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   The Positive Realist

   February 25, 2023 at 6:38 am

   While the ideas are sound, they are not pragmatic for most RM originators. Good financial advisors want to know where they should bill the time it takes for your meeting with him/her. Until the need arises for them to understand RMs for a specific engagement, many financial adviser see such meetings as little more than a misuse of their time.

   Stop dreaming about how vital we are to the successful practice of a financial advisor as some RM trainers claim. Where the pharmaceutical salesperson brings real value to MDs, we do not bring such value to financial advisors. The vast majority of a doctor’s patients are taking at least one kind of medication that the doctor is prescribing. I have one MD where I must take three different prescriptions daily for now and into the unforseen future.

   We are not like the car parts salesperson is to the auto mechanic. There are few situations that the auto mechanic does not use auto parts in repairing a car. Not nearly all of the clients of a financial adviser need a RM and even if that is true (a very unrealistic position), few financial advisors will see it that way.

   Many times I hear RM salespeople and their Trainers tell originators that in every engagement that ends in a financial plan the financial advisor is obligated to discuss housing wealth. One RM trainor told us that a paper that was being released in early December 2021 would result in the FPA redefining the responsibilities of a financial advisor, who is a fiduciary, to include housing wealth as part of all financial planning services. Did that happen? Even though the Trainer told us he had been guaranteed that change, to put it kindly, that has yet to occur and it is highly unlikely to occur.

   While we may “see” (or better said wish for) a natural affinity between financial advisors and RM products, few financial advisors see that connection. While financial advisors can be a good referral source, manage your expectations or at least prepare yourself for a high rate of failure now and far down the road.

   With December 2022 CNA (Case Number Assignment) volume reaching a low not seen in two decades (specifically since January 31, 2003)., it is next to impossible to claim that all of the effort and money put into reaching out to financial advisors is paying off. There was absolutely NO month in the COVID 19 PANDEMIC where CNA volume was that low and we have yet to see the effects of the reorganization of AAG or Fairway/Movement Mortgage reflected in the CNA volume.

   “For the times they are a-changin'”

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