Creating more client opportunities with a 20-minute fact-finder

You create more opportunities to assist your clients when you better understand them. A thorough fact-finder sets the tone for the work you do with clients, and it can assist you in discovering pain points.

Twenty-one year MDRT member Mark Dorfman, CLU, ChFC, of Lynbrook, New York, recommends what he calls a “financial EKG” to access a client’s financial health. It works best, he said, when it’s put into action as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it can be to ask the client or prospect these questions.

Assets generally fall into these four categories, and Dorfman recommends some of the following questions about them:

Personal

• Tell me a little about your family: names, dates of birth and anything unique.
• Do you have a will? Can you tell me how it works?
• Regarding the legal ownership of each account, who owns what?
• Where do you bank? Whose name is the account in? How much do you keep in the bank?
• Do you have stocks? Whose name is the account in? What’s the value?
• Do you have bonds?
• Do you have mutual funds? (Some people do not know that mutual funds are stocks and bonds.)
• Do you have any other type of assets that are meaningful?

Real estate

• Do you own your own home? What’s it worth? What is your mortgage?
• Do you have a vacation home?
• Do you have any investment real estate?

Business

• Do you have a job or own a company?
• If you own your company, do you have partners? What’s the business worth? Do you have a buy/sell agreement?

Retirement plans/Insurance

• Do you have a 401(k)? IRA? Roth IRA? Pension plan from another company? Who’s the beneficiary?
• Do you own any life insurance? Who owns the policy? Who’s the beneficiary? Disability insurance? Long-term care? Critical illness?

Learn more in Dorfman’s 2017 Annual Meeting video, “20 Minutes to perfect knowledge.” Dorfman has 19 Top of the Table qualifications.

By Antoinette Tuscano, MDRT Content Specialist