Earning by Learning

The CFP Board is pushing, largely through press coverage, to educate the public about its designation. And it is working with large firms, such as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, "to [have them] realize the CFP's value" versus brokerages' internal designations," notes Roberts.

"It's the title of the week and the designation of the month as far as being, say, a specialist in retirement or in estate matters," she remarks. "With a CFP, you know exactly what you're getting. It takes a commitment to go through an educational process, examination, get the required experience and abide by a very stringent code of ethics that's enforced by the CFP Board."

Being the Best Advisor You Can BeBut do most clients understand what those letters, "CFP," following an advisor's name connote? "It's wrong to make the assumption that the average American knows what 'CFP' means," says personal performance coach Darci Hemsley Brown, managing associate of Aaron Hemsley & Associates, in Henderson, Nev.

"The financial advisor has to be the one who educates the client. And the time to explain what 'CFP' stands for is in the initial interview," says Brown, a former college professor of communications who now trains FAs. "But just saying, 'I'm a CFP — that means I'm a Certified Financial Planner' isn't enough. It's got to go beyond that.

"It's more personal and increases intimacy to say, 'I really wanted to become a financial advisor because I love helping people succeed.' Clients like to work with someone who's warm and inviting — even loving," she says. Hemsley's Maximum Performance Program is designed to help FAs relate more meaningfully with clients.

In the practice management-practical skills area, Wachovia advisors, for example, are offered courses, held in Richmond, showing how to maximize their business profile, with the accent on marketing themselves more effectively.

SmartPros has online and classroom programs in sales skills, product knowledge and collateral marketing materials for seminars, among numerous others.

"You need to know how to tell a good, proper story," notes Selbst. "If you know what the product is and how it works, you're much more likely to be talking to the right people for the right reasons at the right time. Then you'll go home at night, look in the mirror and say, 'I'm proud of myself because I've really helped people with something that's very high in their personal priorities: financial security."

A variety of optional CE courses — but most providing CE credit and all conducted in person — is given by the Raymond James Institute of Finance either at St. Petersburg headquarters or in regional workshops. Focusing on financial planning's technical issues, they're directed at RJ advisors who want to broaden the scope of services offered.

The Institute's Financial Planner Series "emulates the CFP curriculum," says Daxon. But "ours goes a step further in showing how to stitch together planning-based or investment management-based tools and the firm's resources to aid FAs in solving [client] problems. We [bring] in other areas so advisors can give much more guidance to clients." New programs are "niche-oriented" and include those on trusts and charitable giving.

While online courses are growing in popularity, to be sure, they may not always be the best delivery method. "Knowledge works well online because you can define it, review it and be tested on it," notes Selbst. "What doesn't lend itself too well online are skills development because you can't be good at [a skill] without practice. One of our mottoes is 'Practice makes better.'"

Often, successful veteran advisors balk at being made to take continuing ed. Sometimes the objections are justified; sometimes, not.

"I have brokers calling me saying, 'Why do I have to take annuities? I don't do insurance!'" says Wachovia's Miller.

"The answer is: No. 1, because the firm element is designed for the whole firm, not individual brokers. And No. 2, though you may not do these investments yourself, your client may be doing them with somebody else. So," Miller continues, "if you want to be the best [advisor] you can be in recommending investments, you need to take into account the other stuff clients have, even if you didn't sell it to them."

Which brings us back to getting to know your clients. Training programs can show how, but developing a strong relationship of trust takes time. According to Brown, FAs relate best to clients when they heighten intimacy and, where appropriate, disclose their feelings.

"If you're passionate and excited about something, do you [project] that to the client?" she asks. The idea, partly, is "learning how to maintain eye contact and shaking hands so that you don't come across as timid. Focusing your attention on others not only helps you establish rapport but reduces your fear and anxiety of being rejected because it makes you spend less time thinking about yourself.

"Every advisor dreams that they'll keep their clients forever. The way to do that is to increase intimacy. You can't have a real relationship of trust simply by having a single meeting once a year. Try something new that's not in your comfort zone," says Brown. "There's more to this industry than sales."

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Freelance writer Jane Wollman Rusoff is a Los Angeles-based contributing editor of Research and is the founder of Family Star Productions