FINANCIAL PLANNING DID NOT BEGIN WITH A “CLEAN SLATE.”
We all can study the history of financial planning. In short, before there was planning, there was insurance. Insurance companies provided virtually all of the personal finance products. The products were sold as solutions to whatever financial need the buyer had.
Over time, clients wanted more. They wanted financial planning. They asked for it, indirectly. The insurance companies were there, in that role, and were the natural providers.
From that time, it has been a slow journey away from products sold as financial planning solutions to specific planning processes integrating the whole of a client’s financial components.
Products have a place. Insurance has a place.
But, process is what clients need when they seek planning. It requires a service model. This paradigm continues to take shape.
