96. PIFAAP's First Post Pandemic Special Interest Session - April 27,2023 9AM at Deogracias, Ayala-FGU Bldg, Makati

Uncertainty is all around us, never more so than today. Whether it concerns a global pandemic, the economy, or your finances, health, and relationships, much of what lies ahead in life remains uncertain. Yet as human beings, we crave security. We want to feel safe and have a sense of control over our lives and well-being. Fear and uncertainty can leave you feeling stressed, anxious, and powerless over the direction of your life. It can drain you emotionally and trap you in a downward spiral of endless “what-ifs” and worst-case scenarios about what tomorrow may bring.

Dealing with Uncertainty - HelpGuide.org

“SELLING CERTAINTY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD” is a talk I have prepared to discuss the top 3 certainty issues facing financial advisors today.

First is the issue of “are we certain of returns?” – the market has been very difficult in the last five years, some clients who bought from me five years ago are still nursing a significant amount of “floating losses”, while most agreed to stay put and stick to their financial plan. 

here I would provide economic update and insights as to where the market is now and its prospects going forward.

Second is the issue of “are we certain we are protected?” – People in our profession is called Insurance underwriters in the past, now we preferred to be known as financial advisors or wealth managers. Are we losing sight of what we are really meant to be to our clients; as their “chief risk manager?” Life Insurance is primarily a risk mitigating product, while investment returns will always be desired, it should not be offered as an investment solution.

Third and the most important issue of “are you certain to succeed?” – Yes, the market is admittedly very difficult right now, but should it be a factor in the pursuit of our own dreams and aspirations? What are the things that may be holding us back?

I am very excited to share with you these insights, see you all on April 27 in our first post-pandemic face to face Special Interest Session

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95. Is the advisor to blame if markets go down?

 

The market has been quite difficult to ascertain as it comes out of pandemic, easy monetary policies that aims to jumpstart stalled economies due to lockdowns are now rearing an ugly head of an "unintended consequence" in the form of rising inflation. As a result, Central bankers all over the world are responding aggressively by raising interest rates, leading to another "unintended consequence" of a liquidity crunch for financial institutions especially the banking sector because of higher funding costs. The last few days saw the closure and almost closure of some of the biggest banks both in the US and Europe. This could lead to a contagion considering how connected financial institutions are in a globalized financial market that operates without borders.

To sum up where we are today - Pandemic > Lower interest rates > Inflation > Higher interest rate > Liquidity crunch > Global contagion?

Is it the fault of the advisor that the client he convinced three years ago to start investing for his retirement is currently nursing a significant amount of "floating" losses?

The stock market (typically where funds intended for long-term goals such as retirement is invested) has delivered above average returns over the long term, but this does not come with occasional anxiety brought about by "market volatility", the regular gyration of stock prices due to changing market conditions.

Changes in market condition is totally out of the control of the financial advisor!

So, is the advisor to blame for the client's current predicament?

This all goes down to how the "retirement funding plan" was sold in the very beginning, did the advisor fully explain the "risk" associated with going after the extra returns provided by the stock market? The risk being the uncertainty of future returns brought about by market fluctuations? That keeping the faith and holding on to the plan may eventually lead to the fulfillment of a financial goal?

If these information are not fully disclosed and understood by the client before he made the commitment to start investing, then it is the fault of the financial advisor.

One of the account opening forms is a "risk disclosure statement" which the client has to sign signifying he understood the risk involved.

This part of the sales process is the most important part in managing client expectations, unfortunately, some advisors would simply rush through this process fearing that an extensive discussion of "risk" might discourage clients from investing. These would be the very same advisors who are now in a very awkward situation in trying to explain to clients why it is best to hold on to the plan, that the market will eventually recover, and all will be well.

So, dear advisors, full risk disclosure may be something we inadvertently take for granted, fully explaining to the client the risk involve can help in keeping the client invested which is key to goal fulfillment, remember it is not "timing the market" (knowing when the market will rise or fall), but "time in the market" (how long we are invested).

All the best my friends!

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94. Cross Selling? Should we also carry other products?

 

Life Insurance Sales has always been referred to as a "Low percentage, High rewards" career, that to get to a "sale"! Advisors typically have to overcome countless setbacks and rejection from people who may not yet appreciate the role of life insurance in a financially secure family portfolio. And even if the prospect commits, there is still a chance that he may change his mind, a lot of us is not new to this situation.

The key to success therefore is having a lot of prospects to work with, to have the opportunity to present and show to prospects how mitigating life's risk is as important as generating decent returns in their financial portfolio.

Life Insurance may not be in the top of mind of the prospect at the time of our initial approach, countless "sales seminars" tell us that we should not give up, and should strive to make the prospect change his mind by "closing techniques" and "objection handling", to me, this may already border on "forcing" the prospect to get a solution he may not yet to ready for, which is not a good way to start a mutually beneficial relationship. So how do we resolve this awkward situation?

One approach is to patiently probe and try to understand what the financial priority of the prospect at the moment, and by probing we may discover that what the prospect needs now is another product.

This is where the benefit of cross selling comes in, having other products on offer may increase the chances of turning a prospect to a client by making available a financial product the prospect currently needs, the client relationship created would surely help in any future life insurance proposition.

just a word of caution, while carrying other products may enhance our total product proposition, care should be taken as to the type of products that we eventually decide to carry, best would be to have complimentary products, like life and non-life insurance, life and funds (UIT or MF), life and HMO, etc

another word of caution is we have to ensure that we do not spread ourselves too thin, as these other products would also require a certain level of commitment in terms of time spent and maybe production requirements, as such, we may have to give up some of the time and effort intended in building up our life insurance career.

all the best my friends!

#acgadvice

93. How I Prepare for my Presentation

 

"WALANG KUPAS!!" 

..is the best compliment I am getting now, this is very meaningful to me because as being someone who have been giving talks and presentations since the late 90s, and coming from an audience who has heard me already for countless times.

This is very rewarding to me, it justifies all the hard work I am doing to come up with a relevant, informative and enjoyable talk.

Let me share how I conceptualize and prepare my presentation.

First Step: After getting confirmation as to the date/time/and time allotment of my talk, I would interview the "client" as to...

1. The nature of the event (it could be the launch of a marketing initiative, a financial advisory congress, a sales kick-off, a forum intended for agents/clients or an awarding ceremony)

2. The objective of my talk (was it to build up talking points to support the initiative? was it to teach a new approach in developing new markets? was it to guide the audience in a new way of serving their clients? was it to suggest ways on how to increase their personal productivity? etc.)

3. The average profile of the audience (new or seasoned, as I try my best to match the complexity or simpleness of my talk with my audience)

Second step: Do my research, the best lead time for me is around two weeks before the event.

1. As most of my talk involves the financial services industry, my first go would be to check out the latest market and economic update

2. Second would be to find "best practices" ideas to support the event objective

Third step: develop an outline highlighting three to four major points of my talk.

Fourth step: Building up my talk, i usually start with a clean sheet approach, simply writing down ALL ideas pertaining to a particular topic, then i would cut or expand on the idea by further research.

Fifth step: start preparing the presentation (I am using Canva for my presentation design, I can say that getting the Pro version is one of my best investment in support of my speaking career)

Sixth step: clean and align, cut and add slides, do additional research.

Seventh step: read up on supporting materials and start trial runs. 

While i am very sure that there would be other more efficient ways to do this, this system has so far worked very well for me.

hope this helps my friends!!

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