Latest / Financial Planner Search / Transparency & Life Transitions with Diane Pearson | Financial Planner Search
Transcript
- Gregory Wilnau: Hey, Diane, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. How are you doing? Diane Pearson: Good, Greg. Thanks so much for having me. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, my pleasure. Why don't you take a moment and just kind of ⁓ tell us about ⁓ who you are and ⁓ what you do. Diane Pearson: So I'm a CFP, a certified financial planner, as well as a certified financial transitionist. I have been in the industry for 37 years and fell into it by accident. ⁓ It wasn't really a career that I was looking for when I went to school. I have a degree in accounting and a degree in management and ⁓ was in a job that I was just not happy with and was speaking with a friend who actually worked with a group of financial advisors and told me that somebody was looking for an assistant. Well, I took the job and fast forward and here I am. So when I first started, ⁓ the advisor I was working with said he wanted to start his own firm. So after five years of being with this other firm, we did start our own firm. And I was there up until 2019. And during that timeframe, we were primarily focused on investment management. So you had to have a million dollars in order to work with the company. And I saw that we received many phone calls for people that just wanted a financial plan, didn't want somebody to manage their money or didn't have a million dollars to invest. And I saw a need. So I broke off at that point, sold out of my share of the company, and I started Pearson Financial Planning in September of 2019. Gregory Wilnau: love it. I love it. doing the flat feet starting with the flat feet stuff. Is that right? Diane Pearson: Yes, actually we were always on the ⁓ fee. We were actually on the cutting edge when you talk about fee only because we never, even with the old firm, we never recommended products in which we've got to commission. We didn't work with other professionals that we got a kickback from. So that was always important. It was always in the forefront. Gregory Wilnau: I love that. How many clients do you have now? Diane Pearson: I have 178. Gregory Wilnau: Wow, congratulations. That is awesome. Congratulations, Diane. Very cool. Very cool. I know there's a big need for flat fee planning. ⁓ Personally, when I started my business, I wanted help from a financial advisor and I wanted a flat fee plan and I couldn't find any. This is 10, 15 years ago. It wasn't as much of a thing, but there's that need in the market. There's a lot of people who might not even be ready yet. ⁓ Diane Pearson: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Gregory Wilnau: don't want their assets to be managed or just aren't ready yet. They're looking for somebody who will just give them help for a flat fee. So I love that you filled that need. That's awesome. ⁓ OK, let's talk a little bit more about the type of person who kind of comes to you. What's a typical situation that they need you for and that you might lead them through? Help us understand a little bit more about the type of person who comes to you. Diane Pearson: So I'd say there's a few different types. I do like to focus on... individuals or couples who are looking for education. And many times it may be because a life event has happened. For example, I might have somebody who's contacted me when a loved one has passed away. And it might be a situation where they have never handled the financial situation. They now have assets that they don't understand. They may have pension plans, they may have annuities, and they just got a lot of questions. And I really try to spend a good bit of time on education. Gregory Wilnau: So you work with lot of clients who have questions, right? ⁓ They want education. So they look to you for a lot of those things. Can you talk a little bit about that? Diane Pearson: Mm-hmm. Yes, so I try to break it down to as simple as I can. There's a lot of jargon in our industry. There's a lot of acronyms and it doesn't make sense to a lot of people. So ⁓ I will it back to financial literacy. ⁓ And have many clients who really don't understand how bond works or how a stock works. What is a mutual fund? What is an ETF? And ⁓ I feel that it is crucial that I spend the to educate them on these things. And that's just on the investment side. So it may deal with taxes. It might deal with estate planning. It might deal with their insurance, ⁓ property and casualty, life insurance, disability. We go down the path of just about anything that can deal with your finances. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. ⁓ Being able to answer those questions is to help people make the best decisions is really great. How about a typical situation that you lead your clients through? ⁓ Can you give us an example about maybe a situation that a client comes to you with that you kind of help them through? What might be a basic or common situation? Diane Pearson: So most recently I worked with a couple who have worked for an employer for about 30 years. Most of their assets were tied to the retirement plans. They are now in a situation where they want to purchase a house. They actually didn't own a home and ⁓ moved to a different state. So we are working through the process of understanding where is the money going to come from to put this down payment on the house? How is it going to affect their income tax situation? Should they pay all cash and take it all from