Keeping Clients for Life

Book excerpt: A successful financial planner is someone who does more than just crunch numbers and present an annual investment plan to clients. There is a psychological component to effective client care as well as to issues involving clients' overall financial well-being. People skills, as well as financial planning skills, are necessary to build a successful financial planning business. This comprehensive guide teaches both new and veteran financial professionals how to relate to their clients in meaningful ways, thus growing their business by increasing the long-term retention of those clients. Offered here are insights into such issues as how to determine which clients to accept, how to propose a plan clients can use, how to tread carefully in family situations, how to develop sensitivity and communications skills, and how to work with the media and recognize the importance of building your business one lasting relationship at a time. Karen Caplan Altfest, PhD, CFP (New York, NY), is Vice President of L. J. Altfest & Co., a financial planning and investment management firm. She is also the Director of the Financial Planning and Investments Program at the New School.