(Word count =803 plus 68 words for About the Author)

If you think you may need the help of a financial advisor but you are wary about the complications of the financial planning process and the potential of getting stuck in the mire of detailed analyses, I suggest an alternate approach.   Take a financial planning car ride.

Last week I was rearranging files and came across several comprehensive financial planning reports that I prepared for clients over the years.   Each report was overly thorough and detailed. In hindsight, I see that many of the ideas could have been communicated more effectively through more interactive engaging conversations.   Why did I make all those fancy spreadsheets, charts, or with pages of explanatory text?   After all, my primary physician does not give me a detailed written report, but has a conversation with me about the results of her tests, the status and her recommendations.   Although I think most of my clients have been pleased with the end results, I now see how the entire process could have been smoother, faster and less complicated for the client.   I think that focused discussion can save time and complication in all phases of the financial planning process:   the initial meeting, data gathering, idea creation, presentation, additional discussions with clients, implementation, follow-up and monitoring.   Of course, some strategies are very complex for certain clients and require lots of research and analysis and discussion.   But even then, much of the communication could be oral and simpler.    Once a client becomes confident the advisor is truly working in their interests, the most important ingredient in the process is that the financial advisor and client communicate with each other effectively, and as uncomplicatedly as possible.   One-on-one with as few distractions as possible.   Fewer calculations, numbers, forms, and paper for that matter.  

One fresh approach is taking a car ride together to have the first or second meeting. Instead of meeting at your house or your advisor's office, have him or her pick you up and get on the nearest highway and take an hour car ride.   Turn off the radio, CD and cell phones off so that you get to know each other, distracted only by the passing scenery.   A highway drive is better than in-town driving because there are fewer lights and stops.     Being in a car, there are no office phones ringing, or people interrupting the meeting.   No desks for the advisor to lie out wide detailed spreadsheets loaded with numbers and graphs, or a slick investment brochure that puffs up the investment to more than it really is, even if well-intentioned. In the car, both people are in the front seat.   

As you ride along, your advisor is forced to explain concepts to you simply and succinctly, as it happens in conversations and often not in written communications.   And you are forced to communicate likewise.   On a highway drive, you can occasionally look at each other for facial expressions but rely mostly on cues from the voices.   A good place to begin the conversation is relationships.   Provide context by starting with your family, then friends, then work and if you own a business then your employees.   Regarding your relationships, you should tell your advisor what you feel are your responsibilities, existing complications, and what you want or hope to happen in the future.   If your advisor is a powerful communicator, she or he should also be able to get you to share about your relationship with yourself and with God, without making it feel uncomfortable.   

As part of the conversation, you will be conveying financial information to the advisor in order to make your points.   For example, as you talk about your goal of protecting your elderly mother against long-term care expenses, you will be imparting information about her financial situation and about her or your ability, or lack thereof, to pay for the premiums on an expensive long-term care policy.   When you talk about saving for college for your young children, you no doubt will be discussing your current cash flow, your lifestyle and ability to save, past problems with investing, projections about your income and your career or business including challenges, and the capabilities of your children to get grants and scholarships or part-time work.    Instead of real visuals, try the "imaginary blackboard."   As you and your advisor travel down the highway, you both can be putting up certain key figures, even line charts, on an imaginary blackboard or both of you to "see" and to add to.   Something like the method your grade-school teacher or parents taught you on how to work things out in your head.

As the car ride draws to a close and you arrive back at your house, sit for a few minutes with the ignition off.   Just you and your advisor, summarizing the next steps for you to take, working together, effectively.

About the author.

Frank Sisco is a CPA and Personal Financial Specialist, and author of many articles about personal finance and issues of life and money.   His firm, Financial Management Corporation, is located in New Rochelle, NY.  Frank makes his home with his wife and daughter in New Rochelle, NY.  He can be reached at 914.740.4422 or by email at ideasmoney@aol.com.  Visit his website at www.LifeAndMoney.com, which contains this and prior articles.