the retirement account? Should they take out a mortgage? ⁓ What's their cash flow going to look like in the future? And will their cash be able to live as long as they do? So working through all of those scenarios and understanding what's going on there. That's just one situation. dealt with a lot of individuals that are thinking about a divorce or coming out of a divorce. And it's a similar situation where they don't really understand what they own, ⁓ what they may ⁓ and how to it look ⁓ good in the So ⁓ I've had women have come to me and said, I haven't even told my spouse yet, but I'm thinking about asking for a divorce. I want to understand what we have and what steps I should be taking as I approach the situation. And then I've had them on the other side where the divorce is final. They have been handed these assets. ⁓ They may have retirement plans. They may have pensions that they don't understand how they work and what needs to happen there. Many times they are looking to purchase a home or going to be moving. And so there's a lot of ⁓ financial aspects that we need to address there. Gregory Wilnau: So you help them through a lot of those things. I know that can be a very scary time and having somebody by your side to help them through that is something that would be very valuable. What are some of the questions that some of your clients typically ask you when they meet with you for the first time? Diane Pearson: So I would say the number one question I get is, I a fiduciary? And quite honestly, as a certified financial planner, our responsibility is to act as a fiduciary. And a fiduciary is one that acts in the client's best interest. But I say I am a fiduciary, but I also act as one. So there will not be a time where I am telling the client, hey, this is what you need to do because there is some kind of benefit that comes back to me. I even go as far as telling them that I will share with them what my thoughts and ideas are. And they may need my biases, but I'm going to put that out and present it to them in that fashion. The decision is always going to be their decision to be made. ⁓ But I'm willing to share my opinion, it always will be their final decision. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So you share your perspective based on your experience, but you also give them the space to make the decision themselves, it sounds like. Diane Pearson: face. Yes, yes. So I'd say that's my number one question. Am I a fiduciary? ⁓ By the time they've come to me, they are. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Diane Pearson: and ⁓ we go through the process of creating the plan and then once that is complete, then the agreement actually changes over to a hourly basis. And I find that many of my clients come back once a year just to touch base, make sure everything's still in line with what they were trying to do. Gregory Wilnau: ⁓ that's perfect. So the number one question you get is, are you a fiduciary? Which I love. Any other questions like top two, top three questions that your clients typically come to you with? Diane Pearson: Another one that I get is, well, you're on your own. Do you have any staff? What happens if something happens to you? And I understand that because you don't necessarily want to work with somebody and then try to reach out to them and they're gone. You don't know what's going on. I have actually aligned myself with a outside firm called CGN Advisors. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Diane Pearson: And CGN is actually my succession plan. They have 30 other advisors such as myself under their umbrella. And if something were to happen to me, I've got that backup that they'd reach out to my clients to keep them informed. And they may have another advisor that fits their needs or they can pick up with ⁓ where I left off with the client. Gregory Wilnau: That's good. Yeah, I'd imagine that that would be something that would be important to your clients too, is that continuity. If something were to happen to you, there would be somebody else that you trusted that you could, that they would be taken care of by. That's great. I love that. Okay. ⁓ Anything else? Any other questions? Diane Pearson: Yeah, the third thing that I hear quite frequently is I don't have a million dollars to invest. Can I still work with you? Absolutely. ⁓ I like to give the example. I have one client who hired me just out of college. She didn't have a dime to her name. She was taking her first job. She wanted to understand about ⁓ employee benefits. She wanted to understand how to invest her 401k and how to start a savings plan. So ⁓ Gregory Wilnau: Mm. Yeah. Diane Pearson: Yeah, you don't have to have any investments to work with me. Gregory Wilnau: Well, I love that. she's not a millionaire yet and she's just getting started, she probably will be in the future if she's coming to you with questions like that. So that's one of things I love about the flat fee model is, you know, you're working with people before they might be ready yet to where AOM management makes sense. They're not they don't have the assets yet. But what you're getting is you're getting the benefit of the relationship and helping to earn the trust as you help them work through their accumulate the accumulation stage of their wealth journey. So when it does make sense for AUM, you're right there. You know, so I love that. When I first started my business, I reached out to financial advisor and he was like, sorry, you don't have enough money yet, but I would