Order Taking Adviser

I had an exciting weekend last Saturday. Just after I topped up the gas, the “low battery” indicator lights up.

As it was already 3pm and most shop are closing soon cause its an weekend, I rushed to the nearest workshop and get the battery replaced.

The indicator light was still on after the battery replacement was done and the mechanics said most likely it is the alternator is spoiled and need to be replaced. Upon checking, they confirmed that and suggested that I have it replaced. That means I also had gotten a new battery for nothing. I was also told by many that an experience mechanic will know it is likely to be the alternator fault when the “Low Battery” indicator lights is shown.

As a car owner, I believe the mechanic who is an expert in this area should have done the check before just taking my instruction to change the battery regardless this is dillegence or extra work. With that, I want to share a recent discussion with another financial practitioner.

Typically, for a financial adviser to make a recommendation, needs of the client has to be first established. However, what a client needs and what a client wants can be different. Most needs analysis will show that the client needs protection to take care of the financial liability such as to cover for the family expenses if premature death occurs. This is sadly something different to “convince” the client because most will choose to believe that tragedy will hit the person next to him but forget that he is also next to somebody.

It is always easy to sell something more tangible like an investment product where the can see X% within months. People also tends to be more positive when it comes to wealth accumulation topics than wealth protection or distribution.

One Financial Adviser mentioned it is the client’s money and it is up to him to allocate that excess funds to insurance or investment. He will not insist on asking him to look at protection but will just take the instruction to proceed with investment. I told him I will try to ask him to reconsider the decision and try to convince him to get a protection plan first. The following is a financial pyramid that I believe in.

If protection was not done properly, any wealth accumulated is not for yourself but will be just keeping for the doctors that you will be consulting. I had also seen how families turn into shambles due to the lack of insurance coverage. And I would not want to be the mechanic who just change a battery because he was told to do it.