The Agile Financial Planner

Why Do Clients Hire Us with Tanya Nichols

Tanya Nichols, CFP, owner of Align Financial and I chat about why clients hire us.

Expense vs. Investment and Leaning into the J-Curve

How you approach business spending will define your growth.

How to Take Massive Action to Improve Your Planning Business

In this episode, we'll chat about how to move the needle on projects critical to your success as an advisor.      

Don't Be a Squirrel

Don't Make it So Complicate: How to Create Elegant Simplicity

Our job as financial planners is to help our clients define their A-Z and then get them there fast and efficiently.  How to create Elegant Simplicity

How fpPathfinder Can Allow You Help Clients Make Better Decisions

Roger Whitney chats with Michael Lecours, co-founder of fpPathfinder about the importance of checklists and decisions trees in financial planning. www.fppathfinder.com Connect with Roger on Twitter @roger_whitney

Do’s and Don’t During Tumultuous Markets, Ep # 18 

I’ve been in this business for 28 years and I’ve been through some crazy markets. We all know the markets go up and down, but sometimes when they are down it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. On this episode, I noodle on what I have discovered from my experience from these types of seasons and I offer you some do’s and don’ts to help get you and your clients through this challenge. Join me and we’ll see if we can see the good in these crazy times.  Outline of This Episode [2:22...

What is the True Role of a Financial Advisor? Ep # 17 

Have you ever considered what the role of a financial advisor really is? I read a Tweet recently in which a financial advisor said if you aren’t calling your clients when the markets take a downturn you aren’t earning your money. What do you think? Did you call your clients last week to explain what happened in the markets? The Agile Financial Planner is a podcast created to consider how to thrive as financial planners in the 21st century. Listen in to hear what I think our true role is as f...

How to Market Yourself and Attract Your Ideal Clients with Brad Johnson, Ep # 16

You’re a highly-skilled financial planner, you’ve worked hard to build your practice, and you’re good at what you do, but do you know how to market yourself? How do you find your ideal clients? One of the biggest problems many financial planners have is marketing themselves to the clients they wish to serve. I’ve invited Brad Johnson, a financial advisor coach, on the show today to help us solve the puzzle of how to attract the people that you serve best. Today you’ll learn how you can stand...

Help Clients Make Smart Financial Choices and Life Choices with Dr. Dan Crosby, Ep # 15

In today’s world, being a good financial planner is not simply about helping clients make smart financial choices, you also need to be able to help them make good life decisions. Being a great financial planner is means more than knowing about asset allocation and financial planning. We need more skills than we have been taught in CFP courses or at our firms. On this episode of The Agile Financial Planner, author, Standard Deviations Podcast host, and behavioral finance expert, Dr. Dan Crosb...

How to Improve Speaking Skills to Communicate with Your Clients with Tracy Goodwin, Ep #14

How you talk to people matters. You may have the best information, but if nobody is listening it won’t matter. Early on in the days of the Retirement Answer Man podcast, I worked with a professional audio coach. She really helped me improve the podcast by making me more aware of my voice. But I not only improved the podcast, but I also improved the way I communicate with my clients. People choose who and what they want to listen to. That’s why I’ve invited my audio coach, Tracy Goodwin, on t...

The Organizational Systems That Keep Me Productive, Ep # 13

The agile financial planning method creates a fluid, ever-changing environment so I need organizational systems in place that can adapt to constant change. People wonder how I manage to get it all done. I have 2 podcasts, my financial practice, client meetings, the Rock Retirement Club, plus, I’m writing a book. Many people think that there is no way that they could ever have time to balance all of these things. But even though I do have a lot of balls in the air, the organizational systems ...

What is the True Role of a Financial Advisor? Ep #12

What is your true role as a financial advisor? On this episode of The Agile Financial Planner we’ll examine the decision making process so you can learn how to help your clients make better decisions in the future. You’ll learn how to create a framework to lead your clients to make informed financial decisions. We’ll also examine whether you are more of a financial advisor or a commissioned sales person. Learn what you can do to best serve your clients and help them make informed financial d...

Time Management Strategies You Can Implement Now, Ep # 11

Of course, you want the practice of your dreams, but you already have a full day working as a financial planner. How will you ever find the time to create the practice that you really want? Even though you feel way too busy, are you really that busy? Or are you doing all the wrong things with your time? I challenge you to examine how you use your time. On this episode, I’ll share my own time management strategies. You’ll learn how to create an environment where you can focus on building the ...

