Enhance clients’ understanding using colored pencils and play money

When describing their process, so many advisors come back to the word “education.”

So perhaps it is no surprise that Daniel E. Jossen, CFP, has seen such success utilizing a technique taken from his days as a public schoolteacher for Teach for America. During that period, the six-year MDRT member from Washington, D.C., taught himself to write upside down so the elementary school students sitting across from him could see what he was writing. Now Jossen combines that skill with color-coded depictions to help clients understand what they have and what they can do with it.

• Red: liabilities
• Green: cash flow
• Orange: protection and insurance
• Blue: assets
• Purple: legal and tax structures
• Black: writing/content

This helps organize information for clients and drives them to stop Jossen when they don’t understand, something he encourages. “I let my clients interrupt me all the time,” he said. “I tell them, ‘I’m not here to communicate outward; I’m here to be understood.’”

In addition, Jossen takes pictures of the drawings and includes them in the meeting notes so the clients have the visuals to maintain their understanding of what they discussed. “Instead of losing sight of the meeting, they look at the pictures in the emails and understand the concepts,” he said.

To advance the visual learning, Jossen also uses fake million-dollar bills to serve as a tangible trigger for conversations about money, breaking down taxes, and assets, liabilities and insurance. “It helps them realize how big and small a million is,” he said. “Sometimes it’s huge, and sometimes it’s woefully insufficient.

“People understand things in different ways. When people touch the play money, and I take the health insurance deduction out of their hand and they realize, ‘Oh, that’s a pre-tax deduction and that lowers my taxable amount,’ they realize what I’m talking about.”

Read more communication ideas in Round the Table.

Written by Matt Pais, MDRT Content Specialist