To best serve your senior clients it’s important to ensure you are covering the right topics. Equally important is the way you frame the conversations about those topics.
Recognize that you are working with a group of people who are at a point in their lives at which their needs have changed, says Bev Moir, a senior wealth advisor with ScotiaMcLeod Inc. in Toronto. Conversations with your clients become discussions about where they are in their lives now.
Yesterday’s BYB article looked at the topics you should cover in conversations with older clients. These tips will help you frame those important, and at times difficult, conversations:
> Use a list
Create a system to make sure you stay organized and don’t overlook anything when working with older clients.
Patricia Domingo, a wealth and retirement planner with RBC Wealth Management in Toronto uses RBC’s “Your Future By Design” program to make sure she covers everything with her clients. If your firm does not offer such a program, you can create a checklist of your own that includes topics listed in yesterday’s column, such as spending habits and dealing with family members.
> Illustrate your point
Use examples to show clients that they are not alone in the decisions they need to make.
“Sometimes it’s helpful to give a situation the client can relate to,” says Domingo. “You might explain that you’ve had a client in the past who’s gone through something similar.”
Always be careful, of course, to maintain client confidentiality.
> Watch your tone
Be careful about the tone you use when talking with elder clients.
“It’s really important to not talk down to somebody,” Moir says.
As well, older clients may not like taking advice from someone younger then they are, she says. In those instances, emphasize that while you don’t have their life experience, you do have experience in working with other people their age.
IE