2 minute read
THE RED OR THE BLUE PILL?
KOBUS BARNARD, Allegiance Consulting
ANGELIQUE BARNARD, Allegiance Consulting
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the notquite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it’s yours.” Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
What is the world your client desires? As a financial adviser, this question should be the driving force behind all your interactions with your clients. We’re all wired differently. It is your duty as a financial adviser to help your clients untangle their wires and articulate where it leads them. Advice that doesn’t use your client’s ideal life as a roadmap, and that doesn’t take their complete current financial position into account, is irrelevant. If you’re going to help your clients plan for their future, you need to understand what that ideal future is, and you need to understand where the starting line is. In a world with a population upwards of 7.7 billion, cookie-cutting your clients into a financial plan will no longer work. Avalon is a goal-based financial planning system that enables lifestyle financial planning. With Avalon, your client can be the informed co-author of their plan as you guide them through the trade-offs of their possible financial decisions in real-time. A client may wish to focus on saving for education,a big purchase, understanding the implications of their debt, and retiring. Goal-based financial planning requires a contextual understanding of the sequence and impact of a client’s needs to ensure the optimal allocation of resources for each specific goal in the context of their available resources.
Goal-based planning is a financial planning method to help clients:
• articulate their goals and dreams
• prioritise their financial goals
• find an optimal plan to fund them
• find the optimal plan to protect the achievement of those goals in the context of the client’s current financial landscape.
Clients are caught in a worry-work-eat-sleep matrix, but they are waking up. They want a fourhour
workweek and an ocean view from their home office. However, clients have not necessarily woken up to the fact that if they’re going to live their best life, planning is the best gift they can give themselves. Without a plan, a goal is just a wish. Without a realistic plan, a goal is just an unrealistic wish. As a financialadviser, you can give your clients the tools to realistically follow their dreams, and properly prepare for their future.
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the perfect life is. You have to dream it for yourself. Make your clients the co-authors of their plans. Get them fully invested in the process. Give your clients the tools to untangle their own wires and see the magic unfold before your eyes as you inspire and excite them. Avalon is the sparkle in your clients’ eyes as they see their future before them. Avalon is the spark that will reignite your passion for financial planning.
But please, don’t take our word for it. Take the red pill by visiting www.avalon.co.za and registering for your free, no-commitment trial. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. What are you waiting for?
