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As financial advisors, we deal with a broad range of issues with our clients, many of which go way beyond money. Because of the nature of our work, we must be skilled at collaborating with our clients’ other trusted advisors. Although I have been a financial advisor for more than twenty years, I have become acutely aware of this need for collaboration through my work with people in financial transition and, since 2000, via my conversations with members of the Sudden Money Institute.

I have discovered that there are some huge gaps in our financial planning process–gaps that are especially egregious when dealing with an individual or family that is experiencing a “life transition” event. Life transitions almost always have a “sudden money” component to them.

When people hear the words “sudden money” they may automatically think of coming into money versus the other way around. But in reality, a sudden money event can be a sudden increase, sudden decrease, sudden liquidity, or sudden availability of money. Sometimes these events are planned for– such as the sale of a business or an expected windfall (e.g., professional athletes). Sometimes they are unexpected and come in the form of an inheritance, legal settlement, or even winning the lottery.

However they occur, and whether the asset level is shooting up or dropping down, the important thing to keep in mind is that it’s not so much about the money or even the amount of money in question–it’s about the change. One chapter in the person’s life has come to an end and a new one is about to begin. It is the task of the financial advisor, and of all of the other trusted advisors in the person’s life, to help the individual successfully navigate the transition.

The space that we find ourselves in with such clients can be messy and conflict-laden. Clients generally need help from a variety of advisors–lawyers, therapists, accountants, business planning specialists, and others. These professionals all have an important role to play, and they are probably very seasoned and good at what they do, but they, too, have challenges when they work with a client who is going through a major life event. At the Sudden Money Institute, our advisors frequently serve as the entry point for people and families in transition. As we train and work with the advisors, financial planners, attorneys, therapists and philanthropy planners who attend our programs, we find that we all are doing exactly the same thing–caring for the well being of our clients–but in different ways.

Challenging the Silo Mentality

Professional advisors from the various disciplines tend to be on their own learning tracks, with their own conferences, continuing education requirements, and ethics that dictate our standards of care and service engagements with our clients. And we don’t have a lot of time to talk to each other.

This silo mentality breeds a separateness that causes collaboration to feel unnatural and perhaps threatening. However, the separateness dissolves when we connect at the one point that unifies us all–the well being of our shared client. It is from this unifying point that our differences are minimized and we elevate our service to our client.

As financial service professionals, we have long recognized the importance of collaboration when it comes to client referrals. Informal (and sometimes formal) alliances among estate planning attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors are a standard element of a professional’s business development strategy. But collaboration is so much more than “you refer a client to me; I’ll refer a client to you.”

Truly effective collaboration based on the best interests of the client creates affinity and understanding among the professionals. As a financial advisor, I don’t want or need to become a lawyer or an accountant or a therapist. But the client may desperately need the services of those professionals in order to move through the stages of a sudden money financial transition. If we can learn to see ourselves and our professions from the point of view of the client, then we’re all progressing; not just providing a higher level of service for the client, but personally advancing in our craft, in our art form of serving people. The challenge is to learn how, as a group, to function at the higher level necessary to provide real added value without increasing risk to the client or one’s self [OR ONESELF?].

At this point you may be thinking: “I just want the short cut to the solution so that I can implement it.” That’s what we all want. But there is no magic bullet. This approach to serving clients is in its formative stage and it is too early for a neat package that delivers a quick end result.

Changing Collaboration

Some professional groups have created collaborative models. There are collaborative law groups that have some very clear policy, procedures, structure, and forms. They do great work, but they are focused generally in the family law area.

In our world, we serve clients and families experiencing a wide range of life transition events. We’re talking about families and individuals that come to us from all walks of life, with all kinds of life events. We’re talking about a lottery winner who was a fireman yesterday and has $25 million today. We’re talking about a woman with children to rear who is recently widowed and has some assets, but not really enough for the long haul. We’re talking about someone who beat the odds and built a fabulous business and liquidates that business with more money than they ever expected. We’re talking about people of all ages, of all cultural backgrounds, gender, education, and sophistication. This is much broader than what the collaborative law group has addressed; however, we have a lot to learn from them because they are certainly farther down the road in creating process and procedure.

My vision is to provide the family or individual with something like a board of directors–professionals working together who can share information and see the big picture. This requires coordination, communication, and a willingness to understand the client’s goals, values, core beliefs, and greatest hopes and fears. It means knowing the client from the inside out and applying one’s professional expertise in unison with the other “board members.”