RIA Central

Could your communication skills save your life? According to my colleague in the Speakers Roundtable, Capt. Charlie Plumb, the answer is YES!

He survived 6 ½ years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp – the Hanoi Hilton. The same luxury accommodations as John McCain, only Charlie was there longer. Here’s what he has to say about communication, “I had been through the survival schools in the military and been told repeatedly, that if I were a prisoner of war to, ‘maintain contact with my fellow POWs!’  I thought this was very logical. How else could we pass along the escape plans?

Much to my surprise, the ‘life saving’ value of communication in the camps wasn’t the information we were passing around, but the simple VALIDATION of another human being! After months of solitary confinement in a very dark cell a person loses track of one’s very existence. There is no sounding board … no feedback … nothing to prove that you are real. The simple tapping on a wall (shave-and-a-haircut?) and the response (six-bits) proves your existence.  Someone is responding to you! The point for a Financial Advisor: It’s not the ‘data’ that’s the important part of the communication process.  It’s the simple validation of an individual and their pain.” Read More

I’ve been reading and thinking about the average wealth management business a lot recently.  It appears that, according to FP Transitions the business valuation firm, the average transaction is 20% in cash with 80% paid over time, usually five years.To my way of thinking, this is not a sale of a business, but rather a salary continuation program where you are putting your continued income stream in the hands of someone you probably don’t know very well.  In fact, I would say the only part of the sale that is a real sale is the cash you get up front.  And, even then it might be clawed back with a guarantee around client retention that you give the buyer.

I think if you’re about to sell your business under this methodology, you might as well not sell and keep your business, run it with a junior partner and slowly fade out.  You should also think about pre-funding your buyout by using the bonus to your junior partner to fund a qualified plan that would benefit you and put real money aside for when you retire.  Read More

Editor’s note: I had a wonderful conversation recently with fee-only planner, Jude Boudreaux, who focuses his practice on Financial Life Planning. He writes a blog for investors on his website at upperlinefinancial.com and something he wrote caught my eye:  “Money is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.” I thought about how true that was and how it would be a great service if more financial advisors and planners would have engaging conversations with their clients about financial life planning so their money wouldn’t “master them.”  Jude said that he works with newlyweds and he commented about their challenges,  “Merging your money as you merge your lives [as newlyweds] can be rough.  You’ve been making your own decisions and now there’s somebody asking questions when the bank statements come in!  This was challenging for my wife and me because of our different money personalities (I’m naturally a spender, while she’s naturally a saver).”

With that in mind, he developed 7 tips for his newlywed clients and prospects that he said he wished he had known when he and his wife started out as newlyweds. He wanted to share them with his colleagues who also had newlywed clients.  Read More