Lesson learned Day 2: Charting our course

Sailing in uncharted waters means taking new approaches and speakers at Day 2 of the Distinguished Advisor Conference advocated a collaborative approach.

The emphasis on the second day of the conference, held in Naples, Fla., was practical but the skills required are definitely “soft.” The focus was on empathy and sensitivity — to clients’ cultural vulnerabilities, to their value systems, to their health and “purpose” needs, and to their sense of trust.

Lawyer and human rights advocate Diana Juricevic looked at the advisor’s role in serving two groups of vulnerable clients: the elderly and immigrant and refugee families.

With the growing numbers of seniors in Canada, instances of both financial and physical abuse of the elderly will increase. “The biggest perpetrators of crimes against seniors are adult children,” explained Juricevic. She suggested advisors be sensitive to changes in the behavior or circumstances of elderly clients and they be on the lookout for signs of elder abuse. And, if identified, they should notify the proper authorities.

Serving refugees, likewise, requires empathy, perhaps more so when you consider the physical and emotional scars they carry. “There are 10 million refugees in the world,” explained Juricevic, “and 100,000 are settled each year. Canada resettles 10,000. In addition, in 2011, 25,000 people came to Canada and made a claim for refugee status.”

These people, she noted, will often be successful and require the services of financial advisors. But advisors will need to bring all their soft skills to bear in forming relationships with refugee clients. “It is a delicate process,” she adds. “You will need to create a space in which they can tell their stories.”

Cheryl Crowe, an advisor and educator at Assiniboine Credit Union in Winnipeg, is an advocate of socially responsible investing (SRI). People who want their investments to match their value systems are open to SRI, she said. In fact, she knows within 30 seconds of meeting a potential client if he or she will be interested in SRI.

“There are two clues,” she said. “Place of employment — people working in that area are generally passionate about it — and if they have travelled to developing countries.”

Crowe noted there is more than one kind of wealth. “You are wealthy not just in money but also in values. Making a difference can count as much as making money.”

Gillian Stovel Rivers, Dr. Paul Zeimer and Rick Atkinson also took familiar phrases and gave them new meaning. For them, it was "capital" and they talked in terms not just of financial capital but human capital and health capital. The three have formed a collaborative practice that integrates health, money and purpose in retirement, all of which are needed for a successful retirement.

Stovel Rivers, a wealth advisor, is the driving force behind the collaboration and it came from a need to get clients “ahead of the curve” and not wait for a crisis. Through collaboration she wanted to address their health and purpose needs as well as their wealth needs.

As Zeimer noted in his own practice, money and relationships were often the cause of stress among his patients, confirming the need for integration. “Good health costs some money and provides many options for purpose,” he said. “Poor health costs a lot of money and diminishes one’s options for purpose.”

Atkinson noted that having purpose is as important as having health and money.

Certified image consultant Catherine Bell, president of PRIME Impressions in Kingston, Ont., talked about the “ABCs of professionalism” — appearance, behaviour and communication. She put them in the context of needing to restore trust and you do that by presenting a professional appearance, behaving in a courteous and respectful manner and communicating with warmth. For example, did you know that the conditions of your shoes are a telling indicator of your attention to detail? Or that a firm handshake, eye contact and a warm smile can create a level of rapport that would take three hours of conversation to establish?

“Soft skills are part of relationship management,” said Bell. “If you can’t connect with clients, you can’t do your job.”

Portfolio manager Richard Croft of R. N. Croft Financial Group Inc. was anything but soft when he took on the regulatory environment. Advisors should be thinking of clients in terms of their portfolios, not in terms of individual stocks or funds. He likened it to going to the grocery store to buy some ham and bread. If you go in thinking about a ham sandwich, your shopping experience will be different than if you go in thinking about individual items. But regulators take a more piecemeal approach.

How do advisors get around that? By taking a more collaborative approach and working with a portfolio manager who can do the securities selection while the advisor focuses on tax efficiency, risk management, asset mix and time.

The speakers’ presentations can be downloaded by clicking here.