In my Nano, “Your Clients Don’t Have Investment Problems”, I wrote about something a seasoned financial professional said: “I don’t have clients with investment problems. I have investments with client problems.”

When you reflect on this insight, there is another dimension to this insight that I believe deserves our attention.

What if clients themselves don’t know what their real problem is?

A client comes to you asking which mutual fund will deliver the highest return. You could answer that question beautifully, explain your research process and recommend an excellent fund.

What if the real question he is struggling with is whether he has enough money to retire?

Another client asks whether he should increase his equity allocation. In this situation, he might not really be seeking an asset allocation recommendation. May be his friend has made substantially more money, and he is beginning to feel that he is falling behind.

A third client asks about the safest investment available. What he really wants to know is whether his wife will be financially secure if something happens to him.
The question clients ask is not always the question they need answered. This is where our profession has an extraordinary opportunity.

A product expert answers the question that is asked. A thoughtful financial professional becomes curious about why the question is being asked in the first place. That requires listening, empathy, patience and the willingness to have conversations that may have very little to do with investments.

Sometimes the greatest value we create is not in finding a better answer. It is in helping the client discover a better question.

This is the real difference between managing someone’s investments and caring for their financial life.

One begins with what the client asks for… The other begins with understanding what the client truly needs.