Saturday School's series on financial planning puts a spotlight on the universally accepted 6 step process, and delves into some detail on each of these 6 critical steps to help you truly differentiate your planning proposition and add value to your clients.

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The 5th in this series focuses on the 5th step of the 6 step process - Implement Plan. Implementation is all about a jugalbandi between your execution skills and your client's commitment to the plan. You need to strike the right balance between these two, to ensure that the plan gets implemented successfully. Here are some insights on how do get this jugalbandi right.

The universally accepted 6 stage process for financial planning is depicted below:

Implementing a plan calls for jugalbandi

Implementing a financial plan calls for two things:

1. Strong execution and follow up skills from the planner

2. Complete buy-in and conviction in the plan from the client

Without both of these, your plan is more likely to remain only on paper. Some planners make the mistake of switching too soon into implementation mode, without giving clients the chance to reflect, review, discuss and finally commit with head and heart to the plan. Our eagerness to get going often comes in the way of efficient implementation. Other planners err often in not pushing well enough for execution, once a plan is committed to. They are sometimes wary of following up actively for implementation of actions agreed, in the fear that they may be seen as too pushy.

Strike the right balance

Striking the right balance is key to success in implementing the plan. You need to give sufficient time to your client to discuss the plan within the family as well as with you as often as they need to. But, once the client is convinced and gives you a nod, don't just take the nod and get cracking - get your client to formally commit to the plan in writing, with a formal acceptance of the plan and a signature appended to the acceptance.

Let your client know as soon as he has signed the acceptance letter, what to expect from you in terms of implementation steps. Take him through a Financial Plan Activity Tracker document that you will prepare for implementing his plan and let him know that you will be following up actively with him to ensure implementation of all steps agreed, within the deadlines planned. Let your client know that its now your job to get things done and that you will proactively follow up to ensure execution of all steps, without your client having to remember on his own. You will effectively be preparing him for your active follow up.

Financial Plan Activity Tracker

Planners are usually very proactive in following up for implementing fresh plans. But the real benefit of strong implementation comes when you continuously maintain the Financial Plan Activity Tracker right through the life of the plan. A simple format of such a tracker is given below:

Most financial planning software have their own versions of activity trackers which are integrated into CRM solutions and which send out triggers and alerts to the planner. In case you are not using such software, you can anyway begin with a systematic tracking through a simple excel sheet with these 4 columns.

Ensure that this tracking sheet is made available to your client after every review meeting, to enable him to see exactly what steps are due, when, for what purpose and by whom. This tracking sheet sets the context to all your follow up with him for implementation.

Build a network of specialists

Your plan may be truly product agnostic and comprehensive, but that doesn't mean that you have execution capabilities across all products and services. This is where it makes sense for you to build a network of specialists who can handle activities that are beyond your scope.

Depending on what you define as your scope of specialization, you may want to enter into tie-ups with a:

1. Chartered Accountant for audit and tax filing responsibilities

2. Lawyer for will writing

3. Insurance broker for general insurance needs of your client's business which may be beyond the personal insurance needs that you are capable of handling

4. Equity specialist for direct equity trading or bespoke portfolio management services, as required

5. Commodity specialist for clients with an appetite for this asset class

6. Global trading desk for international investing, if required by clients

Clients won't expect you to be an expert across all these verticals, but may certainly expect you to be able to bring together experts across all verticals to work with you as the captain of the ship. Maintaining strong control and supervision on implementation of all aspects of the plan is critical for you to ensure that the plan is progressing smoothly towards its desired destination.

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