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Life Planning is the way forward for our profession

Last week I attended the 5 day Kinder Institute EVOKE course.

The course was held at Gaunts House in Dorset. An old country mansion set in 2000 acres and steeped in character and history - even if the amenities (or lack of) left a lot to be desired. I can see now that there would not have been a more appropriate place to hold a course like this. It was perfect.

There were 14 of us in the group and a very international and varied group it was too. Our ages ranged from 29 to early 60's. There were representatives from Northern Ireland, Holland, Australia, South Africa and England. 

I met some wonderful people all of whom had something different and interesting to bring to the mix. Working with George Kinder was a great privilege for me – I have never before met anyone with such insight and perception. Louis Vollebregt was also great to work with and he and George complimented each others teaching perfectly.

The course itself was very well structured and although we worked to a strict agenda, it was such great material that it didn't feel like work at all. We worked through each stage of the EVOKE process focusing especially on the E (exploration), V (vision) and O (obstacles). The interesting thing for me was that there was actually a formula to follow for each step. Amazingly, if the formula is followed, the results come.

Each person received individual attention as well as working in groups and working with our life planning partner. There were plenty of practical sessions were we all received feedback from each other and also from George and Louis. We were constantly taught and coached so that we became confident in our own life planning skills and our ability to implement those skills effectively and profitably into our own businesses.

For me, becoming Kinder accredited was about growing the business. I knew that if I learned skills that would enable me to form deep and relevant relationships with my clients then they would become clients for life. I learned enough on this course to feel confident that I can deliver this and I will be changing my business model to incorporate life planning.

So yes, the 5 day course, from a business point of view delivered all I wanted and so much more.

For me however, there was an added bonus. The self development factor was not one I expected. I feel like a totally different woman - I really do. I always thought I was a good listener, that I could empathise easily with people (especially clients) and that I was in tune with my own feelings. I climbed a pretty steep mountain over the course of the week and became very good friends with the little voice inside my head telling me constantly to listen and not speak! I really saw the power that pauses, showing interest, positive affirmation and just being listened to had on each person. I know now that everyone has a story to tell, including all our clients. They just need to be given permission to tell it. If you know their story you know their dreams and if you know their dreams you can coach them to make their dreams happen.

In addition, as part of the learning process, we were all life planned. For me this really was a wonderful experience. My partner Jaime was great and the fact that we got on very well meant we could really carry out the exercise with sincerity.  I now have so much clarity in my plan that it is almost tangible.

Like many people I had my doubts about Life Planning. These doubts were mainly down to the fact that I didn’t understand what life planning was and didn’t know the difference between life planning and life coaching. I also thought that in running my own business I already have to wear many hats – I didn’t want to add one more hat to the list. I’m studying for my Diploma and want to be Chartered and Certified and I didn’t want to get into something else that would take up precious time. I also thought that what I did was numbers and facts and there was no room in my business for wishy washy psychology stuff.

I felt the skill sets for Life Planning and Financial Planning were so different that I couldn’t possibly do justice to both – therefore I’ll stick to what I know! But I had already seen the benefit of spending time with clients and finding out as much as possible about them before putting together a financial plan. I could see that if a client opened up to me the long term relationship was so much richer. I didn’t realise that what I was doing, through methods of enquiry, was linked to life planning and I didn’t always manage to get the client to open up. I now know that learning the skills required to do this properly and systematically yields immense results for me, my business and more importantly, my clients.

I am not sure how easy it will be to implement into my business but I am totally convinced that Life Planning is the way forward for our profession. For my business, Life planning will not be a separate service that we offer clients. What we DO is Financial Planning. Life planning simply gives me the tools to do it better, to make each plan relevant to each client in a most profound way. Something I feel Financial planning on it's own simply cannot deliver.

For me it is STILL about the money! I will still be working with my clients on budgeting and cashflow. I will still be insuring my clients and their families, I will still be helping them save for retirement, I will still be advising on their investments. But now I feel the client with see the meaning behind every recommendation and see the true context of each piece of advice that is given.  When a client partners with you in this way taking ownership of their own Financial Planning with coaching from you, how could they possibly ever go anywhere else?

With the new UK life planning group that is being formed, I am very excited and confident that we can all work together to share best practise and really make this work for everyone. 


Tina Weeks
Financial Weeks
 

Author: Tina Weeks
Posted: Tuesday, July 07, 2009 | 8:00:27 AM