Return on life or return on investments?

I attended a conference in the middle of 2018 on the subject of the future of Financial Planning.

I know what you are thinking; Nick gets all the exciting jobs doesn’t he!?

A variety of UK and international speakers delivered their messages to a large audience of Financial Planners.

The keynote speaker, a chap from the US, described Financial Planning as a process that was designed to change people’s lives for the better. It is a call to action helping people to link their aspirations and dreams to money.

Most importantly it is about giving people the confidence and power to make decisions and take control of their lives.

I agree with this. Experience tells me that Financial Planning is as much to do with life planning as it is to do with money management.

The speaker waxed lyrical about the need for us as Financial Planners to be life centered rather than money centered.

As he put it we need to consider whether we are looking for return on investments or return on life.

His message to the audience was that to move away from the focus on money alone we need to be asking our clients many questions about what they are trying to achieve in life.

What is their story, how did they get to where they are now and where do they want to go?

This is a much more interesting subject than whether the value of a particular investment fund or stock market is going to rise or fall as a result of Brexit.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is going to be to spend much more time talking to our clients about their lives than about the investment returns on their portfolios. It’s all about what we do with the financial resources that we have rather than how much we might actually have in the future.

It’s about return on life.

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