SYMPOSIUM BREAKOUT – October 10, Anne Elizabeth Denny, Beyond Mere Checked Boxes

Anne Elizabeth DennyREGISTER NOW and Save $50

Presentation Scheduled for Monday, 2:30-3:30 pm
Anticipated CE: 1 CFP, 1 MN insurance, 1 WI insurance, 1 NASBA/CPE, 1 CIMA, 1 CLE Stnd

Healthcare Directives: A Valuable Asset to Financial Advisors
If I were 20 years younger, I think I’d launch a financial advisory practice. Through my work as a healthcare directives coach, I’ve met dozens of financial advisors. Each has been kind, generous, and thoughtful. I’d love to be counted in your ranks.

I’m intrigued by each person’s story and how he or she came to serve as a financial advisor. Invariably, each one has shared his or her motivations: “I love people,” or, “I love serving my clients.” This is a profession that touches the heart.

Trust is core to the advisor-client relationship.
As an advisor, building trust with your clients is absolutely core to your business practice. In the crazy-busy culture in which we live, nurturing those client relationships can be tricky. For you and for many of your clients, the urgent supplants the important. Nudging your way into a client’s schedule requires clear, recognizable value. You and your clients want to know that your time together is purpose-driven.

The most successful advisors I know approach their advisory role from a broad perspective. They embrace PURPOSE by exploring their clients’ lives and hearts. Conversations focus on goals, values, dreams, and hopes. Money is just a mechanism—a means to living out these cherished dreams and values.

Talking about death and dying can invite deeper conversations about living.
That is precisely why the conversations regarding healthcare directives are an incredible asset to a financial advisor. Introducing questions about preparing for the end of life opens the door to deep questions about living life.

It’s not about the form.
Checking a few boxes on a pre-printed form won’t be enough. Invite your clients to write a truly meaningful healthcare directive instead of approaching this as a to-do. Then, encourage your clients to share their wishes with loved ones. You can even foster these important family conversations by facilitating a family meeting.

A couple of hours of effort will yield an enormous return.
For your clients, writing a meaningful directive requires an investment of the heart. The return on this loving investment is huge. Having thoughtfully expressed preferences for medical, emotional and spiritual care in a healthcare directive, your clients will:

  • Get the right care. Your client will receive all of the care—but only the care—he or she desires.
  • Experience peace of mind. Both clients and loved ones will feel less anxiety about future healthcare decisions.
  • Preserve family unity. Painful disagreements over healthcare decisions for a loved one can be avoided.

By inviting your clients to thoughtfully consider decisions about dying, you will establish a beautiful context for decisions about living. Those who face the certainty of mortality often discover unexpected, sacred gifts—a renewed commitment to living out their values and purpose, and an inspired vitality to embrace life.

Healthcare directives can help you to strengthen and grow your practice.
As an advisor, you will reap benefits as well. Your relationship with your clients will expand. Trust will deepen. You can forge relationships with their adult children or other family members. All of which can strengthen and grow your business practice.

See the opportunity.
Resist the tendency to side step this important work with clients. Instead of referring your clients to an attorney, embrace healthcare directives as a new arrow in your quiver. Seize the opportunity to engage your clients in meaningful dialogue by serving as your clients’ healthcare directive coach. You will hit a bull’s-eye with client retention.

Have you prepared for your future healthcare choices?
By the way, have YOU had that talk with your family? Have you written down your wishes? You're the right age, whatever age you are, and even if you are 100% healthy, this is a gift you give your family. And, you’ll set a marvelous example for your clients.


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