Legacy Matters

Motivating Procrastinating Clients

Financial Advisor News has a short article about Dealing with procrastinating clients.  Seems as if their high net worth clients put off making major financial decisions - especially when it comes to estate planning -  for as long as nine or ten years, a major problem for financial planners.

Motivating clients to do what everyone should do is their biggest challenge. So why do people procrastinate?  Yes, they're busy and yes they have limited time.  Who doesn't? 

Dealing with the fact of mortality is very difficult for some people.  For high net worth people ceding control of a business they started and grown can be "shocking" says Richard Peterson, a managing partner at Market Psychology Consulting in San Francisco.  Some people identify themselves with their wealth and the idea of giving it up can be akin to losing their identity.

Peterson puts his clients at ease by talking about their legacies, what they want to leave to the world.

Fear of death is so uncomfortable, many people can't even begin to think about what they will leave behind.  The only way to face fear is with courage. And courage means action of some sort.  The real antidote to fear is love.    The medieval mystic Meister Eickhart wrote a poem that included the thought, If you are afraid, imagine holding the hand of a small child and then you will become brave.  You protect your family and you protect the young.  People who love their families, who love themselves, have the self-regard and self-worth to plan for what is, after all, inevitable.

Financial advisors often talk only about the money that can be saved on taxes when they discuss estate planning, when that's not what people are concerned about. 

Unpleasant as the task may seem to some clients, neglecting to put one in place could end up being even worse. It could unintentionally hurt survivors financially and emotionally, costing millions of dollars in taxes, leaving assets tied up, putting a business at risk or inadvertently shortchanging some heirs.

People are concerned about their legacies, their reputation, their families.  No one really wants to leave this world leaving a mess behind and their families and employees angry and upset. Financial planners should be asking their procrastinating clients what really matters.  You do what really matters first.