You will be able to draw out and record goals that are specific enough to plan against.
Ask a new client what they want from their money and you will often hear the same few answers. "I want to be safe." "I want to retire comfortably." "I want to plan for the kids." They are sincere, and you cannot plan against any of them. You do not know who is meant to be safe, from what, by when, or how much it would take. This lesson is about turning answers like those into objectives you can actually work with.
The natural order for many representatives is to ask about income and savings first, because the numbers feel solid. Try reversing it. Ask what the money is for before you ask how much there is.
There are two reasons. The first is that people talk more freely about their hopes and worries than about their bank balance, so starting with purpose warms the conversation up. The second is that the numbers mean nothing without it. S$40,000 in savings is a lot for a single person with no plans and very little for a couple who want to stop work in five years to care for a parent. You only know which it is once you know what it is for.
Wei Ling opens this part of the meeting with Hafiz and Nadia with a broad question: "If we sat down again in ten years and you felt things had gone well with money, what would have happened?" Then she listens, and does not write a product name anywhere on the page.
Most first answers are vague. Your job is to help the client make each one specific enough to plan against, without putting words in their mouth. A specific objective has three parts: who it is for, when it is needed, and an amount the client chooses.
Take Nadia's first answer: "We want our daughter to have a good education." Wei Ling works through it with follow-up questions. Who: their daughter, now three months old. When: Nadia thinks about university, so roughly eighteen years away, and they would like the money ready a little before then. How much: Wei Ling does not suggest a figure. She asks what Nadia has in mind. Nadia says she would like to have S$80,000 set aside, which is her own example figure from what she has read about local university costs.
The amount comes from the client. You can help them think it through, point them to where they could research costs, or show what different amounts would mean, but the choice is theirs. If you pick the number, the objective is yours, and it tends to grow to fit whatever product you have in mind.
When you record objectives, use the client's own words as far as you can, with your specific version underneath. Nadia's objective on the fact-find reads: "In Nadia's words: 'We want her to be able to go to university without worrying about money.' Specific objective: about S$80,000 available for daughter's university costs in around 17 years, amount chosen by Nadia."
The client's language matters because it is evidence of what they asked for. A reviewer, or the client years later, can see the objective came from the client and not from you. It also protects the meaning. "Safe" to one client means never losing money. To another it means the family keeps the flat if something happens. Your paraphrase might quietly change one into the other. Their words will not.
If a client's words and your specific version seem to pull apart, check with them before you move on: "You said safe. Do you mean you don't want the value to go down, or you want to be sure the family is covered if something happens?"
There is one question worth asking in almost every fact-find with a client who has dependants: what would happen to the family if the main income stopped?
It is uncomfortable, so ask it gently and explain why. "I ask everyone this, because it often changes what matters most." Then let the client think. Many clients have never said the answer aloud, and it often surfaces a priority that none of their first answers mentioned.
When Wei Ling asks it, Nadia goes quiet, then says, "If something happened to Hafiz, I couldn't keep the flat." That sentence becomes the top objective on the page, above the education goal they came in to discuss. It came from Nadia, in her words, and it changes everything that follows. Lesson 3.5, Run and write up a full fact-find, shows how objectives like this get ranked.
The question works for single clients too, phrased differently. Ravi, who supports his parents, hears: "If you couldn't work for a year, what would happen to your parents' monthly allowance?"
Turning vague goals into specific ones is a skill that improves with practice, and you can practise it without a client. Take the vague goals you hear most often and ask yourself the who, when and how much questions you would use to sharpen each one. In the activity below you rewrite three of them, leaving the amount as something the client would choose.
Rewrite three vague goals, such as wanting to be safe, into specific objectives with a person, a date and a client-chosen amount.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).