probably be in a very, I'm in a much different place now, but he didn't offer flat fee planning. So I love that you're offering that. That's great. A lot of people need the help ⁓ of an advisor, but ⁓ don't necessarily have the assets yet. So that's great. Okay. Diane Pearson: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: Let's talk more about your values in your approach and maybe your philosophy around how you work with your clients. ⁓ So where do you typically find your clients? What are some of the ways that you get to know them as individuals? Diane Pearson: So I would say the top three places where I receive... inquiries from prospects is number one from an online search for a fee only advisor or a fiduciary. The second one is from NAPFA, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, as well as Garrett Planning Network, of which I'm a member of both of those. And both of those are focused on groups and advisors that are just fee only. And the third place is referrals. So either from other professionals that I have worked with over the years or from existing clients. So those are the three primary places where they come from. Gregory Wilnau: That's great. ⁓ What are some of the ways that you get to know them as individuals? Like, I'm sure that asking the right questions, getting to know them personally helps you provide more tailored custom advice. So what are some of the ways that you get to know them? Diane Pearson: So I mentioned at the beginning that I also have a designation called a certified financial transitionist. And that is what we call the softer side of money, the psychological side of money. And going through this training, one of the things that I have been enlightened about is to actually get to understand the individual. We have certain tools that we can work with. For example, one is called a communication preference, which I do with every single one of my clients before we start working together. to understand how they receive information. Because I want to be able to present and have meetings that are fruitful for them, not necessarily me just being a talking head and saying, okay, this is what you do, this is how it looks, this is, I wanna see how they're going to receive information, how I should be presenting things, do they like to see charts and graphs, are they more about talking through the process, do they need to take the information and digest it for a few days? So that's just one example. But I also, because I'm dealing with individuals that may be going through a life transition like a death or a divorce, this is major. And their life has been turned upside down. So many times we have to go through a tool that is called MIOK. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Diane Pearson: So just to get that peace of mind that what they have right now will get them through the situation at the present moment. And we're not going to have to talk about all the details until they're ready to do so. Sometimes that's a couple of months. Sometimes it might be a couple of years, but I'm patient with that situation. And I think it's of great value that ⁓ they use the term active listening. But I think with this designation, I've learned to take it to a different level. I'm not just repeating what they're saying to me. I am trying to understand why they're saying it. What is their money story? Gregory Wilnau: Mmm. Yeah, so not just listening, to be able to give a response. You're listening because you want to learn and understand about their situation and also how to best deliver the information to them in a way that fits with their learning and communication style. I'm sure that's something that your clients really appreciate because, you know, if you're not an expert, money can be kind of confusing, but not only confusing, also kind of intimidating. So learning how to communicate with your clients in a way that they really understand. Diane Pearson: Exactly. Gregory Wilnau: is probably something that's really valuable to them. Diane Pearson: Yes. Gregory Wilnau: I love that. Okay, well, cool. All right, let's talk more about where you're wanting to take your practice. ⁓ You know, as business owners, we're all on this path of growth and, ⁓ you know, making and delivering more value for our clients. So when it comes to your practice, where do you see in the next one to three years? Like, what's your vision? What are there any goals that you're working on to deliver better value to your clients? Diane Pearson: Well, I'd say in this industry, number one has to be education from my standpoint, ⁓ because you need to be on top of what is going on in the world. ⁓ Everything from new tax laws to new estate planning documents or ⁓ techniques that can be used to different investment choices and techniques that can be used. So there's a constant need for education and. I like to say I'm just a student all the time because I try to absorb as much as I can, which obviously brings value to the client. But I also have that life experience. Having been in the industry for 37 years, there's not a whole lot that I haven't seen. ⁓ So obviously, things that I've seen and things that I've worked through, I've learned and I can bring something to the table. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. All right, Diane, well, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate you sharing your insights, your perspective. And I had a lot of fun talking to you today and learning about you and what you do for your clients. So thank you.