Podcast

Ep 169: Guiding Clients Beyond Money with Paul Armson

- Matt Reiner

In this episode of Bridging the Gap, Matt Reiner sits down with Paul Armson, a financial advisor who has transitioned his approach to focus on lifestyle financial planning. Initially drawn to the industry by the potential income from selling financial products, Paul had a major wake-up call after his mother’s sudden death. This event prompted him to reevaluate his career priorities and redirect his strategy towards helping clients live their lives to the fullest in the present, rather than deferring enjoyment to the future. Paul now emphasizes the importance of understanding clients’ current lifestyle and their deeper, more meaningful life goals.

Paul advocates to move away from the traditional, product-centric approach typical in the financial services industry. He underscores the importance of advisors focusing on understanding the client’s needs and guiding them towards a richer, more fulfilling life. Paul introduces the concept of lifestyle financial planning, which aims to help clients figure out “how much is enough” to live their desired life. By understanding and connecting with clients on a more personal level, advisors can provide a service that goes beyond simple financial advice, fostering trust and a more profound impact on the client’s life.

Matt and Paul discuss various tools and methodologies that can aid advisors in this client-centric approach, including surveys to gauge clients’ financial confidence and specific tools Paul has developed to track clients’ progress. They also touch on the challenges that come with changing clients’ expectations from traditional financial conversations to more holistic life planning discussions. Paul encourages advisors to recognize the influence of the financial industry on their thinking and to prioritize the overall client experience over the narrow focus on financial products. This episode underscores the importance of advisors being life planners first, truly understanding their clients’ stories, and helping them achieve their desired lifestyles.  

Timestamps From This Episode
 
[20:21] Advisors should prioritize clients over money to build trust and avoid the transaction trap, where relationships become purely transactional. Instead, by genuinely showing interest in the client’s life and goals, trust is built, leading to a more meaningful and significant relationship.
 
[22:00] Focusing on the client’s story and aspirations can ultimately result in the client entrusting all their financial matters to the advisor. On the other hand, if the focus is solely on the client’s money, it can lead to a perception of desperation for business, potentially resulting in only acquiring small investments.
 
[31:20] How does an advisor attribute their value to the client through lifestyle planning? Is it about demonstrating the tangible benefits such as the number of trips the client was able to take or the ability to understand and measure living one’s purpose every day? This poses a challenge for the human brain to connect the dots, and the experience of the advisor can shed light on this aspect.
 
[35:56] Financial advisors should focus on the truth about money, which means understanding what clients need to achieve their desired lifestyle and financial security. This concept emphasizes the importance of not solely focusing on specific financial products, but rather on the broader picture of clients’ goals and needs.
 
[37:35] It can be challenging for advisors to shift their approach from immediate discussions about investments to truly understanding their clients’ stories and aspirations. Balancing industry and client needs is crucial for growth.
 

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Bridging the Gap is a financial podcast hosted by CEO Matt Reiner focused on bringing together leaders from the finance and the technology industries to focus on innovating the financial services industry.

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Host

Matt Reiner, CFA, CFP®

I’ve been fortunate to be around the wealth management business for over 25 years. Along with this, I’m also the CEO of a tech startup. These experiences have given me a bird’s eye view of both the technology and financial services spaces.
Guest

Paul Armson

Paul Armson is one of the most sought after financial planning coaches in the financial planning community. He is well-known for helping Financial Advisers create, communicate and deliver great client outcomes. He is on a mission to help 'Financial Planning' become a proper profession by breaking the shackles of the traditional investment and product focused financial services Industry. His passion is helping Advisers and their clients understand, adopt and benefit from proper financial planning. He has been a Financial Adviser since 1982 and started delivering ‘Lifestyle Financial Planning' to his clients in 1990, building a successful fee-based Financial Planning practice.

For the last ten years, he’s been helping other Financial Advisers successfully transition to a client focused Lifestyle Financial Planning model. In 2013, Paul launched Inspiring Advisers (www.InspiringAdvisers.co.uk) - an online training programme to help Advisers develop and differentiate themselves with a 'Lifestyle Financial Planning' approach. It is now a growing community of Lifestyle Financial Planners from around the globe. Membership includes access to Paul’s online coaching programme: ‘The Seven Step Success System’ which is a low cost and convenient online coaching system that helps Advisers secure their future by demonstrating and delivering more value year after year.

Paul recently joined forces with Mitch Anthony from the US to launch Life Centered Planners (www.LifeCenteredPlanners.com) a fast growing community of advisers from around the world who believe it's time to put clients lives at the very center of each and every client conversation, more than just focus on their money. Paul and Mitch co-authored 'Life Centered Financial Planning - How to Deliver Value That Will Never Be Undervalued' published by Wiley in 2020.

Paul's 'Enough?' project is educating consumers throughout the world about Lifestyle Financial Planning and helping them take the first steps in creating their own financial plan. He firmly believes that one day consumers will DEMAND proper Financial Planning from their Adviser in return for their fees. He aims to help make this a reality. Paul is a sought after speaker and speaks regularly in the UK and overseas, he is passionate about changing clients and Advisers lives through the successful delivery of PROPER Financial Planning.