During the days, weeks, months and years, while you are busy with productive work that helps your clients, -- you are competing with clowns!  Unlike the federal judiciary, or America's political process, many industries actually make good faith efforts to be self-policing.  Some people in the financial profession apparently have never been told, or learned, what most financial planners and insurance agents consider "plain old common sense."  Some of these clowns, without any malice in their hearts, hurt the image of your industry and as a result they cause you to suffer.  This two-part article is an effort to offer constructive criticism.  This may also be a futile attempt to educate the clowns among us, from the perspective of a professional financial industry magazine editor and financial professional's image-maker who has 25-years of experience.  During this time I have worked for some of the finest people on earth.  I have also enjoyed interacting with some great and wonderful financial professionals.  Fortunately I have experienced only a few "clients from hell" who insisted on interfering and screwing-up my work and results for them.  Those were the jerks that made constant demands and deadlines. 

The former United States Marine, Lester W. Anderson, MBA, RFC, of Duluth, Georgia, still reflects his Marine Corps bearing.  Today Les is one of America's leading influences on financial planners.  Les is the author of the book You Are The Product.  Les Anderson is a financial planner whom many financial professionals admire.  This is not surprising since Les helps many financial professionals (not clowns) enter the big leagues.

Les Anderson told me, "Some financial planners need a Drill Sergeant to instruct them on what not to do or say, so they can avoid making clowns of themselves."  The Drill Sergeant or the First Sergeant in any armed service is seldom very popular - but he saves the lives of far more troops than anyone else in the entire military.  The Drill Sergeant knows that if his soldiers become clowns they will be "easily shot down."  The job of a Drill Sergeant is not an easy one.  Military history shows us that many of the troops, who do not listen to and learn from their Drill Sergeant, or remember what their Drill Sergeant taught, end-up defeated, captured, or dead after periods of encounters with enemy combatants.  In this two-part article, I am using the Drill Sergeant's blunt approach to a sensitive subject.

This Article Was Painful To Write and May Be Difficult For You To Read.

This article has been published in four national financial magazines, yet these words are still unpleasant for some people to read.  Obviously an article like this - saying don't do this and don't do that - will make some people uncomfortable.  Copy like this is not pleasant to write and I must anticipate the negative response - especially from the clowns!  No one wants to be scolded, or hear someone lecture on-and-on in a critical manner.  But there are financial planners and insurance agents out there who are clowns.  These clowns cause you harm!  You may also know some of these clowns.  This article is about those clowns who make your work more difficult.  I'm writing this article as if I was talking to the clowns, but most of the clowns will never read this.  The clowns seldom read anything.

Don't call yourself a financial planner when all you do is sell investment returns or only insurance products.  People who do this are clowns who hurt all of you real financial professionals.  Financial planning is reviewing the client's entire emotional and financial situation and making appropriate recommendations, including, but not limited to, income taxes, family protection, operating income, income protection, asset protection, wealth transfer, college financial aid, asset diversification, asset suitability, … and, as you know, the list goes on.  This is all supposed to be done in the client's best interest and most appropriate time period.

Included among the people I have met who called themselves financial planners are the following professions: Real estate agent, yacht salesman, artist manager, bank teller, singer's business manager, wedding consultant, debit agent, motivational speaker, stock broker, free-lance writer, mortgage broker, tax appraiser, and various other business and industry people.  I once met a struggling songwriter in Nashville who claimed to be a financial planner for country singers.  He told me that he "almost had some clients."  None of these people held any type of appropriate designation.

Too many "so-called" financial planners are placing all of Middle American family's assets at risk in the market with stocks, bonds, etc., based solely on reaping the highest investment returns.  This is totally wrong and highly unethical.  Most Middle American families can't afford to lose any of their money.  Middle American families are worried about saving enough of their money so they won't outlive it during retirement.  There is a definite need for safe money.  Vehicles such as fixed, indexed, and immediate annuities, along with cash value life insurance, are appropriate savings choices in many cases.  There is also a very definite need for life insurance, LTC, and DI protection.  The only money that should be put at risk is money that your client can afford to lose!

