The essence of this blog is a result of me interviewing NAIFA chapter presidents and program chairs coast to coast and asking the following questions:

1. What are the three most significant improvements that advisors must make in their business to meet and exceed their goals?
2. What are the three most significant roadblocks that prevent advisors from meeting and exceeding their goals?

I ask these questions to inspire me to create brand new relevant presentations. Just like old salespeople never die, they run out of commission, old speakers never die, and run out of brand new relevant content for their presentations.

My goal is to inspire NAIFA audiences with never before heard thought-leading content that will inspire speaking testimonials like the one at the end of this blog from John B. Nichols, Past President of NAIFA-WA.

Creating Relationships

NAIFA chapter presidents and program chairs tell me that most financial advisors don’t have strong relationships with the adult children of their higher net worth clients because of the absence of a process and fear. They inspired me to create a new presentation called "7 Keys To Create Relationships with the Adult Children of Your HNW Clients", which includes these essential marketing steps to develop strong relationships with the adult children of your higher net worth clients:

• Segment your clients with these basics:
  • You love them, and they love you back
  • Business, career, job, profession
  • Network–associations, business, clubs, church, family
  • Assets
• Update their data:
  • Direct mail
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Asking the Right Questions

In preparation for your next client review meeting, plant seeds about the importance of you working with the adult children of your higher net worth clients by sending out articles and postcards on a periodical basis by way of direct mail, email, and social media like the following: 

• Should you spend your kids’ inheritance? 
• How to make sure your wealth stays in the family 
• How to give your adult children financial hope in a credit card driven society 
• How to have tough conversations with your kids about their inheritance 
• How to discuss death and finances with your family 

The articles, by way of direct mail, email, and social media will prompt your high net worth clients to bring up introducing you to their adult children or talk about having a family meeting with their adult children.

Remember, both process and fear are all about the questions you ask yourself and your clients.

One survey indicated that 85% of financial advisors were not asking their clients enough questions. In contrast, 15% of financial advisors asking their clients more questions had a 73% impact on their bottom line and the difference they are making for their clients.

• A review of the progress made since you started working with your clients concerning creating a plan to grow assets, protect assets, save tax, and build a legacy
• Ask your clients:

• • Are their adult children prepared to inherit and manage family wealth?
  • Do they worry their adult children will lose the family wealth after inheritance?
  • How does that make them feel?

• Lead up to introducing you to their adult children or talk about having a family meeting with their adult children by saying:
• Imagine how nice it’d be if their adult children didn’t have to go through the same financial worries and uncertainties that they endured when they were younger.

• Follow up your client review meeting in writing that could be forwarded to your client’s adults children with your client’s consent. The email can include:
• Thanking your clients
• What their financial situation was when you started working with your clients
• Where they are now
• The vision of their legacy
• The services that you can provide to their adult children and family

• If you are in contact with the adult children of your higher net worth clients, you could send out articles and postcards on a periodical basis by way of direct mail, email, and social media like the following:

• • How To Ask Your Parents About Their Finances And Why It's Important You Should 
  • Should You Stay with Your Parent's Financial Advisor? 
  • How To Ensure Your Parents Don't Blow Your Inheritance 
  • How To Figure Out What to Do with Your Inheritance (So You Don't Blow It)! 
  • How To Ask The Right Questions About Money Management 

You can also find some useful content on how to market the adult children of your HNW clients in our blog:

• How to Help your clients start the Money Conversation with their Adult Children
• Multigenerational client gifting ideas for Financial Advisors
• Key Steps and Strategies for Successful Family Meetings

About the Author

"Simon Reilly's Inspirational Tipping Point presentation to NAIFA Washington State's September 2013 Financial Forum met and exceeded expectations. I asked Simon to deliver brand new material that would engage our members, and here are the comments that I received: "captivating, revealing, a unique path to the heart of creating performance, a breakthrough in talking about introductions with clients, I didn't anticipate that I would change the way I think about myself, discovered structures to quantify analytics of one's values system – thus being able to track overall efficiency in one's practice, Simon spoke like one of us – he knew the jargon and understands our challenges, revelations, and insights that stirred me, a concise review of solid principles, it brought me back to the passion of our business, great presentation in motivating me for my 3-5 year plan and I've been in business for over 20 years. I highly recommend Simon Reilly as an opening speaker for your next conference." - John B. Nichols, Past President of NAIFA-WA

Simon Reilly is a consultant, speaker, and author with Leading Advisor and a contributing columnist for Advisor Today.

Watch Simon's Advisor Today webinar "7 Keys to Create Relationships with the Adult Children of Your HNW Clients" on-demand in NAIFA's Advisor Today Webinar Archive.