Credit to this story goes to Carl Richards of Behavior Gap. He tells the story as he is reviewing a new book. My purposes are different. In delivering our comprehensive financial services, where the advice to our clients gets scrubbed by an entire team of collaborating experts one to three times per year - well, frankly, some people think we are over the top. This story tells why it is so important to be thorough.
Carl's story: A few years ago, I sat on a cold metal table in an exam room waiting for the doctor to come in and tell me what this pain was on the left side of my stomach. Based on my description, a few of the guys I mountain bike with were pretty sure it was a hernia. Since I know better than to trust them, I was there to find out.
Sure enough, it was an abdominal wall tear (hernia). I watched the doctor make notes in my patient file, we scheduled the surgery, and I left.
On the day of the surgery, after I checked in for pre-op, I was greeted by a nurse who opened what appeared to be the same patient file. She asked me a series of questions, including, "Which side are we operating on today?" I replied that it was my left side. She made a note and left.
A few minutes later, the process was repeated with a different nurse. This nurse asked, "What side are we operating on today?" Me: "Left."
Same question. Same answer. All written down in the same file.
As I lay on the operating table, the surgeon arrived, and she asked the same question, "Which side are we operating on?" After my reply ("left"), she handed me a Sharpie and asked me to mark the side.
This seemed crazy to me! It was written in the file before I even arrived, two nurses confirmed it, and the doctor still hands me a Sharpie. I was curious what it was all about, so I asked my surgeon about it during a post-op checkup.She said, "Carl, we know how dumb we can be. Think about it for a minute. What did it cost us? A few minutes to ask the questions and 79 cents for the Sharpie to help us prevent a massive mistake!"
We are only thorough; we hold our clients accountable to act on our advice mainly through their "Implementation Plan" and 2-3 progress meetings per year. (We have two service levels - one has meetings twice a year, the other three times per year.) You see, if they do not implement the advice, it remains in their Implementation Plan - so they will see it again in 4-6 months.
|
|
What to Do Next
The crucial first step is to understand what is most important to you and establish goals in alignment. Then choose someone that can bring a team of independent experts together and assemble the advice (prioritized in your best interests) to make it happen. That said, it is completely appropriate to choose investing as the first topic. We regularly analyze folk's current investment strategy with nothing expected in return. (We'll analyze other aspects of your strategy if you wish.) We look at: - Overall Performance (vs. benchmarks & our model portfolios)
- Portfolio Design
- Diversification
- Fees & Expenses
Give us a call. 760-804-0910 |
