Life Centered Financial Planning

MITCH ANTHONY is the co-founder of www.LifeCenteredPlanners.com and ROLAdvisor.com, both global communities of life centered financial planners. He is the author of 18 books and a widely sought-after trainer, consultant, and educator on the topics of financial planning and relationship development. PAUL ARMSON is the co-founder of www.LifeCenteredPlanners.com and the founder of www.InspiringAdvisers.co.uk and the Lifestyle Financial Planning 7 Step Success System, a proven online training program that helps any advisor, anywhere deliver life-changing life centered financial planning.

• Preface xiiiAcknowledgments xviiPart I: The End of Financial Services As We Know It 1Chapter 1: The Masquerade Party is Over 3Financial Advice in Flux 6Expanding Your Reach 8Comprehension of Context 8Narrative and Understanding 9Emotional Connectivity 9Chapter 2: Erosive Value Propositions 11Vacuous and Vaporous 13Very Brief History of Distrust 15Change Your Mindset 18Tracking Your Client’s Life 19Chapter 3: Deprogramming Advisory Magical Thinking 21The Crystal Ball 22Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 23RIP Comparison 24Chapter 4: Misplaced Value 31Becoming Financially Independent is Easy 32Change Your Focus 35Are You Embarrassed Easily? 36Understanding the Three Hats You Wear 37The Third Hat: Financial Adviser 37The Second Hat: Financial Planner 38The First Hat: Life Planner 38Chapter 5: The Bottom Line is Not a Number 41The Human Elements 42The Central Question 43Building Relationships: The Roles You Will Play 44Return on Life™ (ROL) Manifesto 46What We Need to Know and Continue to Know 47Your Bottom Line 48Part II: Making the Shift to Life-Centered Financial Planning 51Chapter 6: From Money Centered to Life Centered 53It’s All about Discovery 57The Past 57The Present 58The Future 59A Tale of Two Advisers 60Adviser A 60Adviser B 61The Journey That is Life 64Chapter 7: Values That Value 67Decommoditize 68Core Values 70Organization: We will help bring order to your financial life. 71Accountability: We will help you follow through on your financial commitments. 72Objectivity: We will provide insight from the outside to help you avoid emotionally driven decisions in important money matters. 72Proactivity: We will help you anticipate the key transitions in your life so that you will be financially prepared for them. 73Education: We will explore the specific knowledge you will need to succeed in your situation. 73Partnership: We will work with you to help you achieve the best life possible. 74Making the Leap 75Chapter 8: Soft Skills Are Really the Hard Stuff 77The Self-Centered Self-Delusion 80The Empathy Report Card 82“I Feel You, Man” 83Pathways to Resonance 85Roadblocks to Resonance 86You Gotta Serve Somebody 87Chapter 9: Answers Get Questioned, Questions Get Answered 91Monologos 91Dialogos 92Really Smart People 94Meaningful Questions 95Don’t Dive Deep Out of the Blue 96Establish Context for What You’re Going to Be Asking 97Anchor the Story; Link the Story You Hear to the Service You’ll Be Delivering 98Questions for the Quest 98Chapter 10: Delivering Reality Checks 103Reality Check 1: Your Clients Need to Know Where Their Money is Going 103Client Habits 104Reality Check 2: Your Clients Need to Be Responsible for Their Own Assumptions 106Financial Independence versus Financial Dependence 107Reality Check 3: Your Clients Need to Understand That What They Do with Their Income Impacts Their Life Outcome 109Part III: The Dialogues of the Future 117Chapter 11: What’s Your Fiscalosophy? 119Organically Speaking 120Past→Path Forward→Pathos 121Understanding Their Drivers 122Chapter 12: What is Your Return on Life? 131Resetting the Focus 141Chapter 13: Money in Motion 143What Was I Thinking? 144Come Back from the Future: Life Transitions 145The Here and Now, and Near Horizon 147Transitioning to Transitions 148The Ongoing Conversation—Life Unfolding 152Cause or Effect 153Chapter 14: Retirement Reframed 155Individually Speaking 156Retirement Staging 156Step 1: Observing 157Step 2: Visioning 158Step 3: Working 161Step 4: Personalization 165New Heroes for a New Era: Retirementors 168Chapter 15: Personal Values and Account Values 171Scrambled Signals 172Locate Your Values 173The Time is upon Us 174Righteous Profits, Happy World 175Chapter 16: Enough Already… 185Certain Uncertainties 187Three Types of Clients 188Not Enough 188Got Too Much 189The Just Rights 190Epilogue 195Appendix: Return on LifeTM (ROL) Manifesto 197About the Authors 199Index 203