After Surviving The Hunger Games, Where Will Your Financial Planner Career Path Take You? Ep # 10

Finally, your financial planner career path is starting to take off. The beginning of a financial planning career is a lot like being in the Hunger Games. The difference is that we volunteer for this journey. Younger advisors often love the craft of financial planning but they soon discover that they signed up for a different role entirely. Find out how financial planning can be like the Hunger Games and what to do next once you have survived that journey. In this episode, you’ll learn how t...

What do Free Trading Fees Mean for Financial Advisors? Ep # 9

Are you worried about the trend toward free trading fees among custodians? It seems that custodians are in a race to the bottom. Many have now cust the costs of their transactions to zero. That’s great from the clients’ perspective, but what does that mean for you and me? How will the custodians make their money? And what’s next for financial advisors? These are the questions we will explore on this episode of Financial Planner Freedom. If this race to the bottom is beginning to concern you,...

SMART Sprints: A Tool for Client Accountability

Keeping up with client accountability can be tricky. Sometimes they just don’t follow through. Have you ever left a client meeting and wondered if they were going to bother to follow up with your recommendations? Part of the agile planning process is to hold the client accountable. I use SMART Sprints as a tool to help hold my clients accountable. Find out what Smart Sprints are and how they help me further my clients’ goals and hold them accountable on this episode of Financial Planner Free...

Implementing the Agile Financial Planning Approach as a Financial Planner, Ep #7  

In the last episode, I spoke about the 5 pillars of the Agile Financial Planning process. It sounds great when you first hear it - and there’s nothing about it that is complicated or confusing. But you may not see right away how you can apply it immediately in your financial planning practice. So, on this episode, I want to walk you through what I consider to be the basics of an Agile financial planning approach. Listen carefully and ask yourself this question, “What is the most important th...

The 5 Principles of Agile Financial Planning

Do you use an agile financial planning process? If you’re listening to this show you are probably interested in creating the practice of your dreams that serves both your clients and your family. In doing so, you need to understand how to best help your clients while being able to achieve your own financial goals. In this episode of Financial Planner Freedom, you’ll learn why agile financial planning is the best way to serve your clients and yourself. Outline of This Episode [3:22] How fi...

No Wonder People Don’t Enjoy The Financial Planning Process, Ep #5

Think for just a moment about the typical way we planners and advisors engage our clients in the financial planning process. If they aren’t number people who really like the details, they are likely bored out of their minds every single time they sit down with us. Right? As well, the things we require them to go through to give us the data we are convinced we need in order to help them are as painful as a root canal without novocaine. Seriously, it is.  We’ve got to fix that if we’re goi...

Resources to Help You Grow Your Financial Planning Business, Ep #4

Your financial planning business has all kinds of potential - but if you do things the way they’ve always been done, you’ll see very little of it come into being. Why? Because the world has changed, my friend. The tried and true tactics for building a successful practice are no longer true. The advent of digital has changed everything. So on this episode, I’m going to tell you why it’s important that you find the right kind of influences to put into that head of yours - and I’m also going ...

My Rules To Help You Break The Rules Of Financial Planning Success, Ep #3

There is a lot of what I’d call, “Financial Planner Groupspeak” out there. Some of it was good and OK to follow, some of it is not so good.  If you want to thrive as a financial planner, you need to develop a willingness to break the rules. I’m not talking about the ethics or legal stuff all planners need to adhere to - I’m talking about the so-called rules of how to be successful. This episode is about that. My rules for helping you break the rules. That makes sense, right? Outline of...

You Are An Artist, My Financial Planner Friend - Here’s Why It Matters, Ep #2  

When I say that you are an artist as a financial planner, I know that many of you immediately think I’ve gone off the deep end of psycho-babble and feel-good philosophies.  But please, hold on and hear me out. When I say you're an artist, I mean that the changes in the financial planning industry REQUIRE MORE of you than just making appointments and setting up transactions (like we planners used to do). Anybody can do that - so you’ve got to do something creative, something bold, something...

Is It Possible To Have A Financial Planning Business That Meets Your Goals And Serves Clients? Ep #1  

If you’ve been trying to run a financial planning business for any length of time, you know the industry is changing - and I believe it’s changing in a way that is to your advantage as a planner. You now have the ability to build a dream business that serves your personal goals and meets the needs of clients who you actually enjoy working for. That’s the premise for this episode - and for this podcast as whole. I invite you to listen and to join me to learn how I’ve done it, and how you ca...