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Financial Planner

What Makes You A Good Financial Planner

What Makes You A Good Financial Planner…

I have decided to write a post on this after a personal conversation with my relative during our Chinese New Year dinner. And it was this conversation that I finally got to know the reasons why he did not engage my financial services even though he knows that I am in this career for over 4 years plus.

This post is also a reminder to myself, to any person who is inspired to be a Financial Planner or are already one – on our duties and obligations to any clients that we are attending to! Even if you are a person who believe in the benefits of insurance, you can read this post to know your rights as a client!

What Did I Gather From The Conversation?

My relative believes in the benefits of insurance and have taken up a lot of plans (and paying a lot of premiums) when he was in his working age. His neighbor happens to be starting out as a Financial Planner and also happened to be his first point of contact – as such, my relative took up all kinds of insurance that she recommends. He even recommended his colleagues and friends to support the neighbor. This lady rose up the ranks and achieved many accomplishments like MDRT.

She is retired and she has since passed on all her portfolios to her son. And her son is supposed to be the servicing agent of my relative.

My relative was well taken care of by the Lady – she responded to most of his queries and needs. But after the son took over, things changed. Whenever my relative has a question with regards to his existing policies, all he got from the new Agent is a simple few word answers. Nothing more than that. My relative wanted to file a claim but was told on the phone that it cannot be done and there’s no further explanation.

The time that my relative really hear from the new Agent is when he needs to hit his sales target and wanted the support from my relative. At that point of time, my relative is already retired but… he still supported with a 15-year Endowment Plan (when he actually wanted a Term Insurance and Health Insurance).

All these happened 6 years back and in this year itself, my relative feels that he does not really know what he has been paying. He wanted to terminate the plan but was told that the surrender value for his 6-years-old Endowment Plan is a big Zero! Of course, he was shocked to hear that and was told to keep paying… My relative does not know what other options that he can have…

And this is just a small part of his bad experiences. He related all these to me and expressed that he has been quite foolish to have committed so much yet do not know what he has bought at the end of the day. He bought because of the friendship and support for his neighbor. Now.. he is beginning to hate Insurance…

It was this conversation that really got me thinking real hard of what makes a good Financial Planner… And the five pointers below are what I feel are the duties and obligations of a good Financial Planner…

My Top Five Duties And Obligations Of A Financial Planner

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Why Some People And Their Family Just Hate Insurance

This is true! There are people who simply just hate insurance (except for car insurance because this is made compulsory). And for these people, no matter how much you persuade, how many articles, how many real life incidents you can share to showcase the importance of getting insurance… they are just not interested!

I have personally came across some of them and through a few series of conversations, I have managed to compile a few suggestions on why they hate insurance… I will also be giving some of my opinions on how to resolve this hatred.

Reason #1: I Can’t Claim Anything From The Insurance Plans That I Have Bought

This is one top reason why people just hate insurance, they pay and pay for so many years of premium, and till one fine day that they can make a claim, it’s either that their claim is invalid or being rejected.

Reason #2: I Lost Money Because Of My Insurance Plans

This is very typical especially for Investment-Linked Plans and Term Insurance. This is also typical for any early withdrawal/surrender of insurance plans (e.g. whole life insurance, endowment plans).

Reason #3: I Buy So Much Insurance Plans Yet Nobody Is There To Take Care Of Them

Because of the high turnover rate in the insurance industry, the chances of people having their insurance plans become “orphaned” literally became higher as well.

That’s why when there’s some form of urgency, they can only depend on themselves and do not know what they can do next. And the two reasons above will apply as well.

*If you have other personal reasons for you to hate insurance, I hope you will share it with me with your comments below.

Personal Opinion To Reason #1


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The Financial Planning Process And Its Importance To You

Do you know the importance of going through a Financial Planning Process with your Financial Planner?

And this process is not just plainly buying insurance plans through your Financial Planner but rather more of understanding of your personal and financial situations, current/future needs and objectives.

If you have not really done so or do not know what is this all about, I will be sharing what are the benefits that you can actually get out from going through one.

First – What Is This Financial Planning Process And Its Benefits

To Financial Planners, this is the process known as “Knowing Our Clients” and every insurance companies do have their own means in the form of either a software or booklet, ranging from between 10 to even 20 pages and in which a lot of your personal information and particulars will be recorded.

Certain Important Particulars Like:

1. Occupation (to assess the risks) and Family Dependents

2. Total Savings, Investments and Loans/Debts

3. Current Total Income and Expenditure

4. Your Available Budget

And to your benefits of this, there will also be calculations done and these numbers will be of great importance to you! These numbers, if properly calculated based on your full and truthful declaration, will let you know whether you are:

– Protected Against Any Financial Risks Or Long Term Care

There’s enough means for you carry on your lifestyle in situations like a sudden short-term illness/injury or for your family to continue living in any case of premature death.

What about conditions that are long term or permanent? Knowing your numbers will help you to take care of this situation and also lessen any burdens on your family.

– Protected Against Living Too Long

Courtesy Photo From http://www.sxc.hu

You have enough money to last through your retirement based on the lifestyle that you want. You will also be able to “really” retire by then and not having to continue to work just to keep the income coming in.

– Able To Pay For The Costs Of Raising Your Children And Their Education

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Four Effective Habits Of A Good Financial Planner

I got a chance to meet up with a Prospect today armed with a Brochure from other Insurance Company, trying to size me up after being “brain-washed” by the other Financial Planner on how bad (the plans, the company, the claim, the structure, in short everything is bad…).

End point is that the Prospect is very much convinced to get the Plan after the “brain-wash” and just need to make sure that he is doing the right thing and everything that the other Financial Planner has said is true…

So here I am wondering, why does the Other Financial Planner need to do that – just to get the business? Can’t he/she convince the Prospect with the level of service, sincerity, and competence?

As such I decided to do up this post to share my views on the Four Effective Habits Of A Good Financial Planner:

Here Goes…

Four Effective Habits Of A Good Financial Planner

1. Shall Not Bad-Mouth Their Competitors

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What Does It Mean When You Say No To Insurance

Have you ever wondered what does it mean to you when you decide to say No to a Financial Planner, who is doing up a financial needs analysis and at the same time recommending some insurance plans to you?

The Role Of A Financial Planner

Basically the role of a Financial Planner is to make you realize or indirectly disturb you emotionally with a Problem (concern about Medical Bills, not enough for Retirement or the means to save enough for your Child’s University Education) through a Financial Needs Analysis Process.

And after doing so, he will recommend a set of solutions to the above problems by means of  committing to a certain range of Insurance Product – Endowment, Investment-Linked Plans, Medical Insurance and/or Critical Illness Insurance.

The objective of this post is not to tell you much about what a Financial Planner does for a living and here I will assume that the Financial Planner who may be attending to you is capable of doing what he/she is required to do in Financial Planning.

But rather, I will focus on, if the Financial Planner has actually done well (to make you realize that you have a problem) but in the end you decide to say one of the Few Common Nos’ (known as Objections to us) like:

  • I Do Not Need Insurance
  • I Have No Extra Money For Insurance
  • I Would Like To Wait

So let’s get down to the first No…

No to Life Insurance!

What Does It Mean To You When You Say That You Do Not Need The Insurance…

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