Well, two days ago, I received an e-mail that thanked me for my order and said that a text message would be sent to my new phone with my temporary password so that I could view my account usage online. Now as far as I know, there is no way my air card can receive a text, nor is there any way I can view that message since, well, it’s an air card. It is impossible for me to believe that the incompetence can compound at this rate. But it seems to in spite of what I think.

By the way, my bank finally did call back. Three different people called back, none of which knew that someone else had fixed the problem. No wonder it took them so long to get back to me. They were all making unnecessary calls to customers who no longer had problems.

Customer contact is EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING.

First, most of the men fit the InKnowVision client demographic perfectly: over $10 million of net worth, over age 50, working, self-made, married, etc. What is puzzling to me is that the sample here, of over a hundred individuals, provides responses that are very different from what we experience.

For example, most (70%) state that they have clear goals for their wealth; most (56%) state that they are worried how their children will handle wealth; most feel it is important to give money (83%) or time (70%) to philanthropy. These results are astonishingly different than our own anecdotal evidence. Our experience at InKnowVision is that goals are often not well defined, parents don’t talk about their children in terms of “managing wealth”, and involvement or discussion involving philanthropy is minimal.

This raises some questions for me. Do respondents alter their answers to “say the right thing” in surveys? Or, do the people at GenSpring (and others like them) know how to ask better questions? Are “our” advisors asking the right questions or avoiding the tough ones and just collecting “facts”?

It’s both interesting and frustrating to me that this disparity exists. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this phenomenon. And I don’t know what to do about it. Our job would be so much easier if we could get those “clearly defined goals” and understand where the concerns are about the children and know what the philanthropic intent and goals and passions are. How do we get those answers? How do you ask those questions?

Ideas?

It’s beyond my imagination that a company with a revenue and budget that ranks it among the largest in the world can screw things up this badly. This part of the process should be relatively easy. Apparently not.

I have every hope that I will actually receive the right items. I don’t know why I do. Perhaps I’m just an optimist.

Question, do you carefully check what is communicated to your clients either by some automated process or directly? I spend a fair amount of time on the InKnowVision site making sure that when you click something what’s supposed to be there is actually there. It’s good practice. Try it on your own. Just like calling your office and seeing how the phone is answered. It’s your face.

Yesterday, I had two similar experiences, one with the “other” big phone company, whose web site was so counter intuitive that I ended up dialing “611” and had to have an employee help me order online. Even she couldn’t figure out:
• How to find what I wanted
• How to get the price I’d seen online the day before
• How to actually get the order placed with the features I wanted and to remove the features I didn’t want

This company must spend millions on its web presence and its system was horrible. Getting to the right person on my 611 call took at least five different steps and the first time I tried it, I ended up back where I started at the “main menu.”

Later, I couldn’t log into my online banking account. The system wouldn’t recognize my username. No one could explain why. They’re supposed to call back. I’m still waiting. Meanwhile, I can’t pay my bills. Sorry.

Today, the face our buying public or our potential buying public (clients and prospective clients to us financial and legal professionals) often sees first is either our phone system or our website. What they should see is a very friendly face. Phone systems should never lead the very people you’ve been cultivating into a black hole they can never get out of. Somewhere, some place there had better be the voice of a real, live human being as an option. Web sites should be intuitive, informative. Simple. Big companies have millions to spend. They may be able to have customers come and go in the revolving door, big numbers game they play.

We can’t afford it. Us little guys have to be better. Smarter. More accessible.

Most giving (75%) still comes from individuals. Religious organizations (about 33%) get the most. Foreign and disaster relief organizations are among the fastest growing since we Americans seem to respond to tragedy rapidly and with open hearts and wallets. It’s also where celebrities pull our attention most.

What’s not accounted for well is that there are more and more charities to give to. We’re up over 1 million with another 400 thousand churches. And there are billions of dollars being poured into donor advised funds at community foundations and places like Fidelity and Vanguard and very little of those funds being currently distributed to actual operating charities. That means (at least to me) that charities are pinched. Their budgets are tight, they’re in greater competition for dollars and there are not any more real dollars coming their way.

This is a tough problem now and will continue to get tougher. I expect 2008 to be a down year for contributions. The current stock market and economic downturn has everyone holding on a little tighter. Coupled with a drop in will bequests and uncertain estate taxation and I suspect we’ll see some real belt tightening and program cutting sooner rather than later.

We who advise the families of wealth, those who can really make a difference, may want to consider really delving more deeply with our clients and provoking to think about what their world will be like when many of the charitable organizations begin to disappear or cut programs because of lack of funding. Where, you may ask, does their passion for society and its future lie? Where is their heart for “philia”? It could be an interesting discussion. Certainly it’s not one anyone else is having with them.

Should my client take $2 million of his liquidity and buy an annuity? I don’t know. Didn’t he just spend $2 million on another illiquid asset? Shouldn’t we check his cash flows, maybe look at it both ways? Why the hurry? Why the ready, fire, aim? Slow down. Let’s look at the numbers. See if it makes sense. Help him make the best choice for him.

Hurrying a client to make a sale can be fatal to the planning process. Patience is more of a virtue in this profession than you might realize. Helping clients make intelligent decisions is really the best thing we can do. It gives them time to get comfortable. To think about their own future and their own possibilities; to act wisely, not rashly. To not regret later.

So the other day when someone inadvertently pulled the plug on our phone system and some poor woman who had no idea who InKnowVision is started getting phone calls from all over the U.S. and our customers couldn’t get through to us, well we had to deal with it. And yes it was a royal pain and it took a lot of effort by a lot of people to straighten it out. And, yes, we would like to send the woman a gift even though none of this was our fault.

All businesses have unexpected, unanticipated annoying interruptions. If you are going to OYOB you had better to be ready to be something other than your professional calling. Your reaction to these kind of interruptions is probably as important as your professional skills.

It’s very inspiring. And very frustrating. Frustrating because these pockets of advisors are so small. Frustrating because they’re so dispersed professionally. Geographically. I’d love to find some way to get all of these professionals in the same place at the same time just to see what would happen. Any ideas?

Now, I’m not just saying that. There are estimated to be 41,000 lawsuits filed every day in this country. That’s about 15,000,000 per year. A lot by any measure. That means that every one of our clients is possibly exposed. We’ve had several instances of families being brought to us where it was already too late. One, who’d been in an unfortunate car accident was sued and basically lost everything. Nothing we could do. Except not let this happen to others.

Yes, we’re capitalists and seizing what we think is a great opportunity for you and for us. But we’re also conscientious about the risks the families we’re working with face. Honestly, we can’t just shrug and say it’s someone else’s problem. This is both opportunity and responsibility.

We are kicking off our good news with a one day program prior to the July Institute in Chicago. Check out our new website here, or click here for information on how to attend. If you have any questions about our new venture or the program, please email us, or call Lydia Monchak at (888) 526-2958.