Client wellbeing
At BDWM, our duty is to help and advise clients with our best faith to assist them with their financial worries and reduce any stress which can be connected to complications in their daily lives.
Therefore it’s essential to understand the well-being and privacy of all clients are taken into consideration. In the occasion that a client does seem emotional, heated, unhappy, the advisor should know the clients understanding may be rough and need more time.
When first addressing clients we look for SBUD
S
Speech, is it dim, do they seem to mumble and fast track, using short phrases, profanity mid conversation or mistakes in speech, are they allowing a speaker to discuss with the advisor before themselves?
B
Body language, are they slouched and seem bothered, physically weak, unwell, stressed and uncomfortable in their position, lack of eye contact?
U
Understanding of the situation, can they speak confidently on the area, any memory issues, are they changing the topic mid conversation?
D
Decide and think of an option, are they able to gather all said and reflect back, do they take long periods of time to answer back, are they getting anxious when deciding?
These can all be an indication that the client is currently a vulnerability and must be taken with respect to ensure they don’t feel pressured to open up as it’s not our job to ask directly any issues despite it potentially being important for our recommendation.
To help clients open up we use CALM
C
Comforting: Appreciate and respect their time to open up an insight to their life and relieve any worries and stress in their life, counselling them in a way to ease their day.
A
Assuring them all said is safe between them, only with consent can the advisor use any suitable information from the conversation be used for the service that may affect the plan such as an illness, job loss/change, or family related issue.
L
Learning their situation, informing their situation will be taken with care in future work so the client will not have to repeat themselves again and be prepared for any more updates if they wish to discuss.
M
Maintain the situation with asking if they would want more time if possible, book in with another meeting in the near future, and if suitable and how the customer is dealing with the situation, advice on a charity organisation that can help them.
Vulnerability
When it comes to the Financial Conduct Authority there are 4 main drivers of vulnerability; Health, Life events, resilience and Capability of low knowledge of managing money.
These drivers can stem from many reasons, some are temporary such as divorces, redundancy from a job, loss of profit from business, bereavement and lacking financial literacy. Some can be a permanent situation with an illnesses or health condition such as dementia, a disability that has caused the clients to be unable to decide and plan themselves.
At BDWM we cater for vulnerable clients from both temporary and permanent situations with equal and thorough care. It is a priority of ours to establish vulnerability and then proceed with the methods mentioned above to best assess circumstances and establish objectives in accordance to vulnerability so we can always make recommendations that are suitable and personal to the client.