The advantage of having a stiff target is sometimes good! Though many bank and brokerage house Relationship Managers might argue against this, to the best of my knowledge targets seem to be helping. It helps the bank and the RM for sure.

Funnily I found that customers are also very impressed.

One friend told me “My bank Relationship Manager is far superior to you. He reviews my mutual fund and life insurance portfolio regularly, and suggests changes. You put my money in a couple of funds, asked me to get a term life insurance, cut up my 5 credit cards, closed my 6 savings bank account, and asked me to go to sleep.”

I refuse to get shocked by anything I hear, so I heard him patiently. And decided to buzz a few Relationship Managers. I realized that the new business which had moved to them was because some “advisor” somewhere had not reviewed the client portfolio, and hence the client had moved.

Advisors often expect their clients to set up reviews. But making that contact is the advisor’s responsibility. In fact, many advisors tell me they schedule the first review the day an account is opened. However many advisors do not follow up enough after that. The trick is to do a review and maybe say that the chosen path is fine. Clients feel reassured. I am as guilty as anybody else about not assuring my friends that they are on the right path. Even my Dad has no clue as to what is happening to his portfolio – he thinks I am doing a good job. It is necessary for you as an advisor to meet with the client, review changes in his life – a change of job, vesting of esop, higher sugar levels – could all be triggers for some change in personal finance too.

Each advisor I interviewed said that the reviews must be a disciplined process, in that the advisor is committed to scheduling them, and the client in keeping the appointment, and the meeting was about reviewing portfolio performance.

I suggest you involve the spouse too, some day one of them will be looking after both the portfolios.