Aligning Life and Wealth:

A goals-based client process

  • 1. Discovery
  • 2. Assessment
  • 3. Advice
  • 4. Implementation
  • 5. Monitor &
    Review
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  • 5

  • Step 1: Discovery

    Identify client’s goals and resources

    The first step in the process is to help clients articulate their goals as well as their attitudes to risk and time horizon for each goal. It helps you to prompt a more meaningful conversation based on your client’s aspirations, which also helps you to gain insight into both the financial and non-financial aspects of your client’s life. In turn, this will give your clients the perspective needed to stay the course during volatile times.

  • Step 2: Assessment

    Identify investment strategies designed to help meet client’s goals

    Create a proposal for your client using information you gathered during the discovery session. SEI has a variety of tools designed to help you select the investment strategies best suited to meet your client’s goals.

  • Step 3: Advice

    Confirm the proposed investment solution designed to meet client’s goals

    Meet with your client to play back what you heard in the discovery session and deliver your advice. Understanding your client’s concerns, goals and objectives, and then distilling these into a plan that they can more easily understand is a critical part of adding real value for your client.

  • Step 4: Implementation

    Implement the proposed investment solution

    You can now proceed with the agreed investment strategies. To complete this step, you will need to complete the necessary paperwork to open, fund and invest the accounts according to the proposal and your client’s instructions.

  • Step 5: Monitor & Review

    Monitor progress to goals on an ongoing basis

    You can now track your client’s progress towards his or her specific goals. Monitoring goes beyond just goal tracking, and should be an ongoing process that continues throughout the advisor/client relationship. Use periodic meetings as a chance to “re-discover” if anything has changed in your client’s life that may affect your investment recommendations.