Did you know……

48% of Estates Greater than $5 Million are Controlled by Women?

57% of Bachelor Degree’s are Women?

The Majority of Master’s and Doctorate Degree’s are Women?

50% of Women Earn as Much as Their Husbands?

35% Out-Earn Their Husbands?

Women are More Likely to Outlive Their Husbands?

So not only is including women in these important conversation the right thing to do, it’s critical for your future success in the relationship. Nearly 70% of women reported leaving their husbands advisor in the months following his death, simply because they didn’t view their husbands advisor as their advisor.

At think-legacy we help advisors create the most powerful relationships possible through our LAUNCH Program and then further build upon that process for advisors who are either currently serving clients on a Generational Wealth basis or want to be through our ECHO Program.

As you think about the future of your business and creating an unfair competitive advantage, let think-legacy help ensure you have the right people sitting at your table!

The post Is Your Future Client Sitting at the Table? appeared first on Legacy.

It’s up to you to ensure that the needs are being put first, and there’s a good possibility that the wealth holder might question the motives of some of the others at the table. Everyone knows they’re seated at the table with the motive of commerce, but whose interests will they put above all else? The answer isn’t always clear, and the client’s interpretation of what’s happening will have a tangible impact on how they view your contributions and advice.

There is a single trait that, if recognized by the wealth holder, can quickly alter how you are perceived by them: it’s called Self-Orientation. In simple terms, we are reassured when we perceive that others are putting our needs ahead of their own – it’s a fundamental in creating the ground conditions for trust. So quite simply, if people sense that you are focused on you, and what you can do, and what you will get out of an exchange, it hurts trust. But if they think you are putting your needs last, they tend to trust your advice more readily.

So how do you demonstrate a low Self-Orientation? Take a step back and put the solutions aside in the early stages. Wealth holders are often concerned that their money won’t end up where they want it to be, that’s a common worry.So address that by slowing down and taking the time really understand what your client wants and why they want it. Show that this is about your client’s outcome, and not your income.

Then the wealth holder can truly recognize that you have them in your best interest, and you won’t have to fight for a seat at the planning table.

The post Welcome to the Table appeared first on Legacy.

It’s a strange time when so many people are moving toward poverty, while simultaneously so many are moving into affluence. Indeed this has been called the Era Of Affluence as an increasing number of people will have more money than time. When that happens, they need good advice – but strange things are happening in their brains.

The human brain has 2 jobs: connection and protection. It wants to connect, to be part of something, and to not be left out. But it also is cautious, fearful and guarded. That makes it a bit challenging when you’re trying to help someone because it falls to you to help them feel safe, and feel connected. (Ironically, the same fears and desires are going on in your brain at the same time.)

What can you do to calm their brains and connect gracefully? The fundamental of business is a relationship, and the quality of the relationship will dictate the quality of the results. Wealth holders want to feel understood, respected, and above all else, that you’re putting their needs ahead of your own. Most wealth holders are perfectly happy to buy what will serve their vision and their goals, but few wish to be “sold”.

While it might seem nice if every wealth holder would blindly trust you, the reality is that would ultimately be un-rewarding, not to mention unrealistic. The truth is that some people will be more open, and others won’t trust you. The scars of our lives have a primary role to play in this, but you can still focus on the core requirement: powerful relationships.

While wealth holders should be looking at the bigger picture when it comes to the financial decision making, it’s up to you to create the ground conditions for trust. And to do that demands that you connect and protect your client.

The post A Look Inside the Wealth Holder’s Mind appeared first on Legacy.

We’ve been providing professional, thoughtful, creative and effective marketing services for almost a decade, and it’s a favorite (“favourite” if you’re in Canada) thing for us to do for advisors. There are 2 big industry challenges that we see show up for you regularly. One is that marketers want to give you cool messages without knowing anything about you. Let’s face it, how is that even remotely possible when they don’t know your brand, your niche or the message that needs to be delivered.

The other challenge is the commodity challenge you face. The obvious response to being seen as a commodity – or the risk of it – is that you want to figure out how to be different. And it’s a trap. Trying to be different will put your attention in all the wrong places.

The question needs to be, “How can I create a real difference in my client’s (or potential client’s) life?”

If your attention is there, you’ll suddenly be dramatically different as a side-effect of working on the real task: impacting their lives.

The post Marketing is your friend. Actually, it’s more than that… appeared first on Legacy.

