Life Centered Financial Planning

Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Part I: The End of Financial Services As We Know It 1 Chapter 1: The Masquerade Party is Over 3 Financial Advice in Flux 6 Expanding Your Reach 8 Comprehension of Context 8 Narrative and Understanding 9 Emotional Connectivity 9 Chapter 2: Erosive Value Propositions 11 Vacuous and Vaporous 13 Very Brief History of Distrust 15 Change Your Mindset 18 Tracking Your Client’s Life 19 Chapter 3: Deprogramming Advisory Magical Thinking 21 The Crystal Ball 22 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 23 RIP Comparison 24 Chapter 4: Misplaced Value 31 Becoming Financially Independent is Easy 32 Change Your Focus 35 Are You Embarrassed Easily? 36 Understanding the Three Hats You Wear 37 The Third Hat: Financial Adviser 37 The Second Hat: Financial Planner 38 The First Hat: Life Planner 38 Chapter 5: The Bottom Line is Not a Number 41 The Human Elements 42 The Central Question 43 Building Relationships: The Roles You Will Play 44 Return on Life™ (ROL) Manifesto 46 What We Need to Know and Continue to Know 47 Your Bottom Line 48 Part II: Making the Shift to Life-Centered Financial Planning 51 Chapter 6: From Money Centered to Life Centered 53 It’s All about Discovery 57 The Past 57 The Present 58 The Future 59 A Tale of Two Advisers 60 Adviser A 60 Adviser B 61 The Journey That is Life 64 Chapter 7: Values That Value 67 Decommoditize 68 Core Values 70 Organization: We will help bring order to your financial life. 71 Accountability: We will help you follow through on your financial commitments. 72 Objectivity: We will provide insight from the outside to help you avoid emotionally driven decisions in important money matters. 72 Proactivity: We will help you anticipate the key transitions in your life so that you will be financially prepared for them. 73 Education: We will explore the specific knowledge you will need to succeed in your situation. 73 Partnership: We will work with you to help you achieve the best life possible. 74 Making the Leap 75 Chapter 8: Soft Skills Are Really the Hard Stuff 77 The Self-Centered Self-Delusion 80 The Empathy Report Card 82 “I Feel You, Man” 83 Pathways to Resonance 85 Roadblocks to Resonance 86 You Gotta Serve Somebody 87 Chapter 9: Answers Get Questioned, Questions Get Answered 91 Monologos 91 Dialogos 92 Really Smart People 94 Meaningful Questions 95 Don’t Dive Deep Out of the Blue 96 Establish Context for What You’re Going to Be Asking 97 Anchor the Story; Link the Story You Hear to the Service You’ll Be Delivering 98 Questions for the Quest 98 Chapter 10: Delivering Reality Checks 103 Reality Check 1: Your Clients Need to Know Where Their Money is Going 103 Client Habits 104 Reality Check 2: Your Clients Need to Be Responsible for Their Own Assumptions 106 Financial Independence versus Financial Dependence 107 Reality Check 3: Your Clients Need to Understand That What They Do with Their Income Impacts Their Life Outcome 109 Part III: The Dialogues of the Future 117 Chapter 11: What’s Your Fiscalosophy? 119 Organically Speaking 120 Past→Path Forward→Pathos 121 Understanding Their Drivers 122 Chapter 12: What is Your Return on Life? 131 Resetting the Focus 141 Chapter 13: Money in Motion 143 What Was I Thinking? 144 Come Back from the Future: Life Transitions 145 The Here and Now, and Near Horizon 147 Transitioning to Transitions 148 The Ongoing Conversation—Life Unfolding 152 Cause or Effect 153 Chapter 14: Retirement Reframed 155 Individually Speaking 156 Retirement Staging 156 Step 1: Observing 157 Step 2: Visioning 158 Step 3: Working 161 Step 4: Personalization 165 New Heroes for a New Era: Retirementors 168 Chapter 15: Personal Values and Account Values 171 Scrambled Signals 172 Locate Your Values 173 The Time is upon Us 174 Righteous Profits, Happy World 175 Chapter 16: Enough Already… 185 Certain Uncertainties 187 Three Types of Clients 188 Not Enough 188 Got Too Much 189 The Just Rights 190 Epilogue 195 Appendix: Return on LifeTM (ROL) Manifesto 197 About the Authors 199 Index 203