The Best Question to Ask Clients – And Yourself

If you’re planning a wedding, this conversation is a must.

Having debt is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, according to CNBC, 70 percent of college students graduate with student loan debt (the most common type of debt faced by newlyweds).

But if you do have debt (or your partner does), the one thing you need to do—no matter how uncomfortable or awkward it feels—is discuss it with each other.

“It’s important you’re transparent, for better or worse,” says Jeff Motske, president and CEO of Trilogy Financial and author of The Couple’s Guide to Financial Compatibility. “Get it out on the table now, because there’s nothing worse than statements showing up in the mail or online and all of a sudden, you realize you’re both liable for paying off the debt.”

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I’ve sat in those rooms, and you have too. You know the ones, where some war-weary veteran of the good old days of financial services talks about how they used to walk uphill both ways in a blizzard to every client meeting.

How the account application was as small as a postcard. How they didn’t even have calculators and surmised rates of return on the back of a napkin.

We are all told that a return to such days would be a good thing for clients and advisors alike and that all of this technology “stuff” is simply ruining a business that at its core is about helping people save for their future, not do calculus.

But those are not the only rooms.

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