Dave in the Chicago Tribune – ‘Getting personal with your financial expert can pay off’

Dave was recently quoted in the Chicago Tribune, where writer Janet Kidd Stewart tells readers how ‘Getting personal with your financial expert can pay off.’  Stewart suggests that clients get more for their money if their financial adviser has conversations with them and plans for those things that matter most to them, including the lifestyle they want now and in the future. Many financial service firms are increasing their efforts to address these important planning areas with clients. So how do you balance the values/lifestyle discussion with the numbers? Dave tells Stewart that it requires more than just a good relationship:

How do you ensure you’re actually getting something other than a new best friend out of these more intimate conversations?

Always look for metrics, said Dave Yeske, a financial planner with Yeske Buie, a firm with offices in San Francisco and Vienna, Va.

For retired clients, for example, Yeske advocates long discussions about matching lifestyle needs with the realities of a nest egg’s size. Once a spending level is agreed on, he sets strict guidelines on sticking with the plan.

If investments underperform, spending is automatically cut back according to a formula. If they outperform, clients get a bonus for the next year.

Yeske said the system greatly reduces client anxieties about market volatility because they see the original parameters as guidelines that they set based on their own goals.

“You can’t just talk the talk about having more personal relationships,” he said. “Advisers will do their best work if they can go deep with clients, but they can’t just pander. They actually need to bring in financial planning rigor with well-crafted strategies.”