Collaborate With a Winning Team

Most of us make financial decisions in silos. We talk to all of the right people: attorneys, life insurance agents,  bankers, investment advisors, and property and casualty agents, one at a time, and on an individual basis. Each professional will answer questions and give advice based on his or her expertise, which may be very different from another type of professional’s answers and advice.

This has nothing to do with the individual quality of each professional. It’s just that they are not communicating as a team. It’s a clear case of the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. This lack of communication could prove costly to you or to your clients.

Financial teams are just like sports teams. Sometimes sports teams acquire great players, but the players don’t work well together because they only see the game from each individual’s perspective, which overwhelms the needs of the group. Every individual effort is outstanding, but from the team perspective all of the plays are disjointed, unproductive and do little to advance the cause of winning the game.

The same thing can happen with money management and financial planning, resulting in a kind of “financial overload” for both you and for your clients. If your clients are hearing different opinions that are contradictory, then this overload can overwhelm them and stall the decision- making process. While your clients are in stall mode, you are losing valuable time and money. The irony is that the longer your clients stall, the more likely it is that they are losing money too! And no one is winning the game.

You and your clients need to have a clear vision of how financial decisions are made, when these decisions should be made, and how every decision is an integral part of a larger whole. Everyone on the team is working together to keep his eye on the ball.

How do we put together a winning team? The answer is simple. Bridge the gap between the various experts by working with a collaborative, multi-disciplinary group that involves accountants and attorneys as well as financial planners. All of the right professionals need to be on board: attorneys, life insurance agents, bankers, investment advisors, and property and casualty agents. Then all of the facts need to be on the table so they can be evaluated from a collaborative perspective. Multiple viewpoints means what needs to happen is a holistic assessment. All of the professionals on the team collaborate by communicating with one another so the entire team comes to consensus and forms a collective opinion about the entire financial picture. Then clients will get relevant, accurate information and avoid the threat of overload, confusion and financial paralysis. By having the right team in place, your clients will have more confidence in the overall plan and vision for the future.

Many of today’s professionals need to take a holistic approach to their financial matters because it is the only way to win the game for both your team and your clients. Ultimately, everyone sees things from their own perspective in life, but working with a solid team affords your clients with a much wider range of experience and a greater depth of expertise that creates the best possible analysis of each client’s financial situation. The multidisciplinary approach incorporates all aspects of the financial plan, and will help your clients increase their awareness of what issues they may have, what problems they may encounter, and what steps they may want to take in the foreseeable future.

Keep in mind that every winning team needs a good coach. Finding the right combination of professionals is as challenging a task as it is to recruit the right players to create a winning sports team. A good coach can identify the players who will work well together and guide them with the right action plan. If you feel your plan lacks coordination and integration and could benefit from this type of collaborative group planning, please call me for a no cost, no obligation initial consultation. As always, I am here to guide you through the process of putting together a winning financial team that will benefit you and your clients.

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