The Trusted Financial Adviser – The Secrets to a Long and Successful Career as a Financial Adviser by Lee Clarke
To build your own financial services practice requires far more than technical competence. This book is aimed at people who want to work for themselves, building their own businesses rather than spending their lives working for someone else and building someone else’s capital value and someone else’s future.
To be a good financial adviser offering advice to someone else’s clients, technical competence is without doubt the single most important factor. To build your own financial services practice, however, requires far more. This book is aimed at people who want to work for themselves, building their own businesses rather than spending their lives working for someone else and building someone else’s capital value and someone else’s future. So let’s tackle this head on: we have to be able to sell!
The clients that younger IFAs in the UK typically advise are someone else’s. Someone else sold those people on the merits of becoming a client. Whether it was a bank or a national IFA or perhaps a one-man band who sold his practice to another company, or benefited from a buy-out deal from his insurance company, someone obtained those clients using sales skills. One of the saddest aspects of the current UK financial services model is that almost no training is available in the mainstream on how to build a business and how to find new clients – in fact in almost every skill necessary to build a business.
I was shocked to find how many young advisers looking to join my company were expecting to be given leads and had no idea at all how to prospect, network and develop their own clients. In this book I hope to redress the balance. We’ll look at the key factors that influence a prospective client in deciding where to turn for advice. We’ll cover the secrets to building lasting client relationships and in the process you’ll discover that there are some really basic and straightforward things you can do to build your business one client at a time.
I’m also addressing the many thousands of financial services intermediaries in parts of the world where the products are relatively new, where prosperity and financial independence are now becoming far more achievable: countries such as Poland, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Greece and Russia along with India and the Far East. I’m making some basic assumptions: that you are honest, technically competent in the areas in which you advise and that you hold the necessary licences and authorisation in your particular national or state jurisdiction. Above all you want to enjoy a long and happy career in this, your chosen profession, and you want highly satisfied clients who don’t complain when matters beyond your control go against them.
Reviews: This book is packed with examples and insights that you can use immediately to help solve your clients’ problems and build yourself an enviable reputation as a knowledgeable and trusted financial adviser. Lee’s ability to make the complex simple and to provide advice that matters to the client is both the secret to his success and the reason that he has been my trusted adviser for over 20 years! Mark McGregor, Author and Client
Lee has gone to considerable lengths to ensure the advice he has given to me and to my family over the years is in keeping with our values. He has navigated us through the troubled waters of recession and ensured above all that we feel listened to and understood. As a consequence I have felt able to recommend him to a number of friends and business associates. His book reveals many of the stories and examples he uses with his clients to unravel the complex and to instill confidence in his advice. Graeme H. Chapman MBE Charity Fund Raiser
Lee has built a very good business from scratch, based entirely on personal introductions and effective networking. The ideas and real-life examples in Lee’s book will help you to set yourself apart from the competition and build a profitable client bank while becoming a trusted and respected member of your community. Tony Gordon,Past President – MDRT
Author Biography: Lee Clarke is a successful independent financial adviser and has developed his business over many years so that he now has up to three generations of clients within some families. Throughout his career Lee has committed himself to his profession and to raising standards through an active participation in his professional associations. He is a Past President of his Chamber of Commerce, a founder member of the Institute of Financial Planning, a founder member of the Professional Speakers Association and has served on many committees and task forces of MDRT, the professional association for financial services professionals worldwide. Lee is in demand as a speaker and has addressed audiences in the UK, India, the USA, Canada and Europe as well as being a regular local radio contributor on personal finance matters.
ISBN 9781905823536
Format: Paperback
Published: 15/06/2009
Price: 12.99
Sku: 9781905823536
Payments Accepted
