It’s time to redefine what the chief asset under management really is. It’s plain to see what gets the attention from the financial industry at large – the money.

Compensation is tied to the assets under management, and a company’s values are tied to the numbers in aggregate. In the money-focused financial services world, lip service is given to building relationships, but the money is what matters most. Now is the time to rewrite that story.

The principles of financial storytelling are:

S. Synchronizing means with meaning

T. True Understanding what makes clients unique

O. Overview of all life changes and transitions

R. Reaching life and money goals of clients

Y. Yes, yes, yes. Offering a WOW Experience.

How many times have you overheard adivsers telling stories prefaced with “I’ve got this Euro 5 million client…”and wondered to ourselves what would that client think if he or she were standing here listening to that prefacing characterization of the relationship. It’s difficult to see who clients are when our eyes are so pragmatically tuned to seeing what they love.

Every client has a story, and it is our responsibility to discover that story and build a financial plan around that story. We might say that the true sum of this business is made up of stories under management.

Financial services professionals are like the financial director in the movie of their clients

Financial directors need to know where their clients want to go, the settings that the next scenes will play out, who the supporting actors are, and ultimately, how they want this story to end. Money is tied to this story, whether it be the story of the past, present or the future.

In “Telling the Financial Story” I am attempting to tell a story in three sections that characterizes:

• How the financial profession at large and the advisory value proposition individually are undregoing rapid metamorphosis;
• How you can make the shift to a financial storytelling approach and
• What some of the dialogues of the future will look like.

Change Isn’t Coming – It is Here

The world has begun to get a taste for a transcendent form of financial storytelling that merges what matters most with the assets being managed. It’s about discovering the intention and purpose of the person and applying the assets at hand to those intentions. Life planning, financial life planning, lifestyle planning and life-centered financial planning are all descriptors being used to identify a planning process that is anchored to purpose and not just the purse.

We’re living in a day when the world of financial services is either embracing this truth or scrambling to understand if because their preexisting value propositions have proven hollow and are no longer valued as they once were. Being a successful practioner of financial storytelling hinges on nothing less than showing up as the best person one can possibly be and showing up for nothing more than a desire to serve a client’s best interests. This new approach requires a new skill set – and a new dialogue. The conversations are not tied to transactions but instead to transformation – to the adviser/client relationship, as well as the profession at large.

I have been speaking and writing about financial storytelling for the last decade or two to raise awareness around the need for a planning process that places the client’s life story at the center. This website http://www.Telling the Financial Story.com is one of the results. I hope you will find direction, clarity and empowerment within it and become a beacon of story-driven planning in your community. One thing I know from experience is this: once you have tasted the fruit of the telling the financial story approach you won’t ever go back to the business-as-usual conversations that this industry has been tethered to.

One of the great rewards I have experienced in my life is the feedback from financial professionals telling me how much fun they are having now – how meaningful, rewarding and energizing the conversation with clients have become.

There is a very practical side to all this envisioning of a better profession and raising the sights of the advisory world: the more you know your client’s story, the deeper the connection you have, and the more your business is ultimately worth. Thank you for choosing to read this column. It is my hope that you find http://www.tellingthefinancialstory.com a valuable resource – and that the values described herein grow in you both personally and in your business.