Will Oswald

I made time for this training because this training is really important, I believe, to developing ourselves as trusted advisers, and it gives us some of the most important soft skills in being able to help our clients with their emotions and with their money. And I believe that we quite often focus a lot on the technical side of the profession, which is really important, but also there’s this more emotional, human and psychological side that I just feel is of more and more importance as time goes on, which helps us to really connect with our clients.

I don’t think I’ve ever received any training specifically on better understanding clients’ emotions and improving emotional intelligence. I’ve received training on similar aspects, like communication and coaching, which there’s some overlap with, both types being around understanding, how to do active listening, and asking the right questions, and those type of things, but this really focuses on that emotional side. It’s also much more practical than some of the other training we’ve done before, because this is specific to helping financial advisers improve their emotional intelligence.

I think it’s really important to understand my clients’ emotions because money is a very emotional subject, and for us to be able to best help our clients achieve their lifestyle goals and their financial objectives, we really need to understand what some of their emotional triggers are, what some of their values are, and be able to help guide them on their journey to financial freedom and achieving the goals that they’ve got.

I think when it comes to any form of professional development, it’s only as good if you can actually implement the training that you get, and I think the good thing about this program is it really does give you some practical hints and tips that you can use, with clients on a day-to-day basis. I mean, one example is the trusted adviser method, which is a series of questions that help to build trust and elicit emotions in clients, and that’s a great framework. I’m a big fan of having frameworks to be able to use with clients in real client meetings.

Since doing the training, the biggest change I’ve made is using the trusted adviser method before meetings, particularly before annual review meetings. It’s a really great tool to be able to build a deeper level of trust with clients, understand them better, and elicit emotions that are linked to the work that we do for them in understanding their lifestyle goals and helping them achieve their financial objectives.

I believe the training will benefit clients in a number of ways. The biggest one, in my view, is that they’ll feel a more trusted relationship with us as their financial adviser because they’ll feel better understood, and better connected to us so that will allow that relationship to strengthen, for them to get more value from it, and for us to get more value from it. So, I really do believe there’ll be a lot of benefits.

What’s particularly good about this training is not only does it help on the professional side of things, it also helps on the personal side of things because understanding emotions isn’t just ring-fenced to our job, it transcends all aspects of our life, whether that’s our personal relationships, friendships, and family. So, this has helped me better understand my own emotions, and others’ emotions to have better interactions with and connect more deeply with them.

I would describe James and his training style as very methodical. There was a clear structure to the training, which I really liked, because I also operate a lot like that, and there was a great opportunity to interact with the other delegates on the program and share experiences where things have worked or not worked before, and learn from each other and how we can implement some of the training and advice.

Yes, I absolutely would recommend this training to other financial advisers and planners. I think it is such an important area to develop to be a truly great financial planner. Like I said before, I think that too often we focus on the technical side of the profession, which is absolutely crucial and a foundation to be able to deliver a great service to our clients, but this really deepens our ability to advise clients and act as their trusted adviser and gives us a point of difference. I think it will become the more important part of the profession and the role as time goes on, as AI advances, as technology advances, it’s this human element of advice that will be the most valuable bit and this training feeds right into that.