Competent advisors need to quickly and authoritatively present their credentials so prospects can rapidly identify and accept their knowledge and competence.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a national registry of qualified financial advisors that listed their time in the business, areas of expertise, licenses and competency scores in related areas? Well there ain’t no such animal and never will be, so differentiation is left to marketing; marketing is left to the individual advisors. Consumers remain stuck with the hunt, guess and cuss method of sorting through it.

One Solution

To accelerate recognition of an advisor’s skills and knowledge, write a book and do what authors do to promote it. If you won’t make the time, muster the muse or pay and direct a co-author or ghostwriter, contribute to someone else’s work and share the notoriety.

Suppose you market your personal financial planning services to older people in general, and you are expert and skillful helping people who are coping with the financial stresses of having lost a loved one (widows, widowers, children) or are now losing a loved one to a terminal disease. Age is not a critical factor here, but more people die in old age than younger ages, so the odds are better for you in the older age segment. Advisors they already must deal with include accountants, lawyers, surviving business partners and more. What can you do?...

Purchase some book on the topic and give it out. If you purchase the “wrong” book or offer it “wrongly,” you will not get the result you hope for.

The “right” book will be one that your client or prospect
• will understand
• can take on chapter by chapter, at a personal pace that makes sense to him or her
• will not feel overwhelmed or confused by
• can easily mark up and write in, such as a workbook with some questions and forms for recording personal information
• will find an easy read, focusing on the reader’s needs and issues rather than on the author’s.

Offering it the “right” way means not mailing it with a soapy cover letter that clearly looks like a word-processing masterpiece (complete with “enclosures” and such formality). A gift like this is always better handed to the person, or at least mailed with a handwritten note from you explaining in one line (two at the most) why you are sending it. Slip in a note at the chapter you suggest s/he ought to read first, hopefully because you spoke about that topic and know it is a more immediate issue than others for that person.

You can also give it out as part of your workshops or seminars, although this is a whole different phenomena and takes careful planning.

The book I would choose: Making the Money Last— Financial Clarity for the Surviving Spouse. This is the third and latest version of
Jarratt G. Bennett’s time and use tested work.

I have known Jarratt G. Bennett, CFP, ChFC, CLU for many years as a client and as a friend. Jerry is one of a dozen unerringly compassionate, pro-active planners I know. (I am indeed fortunate to have such great clients and lasting friends.)

I have watched Jerry work with financial planning clients who are in mourning, anxious about their perceived uncertainty. We have discussed the issues that widows, widowers and heirs must face, each in their own way and according to their personal circumstances. Grief clouds decisions in some, postpones making important decisions in others. Jerry listens well, acts patiently and communicates very effectively with the bereaved. He is a very good planner and he writes very well.

This book, on its own, is a good book. Combined with a planner’s using it as a values-based, relationship building tool, there is more power than either the book or planner alone could muster. As much a workbook and planning tool as it is a book and education tool, the key to its effectiveness is its low key, in-the-client’s-language approach. This work is a planner’s on-site helper. It involves the client in the thinking and planning process. It keeps the complex simple. It works.

Step by step, the process of planning in this book for this special market emphasizes the process and downplays product.

Each chapter can stand alone or as part of the whole, so the book is an easy read and quick reference.

Not just about estate planning—it’s about how to manage your total assets and making the money last…for new widows right now; for people with intermediate concerns and for those with long-term considerations.

Because certain sections may apply to a particular client, you can work through that section with that client and keep them focused on the important issues, avoiding “the whole shebang,” the great bugaboo of planning—doing it all at once. With this book, you can diffuse your efforts and tackle important items at an agreeable pace.

Most clients will want an advisor’s help, so the book serves as a backup, a reminder of what you are discussing and helping with. Jerry related to me that one woman wanted to remarry and called him to talk based on that chapter. This type conversation happens regularly and exemplifies the power of authorship and the relationships you can foster and nurture with such a book to your credit.

Contribute

Imagine becoming a co-contributor and fixing your name and credentials on the cover. You can tremendously increase the power of using this book. If you do the things that authors normally do to promote themselves and their books, you will have a marketing edge in your area.

Jerry offers this book in certain exclusive territories to advisors who wish to be contributing authors. You can be a contributing author and garner the credit an author should receive for a good work well done.

Jerry reports that the revised Making the Money Last is ready now. For inquiries on availability, pricing and contributing authorships:
Jerry Bennett, Bennett Publications, 3600 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, VA 22030 – 703-691-9200.

Want a marketing edge in the growing widow/widower marketplace? Consider being a contributing author of Making the Money Last and see the power of authorship at work in your practice.

It’s all about marketing.

Questions? Email jhmco@melchinger.com

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