The James Bond movie franchises are 60 years old this year with Dr No being release in October 1962!  Feel old yet?  I remember watching Dr No on a Bank Holliday with my parents in the living room and getting hooked on the action, not really understanding what was being said or going on.  It quickly became my favourite. 

I haven’t re-watched it in years and I’m not sure how it has stood the test of time.  My enjoyment of the movie is more for the reminiscing of family time than the plot lines and whenever I see the numbers 007, I smile! 

It does make me think of trust and how this is integral to all aspects of life, from being a secret agent to a financial planner ?

Intelligent recruiting

When looking for either staff or appointed representatives, we need to be able to answer the following question: would we enjoy having a drink with them? 

It’s simple but how many people could honestly say they would enjoy intimate social time with their colleagues? 

If you can, the level of engagement you can create is so powerful.  I am reading a book right now that suggests some football managers massage their key players to increase their bond and engender trust.  I hasten to add that’s not for me!

Having a close-knit team that is bonded both by experience and morals has created a ‘can do’ attitude which we see clients trust with their most precious financial planning needs.

Ideally, we would like our clients to view all team members at WKM as being their team and not simply having one person they need to always call upon.  This all stems from having the right recruitment policy.

Our next operative

We are constantly thinking of who else our team needs.  In Dr No there are several supporting heroes for Bond with different backgrounds and personalities.

Our employee wish list isn’t long as we are happy to leverage technology to do our heavy lifting (the days of sending letters in the post and using spreadsheets for everything are gone!) but we do need to continue enriching the talent pool.

We need our next recruit or appointed representative to bring that similar energy for our clients as well as a willingness to embrace change. 

Through careful change, we can really evolve client financial planning and investment management in our industry.  This should increase the trust between all parties.

Shaken, not stirred

These are the times where you do need to put trust in the process.  Bond trusts his allies and kit at his disposal. 

Investing for your objectives and putting someone else in the driving seat of making those key decisions is a huge exercise in trust.  Buy low, sell high.  Ever so simple to say but a discipline that can be incredibly challenging to put into practise, otherwise there would be hundreds of Warren Buffet’s out there!

I would expand the above and say, do not adopt the buy high, sell low, repeat until bust.  If you do buy high and the market wobbles soon after, trust the process you have invested in.  If you are using a financial planner combined with an investment manager, ask questions about their process, and build your trust that they will achieve your objectives.

If we can increase trust between a client and their financial planning team, we will see that while times may be scary, those fears rarely manifest and, more likely than not, we end up in a stronger place because of the opportunities those times create.  

If investing was easy, we would all be sipping cocktails on a beach in Jamaica … just like Mr Bond in Dr No.

Thanks for reading.