Don't be afraid to say no - but say no the proper way!  When another professional person makes a proposal to you, don't pretend to ignore the proposal and cowardly fail to reply.  Don't be lazy or deliberately forget to respond with the courtesy of an answer.  There is a correct way you should act.  Didn't your mother teach that to you?  There should be more to your work life than just grabbing what you can get.  Show some class and style rather than leave the impression of a clown.  How do you like it when your prospects fail to reply to you?  If someone invites you to join an association, or to address their Rotary Club for no pay, or to test-drive some new financial planning software, etc., it would not kill you to acknowledge receipt and respectfully express your thoughts or decision.  If something does not involve immediately putting money in your pocket that does not automatically mean it is unimportant!  Joining, speaking, or testing, may put money in your pocket later. Respond!  React!  Don't be a clown.

God Save Us All From Financial Planning Clowns!

Don't purchase books and software and copy them - then return the products and ask for your money back!  I guess the financial planners and agents who do this are the lowest of the low.  Talk about a lack of class, ethics, honor, etc.  I suspect that those people will not last long as planners or as anything else.  At least I hope not.  Don't you fear for the person or persons who might be their clients?  Word gets around, eventually.

Don't fail to pay your dues.  Honor your obligations and commitments.  Give something back.  Contribute value.  Be a team player and share.  Contribute to your specialty discipline. Make the world a better place because you were here.  Don't be a cheating clown. Don't just grab for your own pocket. Pay your dues as you go through life. If you joined an association then pay your dues on time.  And why not contribute something rather than just 'taking.' If you promised something to someone then deliver as you indicated. You are a financial professional for God's sake! If you need continuing education credits, then earn them. 

Show some class.  Remember the financial planner (Bill was actually an insurance agent!  I have changed his real name to Bill for use in this article.) who always hired only big breasted young women to work in his office and had them wear T-shirts on which was printed the words Bill's Girls.  As anyone would suspect from this no-class practice, Bill was a major jerk in many ways.  He had almost all of the clown traits listed in this two-part article.

Financial Planning Clowns Embarrass You!

Don't write an exaggerated bio-sketch.  It is often pointed out to me that the financial planning (and related) industry may have more people with phony biographical sketches than any other profession in America.  Big time TV producers and editors of important magazines laugh to me about the absurd bio-sketches that unfortunately get printed in the "less than professional" print media involved with financial planning.

Please realize that when the many lines (phrases of praise or listing of accomplishments) are too lengthy, or excessive, or obviously exaggerated, the reader's loses belief.  Then even truths (if there are any) become suspect.   As an editor of four financial magazines and three newsletters I see this clownish excess almost every week.  No competent or professional editor would print such drivel.  As a financial magazine editor I frequently see inflated bio-sketches that are even embarrassing.  In the box below is an actual example -- Yes!  This is an actual example -- of an exaggerated 3-paragraph bio-sketch that I recently received! This bio-sketch is inflated to such an extreme that it is totally meaningless.  I changed the real name to a fictitious name.  You will notice that this absurd copy goes on-and-on saying nothing specific or absolute.   

"Sam Dokes Smith is a nationally recognized sales aficionado and master storyteller.  He makes it possible for financial advisors and insurance agents, plus other sales professionals, to prosper and gain unlimited success, by using his world-famous results oriented strategies and exclusive dynamic techniques.   Sam is internationally famous.  He gives power-packed, exciting, and multi-media presentations all over the globe!  This great talent is envied in most western countries.  He is beloved, admired, hugely honored, and highly respected.  To date Sam has received most of the awards given in the financial industry. 

Sam believes it is important to deliver quality platform presentations.  He believes also that each person is especially important and deserves his full attention.  Sam reads over a hundred magazines a month.  A movie is being written about Sam's life.  He is the author of four best-selling books that are highly entertaining, results oriented, and cover strategic selling techniques, including his most recent highly acclaimed sales manuscript.  He travels over ten thousand miles a year sharing his vast knowledge on how to become far more successful. 

This powerful consultant and writer is truly multi-talented.  An avid reader, Sam makes it a point to read ten books a week.  Sam is rated as the "most asked back" speaker in the financial industry.  He received the American Leadership Institute Award in 2003.  This TV and radio personality has written more words than Shakespeare.  He is also rated as one of the best keynote speakers in the world.  Sam has been highly praised by government officials, church leaders, university educators, and firemen.  He holds seven licenses."  Phone 123-456-7890 for Sam.

