Honesty is the best policy for advisors

Clients come to advisors for leadership, said Kirk Wilkerson, a 14-year MDRT member from Forest City, North Carolina, and that means being very honest. “A lot of times, people know the answer in the back of their mind,” he said. “They’re hoping you can kind of wave a magic wand and fix a problem, and sometimes you can and sometimes you can’t. Sometimes it takes that candid response from the person you go to before it clicks.”

He recalled clients who have lived beyond their means, earning a good income but living paycheck to paycheck, and the difficult conversation that results. “I’ve had to basically just tell them, ‘Some of your toys — you’re going to have to downsize. I can’t make the math work.’ If there’s perhaps a lifestyle change that has to take place for their goal to be achieved, you just have to be honest with them.

“When you go to your doctor and your cholesterol is high and you’re overweight and your health is not so good, you already know the answer before you walk in the door,” he said. “So you’re really not surprised when the doctor says you’ve gotta quit eating cheeseburgers.”

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Written by Matt Pais, MDRT Content Specialist