The Best Question to Ask Clients – And Yourself

By financial planning logo
February 28, 2019
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Written by: Chelsea Emery | Jeff Motske has one of the strongest ways to tease out client priorities I’ve heard in quite a while.

“What if?” Motske asks clients.

“What if one if your partner needs critical care? What if you want to move to Arizona? What if one of your kids starts a family on the other side of the country?,” the CEO of Trilogy Financial asks.

It’s deceptively simple, but an excellent method for getting at the heart of clients’ values and fears.

“These are critical questions,” Motske told me during a recent visit to Financial Planning offices in New York. “You want to ask them before things happen.”

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July 5, 2018

As a parent, it’s natural to want to help your children succeed. In fact, in a recent survey of parents, 37% of respondents said no investment goal is more important than saving for a child’s college education.

If you plan to pay for all of your child’s college expenses, you can expect to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for one year, according to the College Board’s 2017-2018 figures.

While it might feel good to give your child a head start in life, choosing to pay for their education might not be an easy choice for everyone.

“The decision to contribute to a child’s college education is a deeply nuanced and personal decision,” said Jeff Motske, a certified financial planner and the president of Trilogy Financial.

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By Trilogy Financial
June 6, 2018

It’s the time of year when many parents have watched their children graduate from high school. While no doubt proud of their offspring’s achievements, in the back of their heads, all parents wonder about one thing: does my child have good financial habits. As they embark for the first time into that brave new world of adulthood, they’ll also be venturing into the terra incognito of money. Are they prepared?

It’s a challenge for parents to teach their children everything they need to know to ready them for their lives ahead. A good, practical, common sense financial education often falls far to the back of the priority list (though sometimes for good reasons). It shouldn’t. “If there’s one huge gift we as parents can give our kids,” says Jessica Ludvigsen, Sr. Vice President of Retail Banking at Axiom Bank in Orlando, Florida, “it’s the knowledge they need to grow up to be financially stable adults.”

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