Experts say that advisors should “touch” clients 12 to 18 times a year. And those touches need to be meaningful, not “hey, just calling you up to shoot-the-breeze” touches. Clients want to be contacted, but they want it to be about them and about their (usually financial) well-being.

But how can you do that and still have time for everything else that you need to get done? Calling dozens of clients 12 to 18 times a year would likely take up a lot of your time. Plus, the likelihood that you wind up in voicemail is extremely high, making calling a very inefficient way of touching clients.

Emailing your clients can certainly take less time, but it tends to be more passive and less engaging than a phone call. How many emails go unanswered, especially if the recipient feels like they were just sent something that was part of an email blast that was also sent to other clients? You may have not responded to similar emails yourself today.

So what is the answer?

Digital Touch-points that provide valuable information, but that also solicit client feedback, engage clients at a higher level. When done properly, clients feel listened to and heard. They feel that you are taking the time to engage them on a topic that relates to them and their financial well-being. As an added benefit, these engagements can lead to upsell opportunities, referrals, and just plain old good will.

Below is a sampling of content already contained within our Template Library. Of course, PreciseFP allows you to modify this content, or even create your own, around your area(s) of specialty. You know your clients and their needs better than anyone. Creating engagement pieces that incorporate your expertise and the needs of your clients, and adding them to your library to be used as a part of your continuous engagement program, is how you can be successful in meeting the needs of your clients in an efficient way and one that will allow you to grow your practice in leaps and bounds, if you so desire.

Our scientifically proven Risk Tolerance Questionnaire has been used over 200,000 times by clients just like yours. 13 simple, yet highly effective multiple choice questions allow your clients to ascertain their willingness to lose some or all of an investment in exchange for greater potential returns. Our RTQ comes complete with a Risk Score, so that your clients can see where they fit on a scale from 0 to 100, with 0 being the least comfortable taking financial risk and 100 the most comfortable. Since your clients’ appetite for risk can change from one year to the next, it’s a good idea to resend this engagement piece so that your client can feel heard, and understood.

Integrated with our RTQ is our Investment Policy Statement. An IPS is a document drafted between an advisor and a client that outlines general rules for the advisor. This statement provides the general investment goals and objectives of a client and describes the strategies that the advisor should employ to meet these objectives. Our IPS is 100% customizable, which is important since every firm tends to have its own investment style and therefore requires a unique IPS. Our IPS is also integrated with our RTQ, so the Risk Score flows through to the IPS and becomes a permanent part of the signed document. And last, but not least, our IPS has e-signatures incorporated into it, so the client never needs to print, sign, and fax (what’s a fax?!). An IPS is another example of a document that should be reviewed, both by the advisor and his client, periodically. Periodically sending out your clients’ IPS is a way to show the client that you are on top of things. And it is an exercise that PreciseFP has made so easy for both the advisor and the client that it’s almost a gimme touch-point.

It’s important to check in with clients to see how your advisory firm is succeeding at meeting (and exceeding) your clients’ expectations. A survey is an easy way to accomplish this on an annual basis. Our Template Library includes a survey that is ready for use as-is, or can be easily modified in minutes to suit your firm and your clients.

Tax season comes at least once a year for clients (maybe more if they own a business). So why not send your clients our end-of-year tax planning template found in out Template Library? This template asks 5 simple, yet important, questions that get clients thinking about the upcoming tax season. And since you send it out before the end of the year, it gives them time to take any necessary actions, which could involve having you open an IRA (or similar) account. Don’t be surprised if clients share this one with friends and family who could soon be knocking on your door asking for your services too.

Each New Year seems to bring a certain amount of reflection on our goals, past, present, and future. Your clients are no different. They have many goals, some of which are financial. They want to share those goals with you, have you hold them accountable for them, and know that you are working together so that someday they come to fruition. Our Template Library contains a Financial Goals template that you can use with clients to keep track of your clients’ goals. Some of them will have been realized, others may drop off the list as they are no longer relevant. Whatever the case may be, you can easily keep up with your clients’ goals by sending our Financial Goals engagement piece to them once a year, pre-filled with the goals they previously listed. Why not send this one out at the beginning of the year, every year.

Be sure to send our Household Structure form out every year to be on top of address, telephone, email, or any other changes to your clients’ households. It’s an easy way to make sure that you have current data on your clients and, in the case where changes are made, the data can even flow to your CRM. 

Clients love credit card rewards programs. Interestingly enough, they think their advisor is a good source of information for the myriad of choices. So why not be that source? Use our Best Credit Card template to ask a few important questions that will then allow you to do a little research (we even provide you with the website where you can do your research). You’ll want to send this one out yearly too, since card offerings change constantly. This can be just one more value add from your clients’ personal CFO (i.e. you).

The likelihood that your client’s household has student debt, or that someone your client knows has client debt, is high. Be a resource to help your client (or someone they refer to you) navigate student debt effectively. It could land you some business where you least expected it.

View recorded training on the following process.