.

An example of a post-client meeting follow-up checklist would be:

AFTER THE MEETING

• Was the next meeting scheduled at the recent one. If not, call to schedule the next meeting.
• Mark meeting as DONE in CRM!
• Check-in call with client 24 hours after the meeting, to see if they have any questions. This is particularly important if the meeting covered a lot of information or complex strategies!
• Delegate follow-up activities to the team (who is working on what items, timeline/due date), and note accordingly in the CRM (or ideally, assign actual workflows in the CRM!).
• Process any forms or paperwork that came out from the meeting.
• Scan documents and meeting notes to electronic client file.
• Add relevant information to your internal business tracking – new opportunities, financial planning issues to follow up on, potential prospects or referrals, etc.
• Update the CRM for the client’s A/B/C segmentation; should the client’s tier be changed based on the outcome of the meeting?
• Do we need to follow up with a referral? (Prospect, COI, Small Business Owner?)
• Do we need to update the client’s list of outstanding recommendations or action items?
• Create a task/reminder to follow up with clients on their action items.
• Provide a follow-up letter or other deliverable as appropriate; include agenda items for next meeting.
• Send summary letter to accountant if appropriate.
• Do we need to let one of our COIs know that our client will be contacting him?

You will notice that the meeting follow-up list is much shorter than the pre-meeting prep list. As I mentioned earlier, though, meeting follow-up presents the biggest opportunity to falter and let something fall through the cracks! By doing a thorough job of meeting prep, you have fewer items to handle on the back side of the appointment, allowing for less opportunity to miss something accidentally.