First meetings with a financial adviser

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A prospective client arrives for an initial meeting having no idea what will happen. They have not brought their documents because nobody said to, they are unsure whether they will be charged, and they are quietly worried about being sold something.

The adviser, meanwhile, works through a fact find. An hour later both parties have exchanged information and nothing has been decided. First meetings determine whether an engagement happens at all, and in most practices they are conducted from habit rather than designed. Nobody has ever asked what the meeting is supposed to achieve for the person attending it.

1. First meetings with a financial adviser are a decision, not a data exercise

Understand what is being decided.

The client is deciding whether to trust you with their money and their circumstances. A meeting structured entirely around collecting information addresses your requirements and not theirs.

2. Tell them what to expect beforehand

Reduces anxiety and improves the meeting.

How long it lasts, what will be discussed, whether there is a charge, what to bring and what happens afterwards. A short message in advance changes the tone of the meeting completely. It also means the client arrives with the documents, which shortens everything that follows.

3. Be explicit that there is no obligation

The unspoken fear.

Many people avoid seeing an adviser because they expect to be sold something. Saying plainly what the meeting is and is not, in advance and again at the start, removes the main reason people do not book.

4. Start with what brought them here

Not with the fact find.

The event or worry that prompted contact — a redundancy, an inheritance, a retirement date, a business sale. That context shapes everything, and beginning with paperwork tells the client their situation is secondary.

5. Listen more than you explain

The most common failure.

Advisers frequently demonstrate expertise by explaining, and clients decide on whether they felt heard. Questions and silence are more persuasive in a first meeting than any account of your approach. Clients decide on how they were treated, not on how much you knew.

6. Explain your fees in the meeting

Not afterwards in a document.

What the initial work costs and what any ongoing service costs. Leaving it to the paperwork produces a client who discovers the figure alone, at home, with nobody to discuss it with.

7. Cover the regulatory ground properly

Both an obligation and a reassurance.

Your permissions, how you are paid, the scope of your advice, and the required disclosures. Handled well, this is genuinely reassuring rather than a formality to be rushed through.

8. End with a specific next step

Where engagements are won or lost.

Not that you will send something over, but what you will do, by when, and what they need to do. A meeting ending in vague goodwill produces a client who intends to proceed and does not.

9. Follow up promptly and personally

Within days rather than weeks.

A summary of what was discussed, what you understood their priorities to be, and the agreed next step. This demonstrates that you listened, which is the single thing the client was assessing.

Ask what they thought of the meeting after a few weeks, particularly if they did not proceed. The answers are usually about whether they felt understood and whether the cost was clear, and both are straightforward to fix once somebody has told you.

Conclusion

Design the first meeting around the client's decision rather than around your information requirements.

Tell them in advance what to expect and what to bring, state plainly that there is no obligation, open with what prompted them to make contact, listen considerably more than you explain, discuss fees in the meeting rather than leaving them to a document, cover the regulatory disclosures properly, end with a specific dated next step rather than a promise to be in touch, follow up within days with a personal summary, and ask afterwards how it felt.