Please note again that the above bio-sketch does not contain one single fact about anything other than the subject's name and phone number.

Having a name and phone number hardly makes one qualified or outstanding.  The writer's complete contact information is not even given.  Only worthless hype abounds!  Nothing is specific in this phony-baloney bio-sketch except the person's name and phone number!  Apparently the author has nothing real to say so he says nothing.  He simply provides unclear, misleading, incomplete, exaggerated, and grandiose lies.  This is all very amateurish.  Any school child has written more words than Shakespeare!  What TV and radio?  Unlimited success is impossible?  What four best-selling books?  And who published them?  His "multi media" presentation consists of using Power Point and a tape recorder!  Who rates Joe and gives him this grandiose praise?  Miles traveled in a year have nothing to do with the quality of a speaker's content or delivery.  Reading hundreds of magazines a month is not an indication of anything specific.  Were these all porn magazines?  Do they even exist?  Who are those government officials? Church leaders?  Etc.?  Etc.?  What seven licenses?  How can an unpublished manuscript be highly praised, except for solicited endorsements?  The bio-writer simply created the American Leadership Institute -- it does not actually exist.  The movie being written about Joe's life -- is being written by Joe!  There is no hope that this proposed movie would eventually be commercially produced.  Joe has never before written a produced or un-produced movie.  In all honesty Joe is most likely not really writing a movie.  He doesn't even know the format of a screenplay.  His 3-paragraph bio-sketch is all bull from a clown, except for his name.  Yet this clown is hired to speak to responsible planners and agents.  But, I doubt that Ole Sam is hired by any knowing or competent bookers!     

Exaggerating biographical sketches is a common practice among financial speakers and writers -- even though the practice of exaggerated bio-sketches is taught against and preached against, (for over 25-years), by the National Speakers Association, the International Platform Society, the Pacific-Rim Speakers Network, and Toastmasters International.  Competent bookers never hire a speaker who uses a clown's bio-sketch.

In Journalism 101 a college student learns to be specific and publish only that which is specific.  Do not say "thing" when you can say "animal."  Do not say "animal" when you can say "dog."  Do not say "dog" when you can say "Collie."  Do not say "Collie" when you can say "elderly Collie."  Do not say "elderly Collie" when you can say an "elderly Collie with a blind right eye."  You get the point.  Be as specific with facts as possible.  Never go on-and-on without being specific.  If you are not specific you are saying nothing.  When a non-specific and exaggerated bio-sketch is published, you can be certain that the editor was not professional and most likely the publication is not important.

Financial Planning Clowns Irritate You!

Don't claim your self-published book is a best seller!  As Director of the Financial Planner's Book Club, I often see best-seller claims that are laughable.  If you have self-published a book, that is sufficient.  What might have more reality is some limited mention about how the book was meaningful to some group, or that it was distributed to some organization.  Excessive praise becomes meaningless and makes the book author look like a clown. Exaggerated nonspecific claims are absurd!  I do not believe doctors or lawyers or dentist or architects, self-publish books to suggest that they are wonderful.  But this is a common practice in the financial planning industry.     

Don't make other exaggerations, i.e., you are nationally famous!  You know damn well that you are not nationally famous! However, if you have been elected or appointed to some position of leadership, be sure to mention it. But be specific! Having been selected as head of an organization, however small it may have been, is indicative that your peers respect you.  If the group is large, then be sure to indicate that, i.e. "Smith served as President of the 3,000 member Canadian Retirement Counselors Association." Do not write: "Smith's outstanding leadership ability and exceptional talents, now available on audiotapes, enabled him to serve as the most successful and effective president in the history of one of the world's largest associations of retirement counselors. This group of thousands strives to bla, bla, bla."

Don't be a shameless self-promoter.  Don't always hype yourself to everyone to whom you speak.  Don't always be "on."  Force yourself to act like a normal human being during at least some of your time.  It is far more effective when someone else tells about how outstanding you are.  The clowns praise themselves more often than the post office raises the price of postage.  I dread seeing the clowns because I know they are going to tell me again about how fantastic they are.

We All Detest Financial Planning Clowns!