With that in mind, have you paused to consider that, if relationships really are the key to it all, what your strategy is to creating great ones? Do you have a framework for them? Do you apply a process to it?

Now you may think, “You shouldn’t put a process or system to a relationship, it’ll make it fake!” But the reality is that by not having a sound approach to relationships, you may be more likely to be less genuine. Let’s look at this more closely.

We have a simple and powerful belief at Legacy: If you alter the relationship, you alter the results. That can be positive or negative, but it will happen.  The relationship is the container in which everything happens between you and the prospect or client. The size, quality, tone and feel of that container will influence each transaction, interaction and exchange.

We have another belief that, if you have had any measure of success as an advisor, you already are good at creating connections, nurturing relationships, and contributing to a meaningful exchange. What we also know is that, when you can be more aware of what’s happening in a relationship, and more intentional about how you respond to it, a much more powerful relationship can evolve.

One of the ways to do that is to think of a relationship as its own person, its own entity.  For example, we’ve likely all witnessed marriages where both spouses are wonderful, but the relationship is a wreck. Or the opposite, where we see a couple who might be cantankerous and tough to deal with, but together, they have a great relationship. There are people in a relationship, but the relationship is its own party.

With that notion in mind, if you step back from your interests in a situation and ask, based on what’s going on here, what would the relationship want? What’s trying to happen? Surprisingly, you may find a slightly different perspective that gives you new information on what to do next, how to respond/not respond, where to go next.

Now this one approach won’t necessarily alter the quality of all your relationships (although it might), but we share it to illustrate that there is a lot more going on in a relationship than we typically give credit for, and that there are specific things you can do to generate a powerful, genuine and authentic relationship more easily.

Here’s the catch…

Not all relationships exist to deliver business to you. The right relationship may be a transaction, it may be deep intergenerational planning, it may be nurturing a connection for the future, and it may be nothing – just a transient connection.

Regardless of what it may be, the faster you can identify and respect it, the better your business will be, and the richer your relationships with clients can be.  You see, one of the deep frustrations, time-wasting experiences, and distraction that you can have in your business is believing a relationships is leading one direction, when it’s going another. When you’re treating a transient connection as an intergenerational planning opportunity, you’re going to be annoyed. It’s likely not going to happen, you’re likely frustrating other parties, people you could be helping aren’t being helped, and you’re probably becoming fatigued.

The key is to have the right relationship, every time.

There’s a mountain of content to cover here, far more than this post can handle, but consider this: if you have the right relationship with every party you meet, you can feel assured that you’re being genuine, relevant, compelling, more efficient and absolutely more productive and profitable, every time. That’s a better business.

The post The Right Relationship, Every Time. appeared first on Legacy.

1. Good listening is more important than you think – treat it that way.
2. Look for the things that are meaningful to them, not you.
3. Listen for what they value.
4. It requires that you are actively attentive to what’s being said, how it’s being said, and the sequence it’s presented to you.
5. Document back to them what you heard (after the meeting) – this is ridiculously powerful.
6. Listen without looking for a solution or an opportunity to speak. Help them get clear.

We know this sounds basic. We also know that it doesn’t happen as often as advisors wish it could. Give it a shot and see if you can do all six.

The post Interview Clients Better appeared first on Legacy.

You’ll love this.

Download the PDF

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Fact Finding is about collecting data so that you can do some analysis. It doesn’t [generally] help the client very much.

The catch is that the client may have a problem/challenge, or show up with “a pebble in their shoe,” but they often don’t have clarity on what they need or why they want it.

Think about it: if the client doesn’t know what they want, and doesn’t know what they don’t know, how you could possibly develop a solution for them?!

That’s why we start with Discovery. Discovery is a process you lead your client/potential client through in order to help them get clarity on their vision for the future, what they value, what they want to actually accomplish, and the goals within that mission.

Now here’s the question: If you can help a potential client get that kind of clarity, do you think you’re more likely to write a larger case, or to have a longer relationship than if you just answered their questions?

We know the truth because we’ve seen it thousands of times. While Fact Finding has a role, Discovery changes the entire game.

The post Fact Finding Fails appeared first on Legacy.

The Kolbe Concept holds that creative instincts are the source of mental energy that drives people to take specific actions. This mental drive is separate and distinct from passive feeling and thoughts. Creative instincts are manifested in an innate pattern that determines an individual’s unique method of operation, or modus operandi (M.O.).

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