In financial planning, asking intentional questions is more than just a skill—it’s a transformative tool for financial professionals and the backbone of providing meaningful and effective advice. By engaging your clients with purposeful inquiries, you’ll encourage candid conversations that unlock insights beyond financial data, fostering trust and guiding clients toward the strategies that support their life goals.

Why Questions Matter

Questions are foundational in financial advising. They help you understand your clients’ values, goals, and emotions while ensuring the plan you create aligns with their priorities. Intentional questioning not only strengthens relationships but also mitigates risks by uncovering potential challenges.

Our research shows that clients are more motivated and willing to share personal information when they feel heard and understood, making questioning a cornerstone of effective financial advising. Clients also indicated that they want their advisors to initiate personal conversations more often than they currently are, including making an effort to learn about their:¹

• Family history and family values
• Cultural values
• Personality traits/types
• Money behaviors and attitudes
• Partner or spouse’s relationship with money

Asking questions helps you understand your clients’ financial psychology, fostering a more personalized planning experience, which leads to improved communication, loyalty, motivation, satisfaction, and trust from clients.¹

Building Trust Through Inquiry

Effective questioning also builds trust and rapport. Questions such as “What motivated you to seek financial advice?” or “What does success look like for you?” demonstrate empathy and genuine interest in a client’s aspirations. Trust deepens when financial professionals actively listen and use follow-up inquiries like “Can you tell me more about that?” to explore concerns and clarify goals.

This approach also reduces tension, especially when discussing sensitive topics like budgeting, debt, estate planning, or major life changes such as death or divorce.

Techniques for Effective Questioning

To maximize the impact of questions, financial professionals must adopt specific question styles and techniques:

Open-ended questions: By asking open-ended questions like “What are your biggest financial aspirations right now?” you invite your clients to share their thoughts and feelings openly. This not only helps you gather more detailed information but also shows your clients that you value their input and are genuinely interested in their financial goals.

Projective questions: Engaging clients with projective questions, such as “If you no longer had financial concerns, how would your life change?” encourages them to imagine a future free from financial worries. By helping clients envision their goals you’ll gain insight into their motivations on a deeper level, enabling you to tailor your financial guidance more effectively.

Scaling questions: Using scaling questions like “On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident do you feel about your current financial plan?” allows you to quantify emotions or progress. This provides a clear framework for clients to evaluate their own feelings and helps you track their confidence levels over time, guiding you in adjusting your support to match their evolving needs.

Reframing leading questions: By reframing leading questions neutrally, such as asking “How could your plan be improved?” instead of “Where do you think your plan went wrong?” you avoid assumptions and guide clients to reflect constructively on their financial strategies. This approach fosters a more positive and collaborative discussion, empowering clients to identify areas for enhancement without judgment or blame.

Each type of question uniquely fosters deeper client engagement, understanding, and progress in their financial journey.

Listening: The Missing Other Half

Great questions are just the starting point. Active listening is the driving force that transforms a conversation into a valuable exchange of information. Remember the acronym WAIT—short for Why Am I Talking? This simple reminder can nudge you to prioritize your client’s voice over your own, creating a space for their thoughts and needs to take center stage.

Active listening goes beyond just hearing what your clients say. It involves summarizing their responses, asking clarifying follow-ups, and tuning into their non-verbal cues. This attentive approach not only demonstrates respect for your clients but also ensures that the conversation stays client-focused, leading to more impactful, effective, and ultimately more profitable interactions for you as a financial planner.

By actively listening, you not only gain a deeper understanding of your clients’ financial aspirations and concerns, but you can also provide more tailored and effective guidance, ultimately benefiting both you and your clients in their financial journey.

Integrating Technology

Leveraging technology to elevate your approach to client engagement has substantial benefits. Interactive surveys and advanced financial planning platforms are valuable tools that can bring a data-driven edge to client interactions. These resources empower financial planners to ask more personalized and impactful questions, rooted in real-time insights and tailored to individual financial situations. The result is a more in-depth understanding of your clients’ needs and aspirations, and the ability to guide them more effectively towards their financial goals.

Moreover, integrating these tech-driven tools into your financial planning workflow ensures that no detail is overlooked. With the use of comprehensive financial planning platforms and robust CRM systems, planners can maintain a meticulous record of client information, preferences, and progress. This not only strengthens the foundation of your client relationships but also enables the delivery of precisely tailored guidance and support based on your clients’ evolving needs.

Ultimately, the utilization of technology doesn’t replace your expertise, but rather amplifies it, allowing you to build deeper, more meaningful connections with clients and provide the personalized attention and guidance they deserve.

Transforming Lives Through Questions

Intentional questioning empowers clients to align their financial strategies with personal fulfillment. Financial professionals who master this skill not only guide their clients toward financial security but also help them achieve their most meaningful life goals. By embracing the power of questions, you become a partner in your clients’ journeys to living their best lives.

Download our eBook, Candid Conversations: Mastering the Art of Asking Questions, for a deeper dive into actionable advice and extensive lists of questions you can use today. From unlocking your clients’ money history and values to navigating big life changes, emotionally charged situations, and the nitty-gritty of retirement, estate planning, insurance, and taxes, you’ll find helpful questions for the most common client scenarios.

Sources:

1 eMoney Beyond the Plan Research Study, June 2023, n=1,507.

DISCLAIMER: The eMoney Advisor Blog is meant as an educational and informative resource for financial professionals and individuals alike. It is not meant to be, and should not be taken as financial, legal, tax or other professional advice. Those seeking professional advice may do so by consulting with a professional advisor. eMoney Advisor will not be liable for any actions you may take based on the content of this blog.

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