Do not try to ride on the fame of another!  Don't name you temporary two-man video production company after something Orson Well's made famous.  Don't claim that Warren Buffett and Sir Templeton are your best friends.  Don't get photos of "names" and fake autographs praising you, then display these.  Don't give yourself an International Pulitzer Prize or American Academy Award.  (Yes I know planners who do this.)  Do not send out, from time-to-time, a list of cities and claim that you have spoken (along with some famous "names") in each city during the last three months.  Do not say you have to hang-up to take a call from the White House.  Playing with other well-known names and the famous successes of others is not acceptable.  This practice is simply misleading and dishonest.  This is just plain foolish, something only a clown would do.         

Don't smother someone you want to impress!  Don't smother a visiting editor (or anyone) to and from the airport and during the time between.  Don't immediately start regaling a visiting editor about how wonderful you are … at least not the second the editor steps from the arriving Delta flight.  One overly self-centered financial planner met me at the airport and pointed out of his car window at various tall building we passed on the way to his office. This planner would say, "That's not one of my buildings."  "Now that's not one of my buildings either."  "I don't own that building."  "That's not one of mine."  Later I learned that he did not own any buildings.  I also learned that this was a standard practice of his and he was often laughed at about this false representation.  By pointing out selected buildings he was implying that he owned one, or more, buildings.  He frequently pulled this stunt and I was insulted upon learning about this misleading practice of lying to impress by implication.  Later I deleted everything in his article (about 80%) that I could not confirm because I did not trust him.  I have a responsibility to be honest and accurate to readers.  You should have the same responsibility to be honest and accurate.

Be more careful about what you say, especially your promises, assurances, suggestions, and especially any claims you make.  This could simply be called - watch your mouth!  Didn't your father teach you anything at all?  If you say you are going to do something, then do it!  If you promise something, then deliver what you promised.  Don't say you will send the check when you known darn well that you will not send the check if you say you will be there, then be there.  Your word is your bond.  Your promise made is your debt unpaid.  Don't say whatever pops into your head unless you are being honest and have at least some intention of doing what you say. Do what you indicate you are going to do.  Do not speak using an unlimited supply of brush-off phrases that are only lies.

If I had a dollar for every lie a financial planner has told me then surely I would be among the wealthiest people on earth.  And don't get angry with me for mentioning this truth. Over the years I have done far more to promote acceptance of financial planning than anyone I know.  I remember how embarrassed Loren Dunton often was over some clowns who claimed to be financial planners.  The founder of financial planning was appalled!  Loren gave me enough examples to add at least twenty pages to this Annuity Super Producer article.

Do not abuse others in an effort to make yourself look good.  An Atlanta financial planner used to often phone different tailors to come measure him for a suit of clothing while the planner was with clients or prospects. The planner thought this made him "look successful" and that the clients or prospects would be 'very impressed.' The tailors finally caught on and told every one he knew about how they had been 'used' many times by this insincere planner. The planner never bought even one suit. Incidentally, this planner, a long-time insufferable braggart, later went to prison for various offenses and he is now an evangelist.

Don't brag about your wealth if you have wealth!  Don't brag about your wealth if you have no wealth!  Nuff said!

Don't "pretend" you have an office staff working for you if you do not.  Calling a non-existent office "my virtual office" does not create an actual office or staff. A virtual office is not a real office. Do not use a recorded message that announces, "For administration punch three. For speaker bookings punch four.  For accounting punch five. For Doug Singletary our Marketing Director punch six." Do not use a recording like this if none of these people exist and all buttons punched instruct the caller to leave a message. This is a fraud! Such fraudulent nonsense is not an acceptable practice for an agent or planner. Do not greet those who phone you with this fraudulent message. And do not try to justify this fraud by calling it "my virtual office."

Bottom Line: The clowns do you and the financial industry such an injustice and a disservice.  They make your work much more difficult.  They make you suspect.  They make prospects cautious of you.

Part Two

By Wally Cato

Forrest Wallace Cato, RFMA, RFC, CRR, CPC, has over 20-plus years of successful experience as a local, regional, and as a multi-national, media strategist and media advocate serving financial professionals. For financial advisors, he creates, establishes, and maintains, desired images, then promotes those advisors within target markets. This highly proven marketing communications effort leads to increased understanding (brought about by desired media exposures) and results in increased consumer acceptance!