How do you say ‘No’ to your adviser and still retain a good working relationship with them? Nathan Fryer, director PlanWorks, tells what has worked for him over the years and may work for you too
There are a number of scenarios where you might want or need to say ‘No’ to an adviser and this is where you need to use your discretion. They might be:
- Overloading you with work
- Not communicating effectively
- Continually changing priorities
- Proposing a recommendation that you disagree with.
The important thing to remember when approaching any of these issues is that the majority of the time you are both working to ensure the best outcome for the client and therefore it should not result in conflict but rather a more harmonious working relationship.
Overloading you with work
If an adviser is setting unrealistic expectations, then one of the best things to do is to start building up evidence to support that it is too much.
Many people use Harvest to log the time that they spend on each task, but there are free pieces of software available to be able to log your time.
Once you have a meaningful data set, you can sit down with the adviser and present to them how long on average each task takes and why the tasks you have in front of you might not be achievable in the time frame set.
The response may well be that you are asked to work faster, which notoriously will result in errors. The age old saying “do you want it right or do you want it fast?” is quite powerful, if you genuinely are working to your best ability at a speed you are comfortable with.
Not communicating effectively
I suspect there is not a paraplanner reading this that hasn’t had a key bit of information relayed to them at the last minute that is vital to the recommendation.
What I find with advisers is that they love spending time with their clients and gathering any bits of information that they can to help form a balanced view of what is best for them. However, because fact finds are very prescriptive, some of the “colour and detail’ gets missed.
We love to get ‘colour and detail’ into reports, especially things such as “you said you want to stop work, buy a Harley Davidson and travel the length and breadth of Britain” What is more powerful than this in a report? It definitely beats: “You told me that you want to retire in six months’ time, have a professional investment manager run your portfolio in a manner that protects your money against inflation.” That might be the solution, but that is not why the client is seeking advice.
Whilst difficult to formulate a document to note the soft facts, you could add open-ended questions as prompts to a file note.
I’ve found the best way to challenge your adviser is to demonstrate how much more meaningful the report or work you are doing will be by having that extra detail.
Continually changing priorities
Changing priorities is a difficult one and it comes down to who the person is to ultimately decide what the priorities are. I have heard of scenarios where one adviser will override another adviser and some priorities will be dictated by important dates such as tax-year-end or end-of-business-year, etc.
At PlanWorks, we use a project system to map our tasks and we meet at least once a week to discuss what projects we have and which may need to take priority. All stakeholders need to be present at that meeting to be able to communicate if they have any priorities and what makes them a priority over and above another piece of work.
Obviously, a tax-year-end deadline takes priority over an adviser simply wanting to have the business in by a certain date. The decision here is based upon the outcome of something not happening; missing the end of tax-year is a huge problem whereas missing a business cut off date does not really have severe implications other than the adviser perhaps missing their target – which I’d argue, advisers should not have in any case, the target should be acting in the clients’ best interests at all times.
Disagreeing with an adviser
We will come across pieces of advice where we do not agree with the proposed advice and it can seem like a daunting prospect to address it with the adviser. But nine times out of ten it usually relates to not communicating effectively – there will be one nugget of information missing that normally will make everything make sense.
So how do you address that with the adviser? I generally approach it by asking: “Have you thought about doing it this way?” and generally that’s when the key bit of information needed is revealed.
If that’s not the case, then have an advantages and disadvantages list in your head and be able to communicate why the alternative might be a better option over and above what has been suggested. This is where you as a paraplanner can add value and genuinely demonstrate your worth, because more often than not, the adviser may not have thought of it.
The way to approach it is not that the adviser is wrong, its to engage as a team member and ask questions and understand what has gone into the proposed advice.
Finally
It is important to remember that you are all on the same team, working hard to achieve your company’s values and great outcomes for your clients.
Saying ‘No’ is not something to shy away from but positioning your ‘No’ is key to your success.
