Values-Based Financial Planning by Bill Bachrach. Book Summary.

Here’s a quick review of the book Values-Based Financial Planning by Bill Bachrach. If you're a financial advisor and you're looking for tips on this key topic, this could be a good read for you.

Connect with Perspective Clients in the First Meeting

I recommend this book to advisors who are looking for a way to connect with perspective clients in that first meeting. Bachrach shares a conversational framework that not only focuses on the numbers part of a client's financial plan, but also on the values and motivation behind why they're planning in the first place.

From what we've seen in talking with clients, if you can find out their values very early on in the relationship, this makes financial decisions a lot easier for them. One of the best reasons that we've seen in discussing values in the first meeting is that clients usually don't have that conversation with people. And if you can invite them into a safe place and facilitate this conversation, they leave the meeting feeling better than when they came in.

However ...

There are a few things I don't agree with in this book, for instance, when to actually have the conversation about values. Is it better in the beginning or the end or middle of the meeting? What I’ve found to be the most beneficial in my practice is different than what Bachrach suggests. If you’d like to hear more about that, click here to see a video on how I conduct a first meeting.