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“Things are going okay. Although, I’m struggling to meet the children of my older clients. My book’s generally older. I’ve really got to connect with their children. You got any ideas?”
You bet!
…
The solution is pretty straightforward, and I’ll get to that in a moment. But I read myriad articles mentioning how long it takes to get to know the children of existing clients, and that you need to know all about how they view investing, their hobbies, and all kinds of details about them before you even reach out to them. It may take a while to get to deeply know the family members or friends of your clients, but that’s overthinking it. There’s no need to wait to make that initial contact and gently include an invitation to talk with you about their own financial situation.

You want to connect with new clients’ emergency contacts immediately, and it’s not complicated to do during the onboarding process, when you are setting the expectations for your fledgling relationship. Obviously, you can’t be pushy with this because you need to respect their privacy. However, in the course of the onboarding conversation, if your new clients have children, more than not, they will mention them to you. They’ll also likely give you an idea of how their relationships with their children stand. If it’s positive, you can simply say,

“It sounds like you have wonderful relationships with your children. In the course of working with people just like you, we like to determine who you want us to contact should something untoward happen to you. Would that be one of your children or another family member or friend?”

Get your new clients’ permission and buy-in. As part of your conversation, you can comfortably explain why you want to get in touch with their children:

“When we’re working with couples like you, we want to reach out and connect with children as soon as possible to let them know that we’re now working with you and that we are their resource, should something happen where they need to contact us on your behalf.”

This way you’ve reduced the barriers to connecting with the next generation, and you’ve clearly explained to your client that you’re not going to divulge any of their personal information they don’t want shared, but you want to ensure their children or whomever their next contact would be to know “who we are, to have heard a voice, to understand we are working with you, and to know they are assured of getting a response from us as soon as they need some help regarding your situation, or even for their own situation.”

You can assure your client you are not going to pushily prospect them, but you do make an introduction and offer a soft invitation if they are interested to talk about their own finances with you. You simply want to let those children or next contacts know you stand as a ready resource for them, at whatever depth they may want to engage with you.

“We just want them to be able to put a voice with the names of the people who you are now working with. Is it okay if we proceed with that? Again, it’s just part of our process. We want to know the people who are most important in your lives and who will be contacting us should something happen to you.”

You say it in this way where you let them hear this is just a part of how you work. It’s a quick step which is simply a part of the whole onboarding conversation. There’s no need to drag it out. You’re not going to be pushy about it, but let your new clients know, as a matter of fact, it is super important and needs to be addressed.

So, to do this most effectively,

1. Dial in the language. Write out what you want to say.


2. Practice it. As simple as this sounds, you don’t want to twist yourself up in the middle of the conversation where you are bringing these people on board with you. You want to make sure your tone is correct. You don’t want to have them perceive you’re being pushy and demanding. They might not have a great relationship with their children. That’s understandable, but who, then, is the next person they would want you connecting with?


3. Use it. Use it and see the impact that it has with people. Expect to get the response back where you can then connect with their children or the next most important people in their lives. Introduce yourself to let those people know who you are, and simply add words such as, “and, by the way, if you have any questions about your personal financial circumstances, we’re more than happy to receive an email from you, and then we’ll set up a time to talk further.”

It’s that simple.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.