Is a Financial Planner like a Dental Hygienist?

This morning I visited my Dental Hygienist for the second of three half hour appointments scheduled for 2013.

She is a very patient person (shouldn’t I be the patient?!) and diligently works her way around my teeth doing whatever it is that Dental Hygienists do, scraping and polishing.

I always feel good when I come away from my appointment and promise myself to keep up the brushing and flossing routine so that on my next visits less effort is needed on her part.

Is that the way you feel when you come away from an appointment with your Financial Planner? If not shouldn’t it be?

Your financial goals and objectives have been given the once over, hopefully with little scraping and more polishing, but you come away with a good feeling that you are on track to achieve your financial objectives.

Some research by CWC Research in association with FundsNetwork published recently suggests that most people don’t want to meet with their Financial Planner as often as we think they might.

Only 3% of people who use a Financial Planner would want to meet monthly, 5% quarterly, 25% half-yearly and 39% yearly.

25% of people would only want to meet their Financial Planner ‘when necessary’.

A further 3% would never want to meet and would do everything remotely.

We typically meet with our clients once or twice a year and that frequency supported by regular contact through our weekly email newsletter, monthly Investment Outlook and quarterly Investment Report seems to offer the best mix of face to face  meetings and remote contact.

We do of course encourage our clients to keep their financial plans as clean as their teeth because that will prevent more significant remedial work later on.

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