Painting a profile

Our message to clients:

There’s where you are—and then there’s where you want to go. We help build your unique profile, which is informed by your present-state as well as the vision you have for your life: the hopes and dreams that finance enables.

Tips, tools, and resources

Prepare the client for a great profile meeting

Have a great profile conversation

tool

Create your Profile meeting agenda

agenda

"It's really all about understanding the ‘why’ behind some of their goals. Let’s get to the heart of what’s motivating people, and then we can build a strategy around that."

Adam Nielsen

Engagement Tool

tool

Use the Asset Map and digital tools

tool

Follow up by celebrating working together

tips

IU-3098732(06/20)(exp.6/22)
FOR INTERNAL/FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL USE ONLY - NOT FOR USE WITH THE PUBLIC.

Discovery Strategy

Prepare for a great Profile meeting

TIPS

Only ask for the information that is necessary to meet the client’s initial financial needs. No more, no less. There will be more time to ask for any other documents as other needs or priorities emerge.

Prepare the client for what the next meeting is about. This helps them visualize what a successful meeting looks like.

Help the client get into visioning mode with some simple prompts.

Have a great profile conversation

Go to the Conversation Card digital tool

The Profile meeting is all about uncovering the client’s current reality and their vision for the life they want. We’ve developed these Conversation Cards to help get to the core of what’s happening in the client’s world and where they want to go in the future.

Create your Profile meeting agenda

PURPOSE

To help clients articulate their values and the future they want for themselves.

DESIRED OUTCOME

Clients can articulate a clear sense of their hope and dreams and you have a sense of their current financial picture.

Prepare questions ahead of time.

To build your Profile meeting agenda, first draft a series of questions using the Conversation Roadmap that help you learn more about what the client values and what they want for the future. These questions should be open ended, so the client can answer with more than a simple yes or no answer.

Reiterate what you heard at the last meeting

In your Discovery meeting, you learned a lot about the client’s current state. Find a way to weave what you learned into the conversation, so the client can tell that you are listening and care about what they have to say. This helps the client understand that each meeting has meaning that connects through each phase.

Play back what you hear

Verbally summarize your understanding of the client’s values and their vision of the future. Give them an opportunity to add additional color or corrections. When the Vision Tool becomes available, introduce it to the client and explain how it will be used.

Use the Engagement Tool as a segue to the Profile meeting

Go to Digital Engagement Tool

Our Digital Engagement Tool is designed to help you learn more about the client as you head into the Profile meeting. The tool helps clients identify their priorities by thinking through which parts of your life are working and which need more attention. You can ask your clients to complete the tool and share their results with you during your Profile meeting. Click above to see it in action.

Organize affinity group events

People in your client network may likely have similar interests or group affiliations. Invite your clients to talks by interesting speakers, organize a wine tasting, or form a running club. Whatever it is, offer your clients a place to connect with other based on the things they care about.

Organize a virtual game night

It can be nice to gather your clients for no other reason than the good company. Even if people can’t get together in person, you can host digital get-togethers and have people play games like Scattergories or Charades. This allows your clients to connect in a casual environment, while also enabling you to form deeper bonds with each.

Make individual introductions

Some of your clients might benefit from meeting specific people in your network. These can be professional referrals, or simply connections between people with similar interests and points of view. When you connect clients to other people they value, you become an indispensable part of their life.

Use the Asset Map and digital tools

Go to Asset Map Tool

Asset Map is a user friendly and interactive financial planning tool that uncovers gaps in your client’s current financial situation. It gives clients a simple, one page visual representation of their finances. Asset Map is a fun and effective way to have important Profile and Strategy meeting conversations using real information.

Additionally, we are exploring the idea of creating a tool that allows advisors to map areas of the client’s life beyond finances. Think of it as an enhanced Asset Map, with the ability to understand aspects of the client’s purpose and lifestyle for a fully holistic view of the client’s world. If you have an ideas for what should be included in such a tool please contact hlp@equitable.com.

Follow up by celebrating working together

TIPS

Restate a particularly vivid aspect of their vision. This makes the client feel heard, and reminds them that you are now an indispensable part of achieving the future they want for themselves.

Refer to yourself as their financial professional, even before the client has made investments or purchased any products. This reinforces our philosophy of relationship building, rather than salesmanship.

Convey your excitement for the new relationship.