Trained to plan: Licensed to flog!

Many Chartered and Certified Financial Planners haven’t understood what financial conduct regulation is all about.

We have made an enormous investment in professional qualifications over our entire working lives to be the best financial planners we can be. Then we waste it by obtaining an FCA/ SEC / FSCA / etc. license to sell. Few realise that financial planning is only regulated by the financial conduct regulators when used to sell a financial product.

My friend Chris calls it “a license to flog!”

It’s a hangover from the days of insurance company sales representatives when floggers called themselves planners.

90% of financial advisers 90% of the time are unaware of holding a “license to flog”!

Here’s the thing …

The investment market has been commoditised for a few years now. Floggers are no longer needed. Yes, there’s still an excellent easy recurring income to be made from convincing people otherwise. But the fact is, all the value to the client is and has always been in financial planning.

So, what happens if you are one of the woke 10%?

Disenchantment happens. You fall out of love with the job. Or, more accurately, you fall out of love with the regulations.

The optimal asset strategy is to do what you are good at, love, and what the world needs and will pay for. When love drops out of your asset strategy, the outcome is sub-optimal.

Of course, you haven’t yet realised that financial planning is general advice and, if provided as a service, is outside the perimeter of the financial conduct regulations. You continue flogging out an existence, wrestling with your conscience, hoping you can make it to retirement and praying your business still has an exit value.

Some quit. Sell up. Look at becoming a financial coach.

The trouble with that is. Financial coaching and financial planning are different. These vocations address different issues. They are for different target markets. Financial coaching is a different skill set; you’ve tossed away a lifetime of study.

When talent drops out of your asset strategy, the outcome is suboptimal.

Coaching is a great skill set for a planner to have. We use it to overcome obstacles and execute the plan. So, do register for a financial coaching course. Just don’t ditch the talent.

“You can’t plan for growth unless your deficiency needs are met.” – Abraham Maslow.

Let me explain …

90% of people 90% of the time live in ego, unconnected to soul desires. They are what they think, feel and sense. They live in fear of deficiency needs being unmet in survival (body), safety (heart), and security (mind). Their ego needs of the past are stored in beliefs. The coach works to unlock false beliefs of the past.

Beyond the veil is a soul identity. The soul desires to know itself, find your tribe and collaborate to make the world better. Above the veil, we use terms such as freedom, actualisation, transcendence, and legacy. It is a journey of personal growth. The planner works to take you on a journey to know yourself and deliver your gift.

The veil is painful to cross. Ego-driven people fear the crossing. Here the planner is most unwelcome. And ego-driven planners (instinctive floggers) will say this message is nonsense and tell me I’m not welcome.

By the way, an instinctive flogger’s favourite client is wealthy and locked in their ego. Often because of development issues in childhood and early adulthood. Who believe they have unmet deficiency needs and want more, more, and more. They get on well, as they both unconsciously want the same things.

The soul identity makes decisions based on values, not beliefs.

My financial planning process helps clients to live a values-driven, purpose-driven life with an optimum asset strategy for living longer and better. We call it the GAME plan. We train and accredit our network members in GAME Plan methodology at the Academy.

If you want to learn more about a new psychology of human well-being, I recommend a book of the same title by Richard Barrett. If you want to know what stage you are at on your ego-soul journey, try the FREE FIVE-MINUTE exercise with the output delivered to your inbox instantly.

The Barrett’s Personal Values Assessment.

[If you have values in the upper half of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy, then planning is for you as you (or your client) are on a personal growth journey.]

If you are in the woke 10%, you have made the veil crossing yourself. Then your purpose is to help others to do the same.

Your gift is your financial planning knowledge. Your purpose in life is to use it to serve other people. Be a financial planner. Join the advice-only financial planning community. You can make good recurring plan-based revenues from financial planning, giving you a great business valuation.

You are not obliged to do the work, nor are you free to ignore it!

Don’t die with your gift still in you!!