The benefits of laughing are undeniable. Studies show that when people laugh while learning something new, they often retain more information. They also become more creative in their thinking and generally are put in a better mood.

With such a strong link between laughter and positive emotions, giving your clients a good laugh during a meeting or a presentation can help build trust in the relationship, says Don Stevenson, an entertainer in Regina who specializes in comedy and magic.

“Humour can increase trust exponentially,” Stevenson says. “It’s free, fun and fast.

“It’s a lot faster,” he adds, “than giving clients Valium, vodka and Viagra.”

However, adding humour into your practice requires some discretion. It doesn’t mean showing up for client meetings with a painted face and red clown nose. And you must be careful to avoid any humour that could be deemed offensive, Stevenson cautions, such as racial, religious or sexual humour.

Typically, humour works best in large groups because people laugh more when sharing a joke with others in the room. In a one-on-one client meeting, it’s best to use humour sparingly.

Says Stevenson: “Generally, people want to be serious when they talk about their finances.”

But that doesn’t mean you can’t inject humour sparingly into your presentation.

Whether in a group or a private conversation, working in a little levity can put people at ease.

“The trick,” Stevenson says, “is to arrange the familiar in an unfamiliar way.”@page_break@For example, he suggests, during a presentation on retirement planning, add a few humorous slides for comic relief. Start by posing the question: “What do you want to do when you retire?” Next, show a few common responses, such as travel. When you show some pictures of people enjoying foreign travel, you might include a few humorous photos, such as someone dangling from a cliff or lost at sea in a lifeboat.

“Retirement should be fun,” Stevenson says, “so why can’t retirement planning be equally fun?”

In larger presentations, such as a client appreciation event, you can include some humour at the beginning. Before getting into the content, for example, you might begin your PowerPoint presentation with a few slides offering ringing endorsements from clients. On the next slide, show remarks that are so outrageous, the people in the room have no choice but to laugh. (“The best 45 minutes’ sleep I ever had!”)

Again, it’s a matter of arranging the familiar in an unexpected manner that gets people chuckling, says Stevenson: “I have tested this with hundreds of people, and most laugh.”

Attaching a funny cartoon or video to an online newsletter or holiday email can also put a smile on your clients’ faces. Once again, Stevenson warns, humour should be kind and non-offensive. Some jokes about the markets or personal finance might be frowned upon, especially if the client has had a rough year.

Most people regard laughter as an important part of life, Stevenson’s own informal research confirms. He recently asked an audience of retirees at the University of Regina what they wished they had done more before retiring.

Laughing ranked third, behind quitting work and spending more time with family.

That’s why laughter is one of the most effective gifts financial advi-sors can give their clients, according to Stevenson. It is both pleasurable and healthy. “Laughing is sugar-free, alcohol-free, non-addictive, environmentally friendly,” he says, “and it can’t be taxed.”

But while humour is a useful relationship-building tool, it only works if you have an underlying trusting bond with your clients. IE