By Barry Dayley

Lessons Learned from stories within the financial consulting confines.

While not life threatening, they can certainly be life altering and relatable to many financial consultants.

What I Learned From My Mistake...

Major life lessons come at a young age when you are the least confident and experienced in your career. You might hesitate when you should be aggressive. You try not to come across as the plaid pants, loud coat, high pressure salesman. Or maybe you just don’t know what you should know.

For me starting out, it came down to life insurance — I didn’t want to be perceived as a pushy agent. I learned quickly however, that the actual benefit of what I was selling was indeed a “proper” proposition for my client – and the responsible one. I mean, it was pretty bad when clients had to almost force me to recommend life insurance options during our meetings.

Such was the case when I was doing financial planning for a couple residing in Las Vegas. The husband pressed me to look at their current life insurance, something I should have insisted upon myself — immediately. So, I realized I had better do an analysis and get back with them. Yes, they did need more. Still, I was not offering them the answers.

What I should have said is YES, you do need more and here is the solution. My prospective client had to inquire further…well, where do we get it? Can we get it from you? At that point, I realized the ball was in my court and I eventually wrote a policy for 5 or 6 times more insurance than what they currently had.

A short time later, the wife in her early 30s, was taking their son to a dental appointment. After buckling the child into the car seat, she walked around the car and before even getting in, had a fatal heart aneurism. I received that call from the husband a couple hours after it happened, which was devastating news. As with many of us, this client couple had become my friends. We all know that everyone comes out of the woodwork wanting money for expenses when a sudden death like this occurs. I had my hand out also, but in my hand was a check.

The implications of the situation were not lost on this young consultant. Had my clients not pressed the issue and pushed me to do what I should have done in the first place, things could have been much worse. Many times over the years, I felt relieved that the situation worked out as it did. The insurance settlement provided for full time daycare, mortgage and college funds. full service financial planning and the power of what life insurance could do for the family and survivors. I never hesitated again to address ALL aspects of financial planning and find ways to protect my clients from financial devastation.

And what about my responsibility to myself? If I am presenting as a financial consultant, I must address client financial needs in a wholistic manner. Ignoring important components such as the need for adequate life insurance can open up a liability scenario that brings all sorts of problems.

Relating this one impressionable story and of course other life lessons along the way, I now make certain in my training classes and thoses new to the profession have the confidence and knowledge to bring ALL the financial planning solutions to the forefront. If I, as the financial consultant, do not address the overall needs of the clients, it’s not true, comprehensive financial planning.

Fortunately, I was forced into covering the clients’ needs. I felt legally and morally lucky that I was able to offer some kind of relief in such a tragic situation. Had I not been pushed to make the sale, I would have carried that remorse with me for a long time as… a mistake tragically learned.

Barry L. Dayley, CFP®, MRFC® Money Concepts (307) 885-7282

Barry is the Executive Vice President of Money Concepts with national and international responsibilities. Barry Dayley has worked in the financial planning and wealth management business since 1981. In 1985 he received a request from Jack Walsh, the founder of Money Concepts, to serve as a consultant for Money Concepts and CUNA Mutual to develop a financial planning program for credit unions nationwide. Barry serves on the MRFC Certification Board.