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Tony Owings knows that people can be skeptical of financial planners. Too many planners,
he says, focus on selling financial products rather than actually advising clients
about the right investments.
“Unfortunately, due to the actions of a few unethical advisors, this business has
a lack of trust," says Owings, a Certified Financial Planner™, whose company, A.R.
Owings Financial Strategies, is an independent firm that works mostly on a fee-on-assets-under-management
model and offers securities through Raymond James Financial Services
Of course, the hesitancy to work with a financial planner is understandable, given
the risk.
"People are afraid of being sold. And in my business, it's not just being sold,
it's being sold something where they can lose all their money," says Owings.
Therefore, his business depends on building confidence and allaying clients' fears.
He sees his role as helping his clients discover and solve financial problems and
achieve life goals by serving as both counselor and coach. As part of his six-step
financial planning process, he uses Money Habitudes cards.
A Differentiated, Customer-focused Approach
Owings began his financial planning career in 1994 with A.G. Edwards & Sons
in California. He then moved the practice to Minnesota where, in 2001, he joined
with Raymond James by assuming the management of a financial planning office at
a Minneapolis community bank. In 2008, he relocated back to Northern California.
As his career has evolved, he has moved into a more consultative role.
"You've got to get away from the products and move to being an advisor, adding value.
That's what I want people to perceive me as," says Owings.
Changing his business resulted from two factors: first, a customer-first shift within
the personal finance and wealth management industry; second, a greater sense of
personal satisfaction that came from having a focus on customers instead of concentrating
on selling investments – and being beholden to quotas and specific financial offerings.
His move to an independent, fee-based model involved a number of changes. One was
quite tangible: getting his CFP® certification. The other was conscientiously developing
a deeper understanding of his clients and their needs.
Knowing the Client
It's important to start off on the right foot with a client. Owings knows that means
not only what is covered in the first meeting and how it's covered,
but also how the relationship feels.
"We have an obligation to know our client. And you can't know your client unless
you are talking to your client. And you can't talk to your client unless they're
willing to. And the Money Habitudes cards break the ice," he says.
After reading about Money Habitudes in Horsesmouth, a web site dedicated
to improving financial advisors' performance, he decided to use the tool to replace
or augment the other discovery methods and techniques he utilized to get to know
his clients.
"I really haven't found anything else out there that's as unique as Money Habitudes.
There are questionnaires. You find all different kinds of little coaching sessions
about how to talk to people: different levels of listening, listening to what your
clients are saying to determine what kind of a person they are or what kind of personality
they have. But there's no real tool out there for that – it's all guidelines. Whereas
this is an interactive tool that engages the client and everybody I've sat down
with this has pretty much loved it," he says.
Using Money Habitudes
In his practice, Owings employs Money Habitudes with individuals, couples and in
workshops at venues like his local Chamber of Commerce. However, he uses the cards
for different reasons with different people and won't introduce them at the same
point with everyone. He's found Money Habitudes to work well with both men and women,
and with couples – especially younger couples – who have not had a comprehensive
talk about planning for their financial futures. Regardless of who he's working
with, he makes sure that he starts with a quick, logical connection between (a)
the cards, (b) understanding your habits and attitudes around money, (c) helping
your financial advisor understand you in order to create a personalized plan. As
clients may already be intimidated by their lack of knowledge when meeting with
an advisor, the gesture of explaining the exercise pays dividends. Still, Owings
admits that people can be skeptical when given the unassuming game-like cards.
"But, by the time we get through it, it's a long conversation and they're a lot
more relaxed and they're giving me a lot more information that I would have never
gotten without them."
During the few minutes when clients are sorting the 54 cards, Owings will hang back.
Yet, he remains an active part of the process.
"When they're doing it, they'll be talking about the questions or laughing. And
if they pull something out and they're like, 'This is me!' then I'm going to make
a note of that and probably talk about that one first instead of starting from the
top of the pile. You can tell which ones hit them more," he says. The broadly applicable
statement cards lend themselves to him asking non-invasive, open-ended questions
like, "You said this; that's interesting. Why don't you tell me a little bit about
it?"
By putting clients at ease, getting them to talk freely, developing trust and giving
them a means to describe how they approach and use money, it creates a positive
environment for the planner.
"How can you relate this to your practice to turn it into better sales? Where I
would position it is along the aspect of 'Know your client' and 'A better way of
understanding your client for better compliance' because if
I've gone through the Money Habitudes and I've documented this with the clients,
I've done more due diligence with that client in the first sitting than probably
most advisors do with a client they've had for 10 years," says Owings.
Tell-Tale Discussions
What comes out of the discussions varies. It may bridge the gap between a couple
that isn't seeing eye-to-eye on their finances and argues, putting the financial
advisor in the uncomfortable role of relationship referee. In such situations, the
cards help people understand how and why they see and use money in different ways,
giving them a non-threatening context in which to discuss money with each other
and with an advisor.
The discussion might also reveal what people want to achieve with their money; maybe
it's saving for a child's education or for retirement – or being afraid they won't
have enough for these circumstances. In addition, the discussion that follows using
Money Habitudes can better illustrate how people truly feel about money beyond filling
out a yes/no questionnaire or relying on a less methodical conversation.
"I've talked to people before and they've told me that they're really aggressive
and then the market goes down and they lose some money and they're screaming on
the phone that they can't afford that. And I took their word that they were really
aggressive [and could tolerate the greater risk that comes with greater rewards].
Or somebody tells me they're really conservative, but I look at what they're doing
and it's totally different. So what Money Habitudes does is give me a better gauge
when I do get to that conversation and we get to how to invest your money. This
is a tool that will help me be able to put them in the appropriate investments to
meet their long-term goals," he says.
It's also not uncommon for the conversation to become an illuminating narrative
about the person who's sitting in front of Owings. After all, just as patients may
withhold important health information from a doctor because it's embarrassing, so
too will people be selective when sharing their financial story with a planner,
even when full disclosure is to their benefit. But Money Habitudes gives them a
supportive framework with which to express their hopes, fears and motivations without
the discovery process feeling antiseptic like a set of forms or confrontational
like an interrogation.
Many of these stories can right a planner's incorrect assumptions. For example,
Owings recalls one client with whom he used the cards and who had inherited millions
of dollars; what he knew of her background and the assets he saw on paper only told
him part of her story.
"Her one sister basically disinherited her by not telling her that the trust existed.
And I went down to visit her, thinking that she was raised with a silver spoon in
her mouth and that she'd want the finer things in life. And going through the cards
with her, what I determined was that she was sort of the black sheep of the family.
She got heavily into debt and she didn't want to call up Daddy and ask for help,
so she went homeless for two years to pay off her debts. So her impression of what
money was and what it meant to her took a paradigm shift at that point. She just
wants enough money to live on and do her art and she doesn't care about fancy stuff.
But I wouldn't have gotten that story without these cards. And that kind of changes
how I’m going to approach her," he says.
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