Category: Practice

Proving Your Faith as a Financial Advisor

Proving Your Faith as a Financial Advisor

We all have aspirations in life that often mean we need to “prove” ourselves first. If you consider one’s experience to apply for a new position, we put together a resume to prove that we are qualified to do this job. Even more than that, we want to demonstrate that we are “the best” candidate to be hired for this role.

What exactly are we trying to prove? For financial advisors, many have set a goal to be the most trusted advisor – therefore attracting clients and business relationships to them. That seems to make sense but as a Christian professional, is this the best goal?

Since I read Matthew 3:8 a few weeks ago, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. John the Baptist, was preparing the way for Christ by giving this instruction:

“Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

John was really asking if they had any fruit in their lives that demonstrated that they were living a life surrendered to God.

In other words, is there proof in your practice that sets you apart or makes you unique from those who have no relationship with God? In your conversations, the way you use money, your business practices, your marriage and family relationships – all these should be positively impacted because you have “turned to God.”

John’s message and also that of Jesus, called people toward repentance – a change in thinking. When we change the way we think, the result is we change our behaviour – what we do. Here’s the big question: Is there proof in your life and your work that you have “turned to God?”

My question to Christian advisors many times is this: Is there any difference in your advice to clients because you are a Christian? Here’s how one advisor responded:

After going through the CKA material this past year and spending time with my cohort, I have learned a lot. The CKA® training and shared learning experience with my cohort has changed my perspective on my role in the financial business. I have been encouraged to practice these Biblical principles in my personal life and incorporate them into my business. 

When meeting with clients during their last review, I decided to add to the agenda a discussion about their legacy planning & giving goals.  I wasn’t sure how the clients would respond as this was out of my typical market based conversation (and personal comfort zone). Thankfully, the clients very much resonated with the agenda item and the questions I asked about their giving goals. We had a truly life giving conversation about their ministry passions, future opportunities to give, and how we can help them achieve these more personal goals. I believe the clients went from concerns about short term market trends (which are out of our control anyway) to a place of gratitude about how God has blessed them and excited about how God could use them (and their resources) to bless others. I hope and pray I can have more review meetings like this!   

For advisors in the cohort it has meant weekly meetings over five months with many hours of study to be prepared for the discussion times together. The result in the advisors words:

  • 1) a changed perspective on my role in the financial business
  • 2) life giving conversation(s) with clients
  • I added the “s” – I’m confident more life giving conversations will follow because of the changed perspective.

Therefore let your lives prove your change of heart

Weymouth New Testament Matthew 3:8

Discover Your Why: Fulfillment in Work and Life

Discover Your Why: Fulfillment in Work and Life

Well the Labour Day weekend is upon us and for many, it marks the end of a season and shifts students back into the school year and those at work into a busy fall. Mark Twain helps me see

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

Mark Twain

Finding your why is truly what makes your work significant. I have heard it said that your job is what an employer pays you to do; your work is what you were born to do. I’m convinced that when you discover your why, you truly live out your calling in life.

Ken Boa in his book, Conformed to His Image says:

“Our primary calling is to know and love God. Our secondary calling is to express this relationship in everything we do and with everyone we encounter.”

As a teenager, I felt a “call” on my life and the best way I could interpret it at the time was to become a pastor. However, the majority of my career has been in the financial services industry, providing insurance and investment advice. My perspective was that my work as a financial advisor was my job (secular) and I believed my “calling” to ministry was my true work (sacred). As the years passed, I questioned if I had “missed my calling” or did I choose the wrong profession?

My problem was that my secondary calling (my work as a financial advisor) was somehow disconnected from my primary calling (to know and love God). Ken Boa explains it this way:

“If the secondary is not related to the primary, we slip into the error of dichotomizing the “spiritual” and the “secular” when they should really be integrated. When this happens, our relationship with the Lord is disconnected from the everyday activities of our lives.”

I certainly felt I was serving the Lord in my business, but somehow the everyday activities of my work became disconnected from my calling. My focus as an advisor was on growing my business, developing relationships and serving clients. While that ethic was typical of this industry, my secondary calling lacked the perspective that only comes by incorporating my primary calling. My work as an advisor (secondary) needed to be an expression of my primary calling. Dr. Ken Boa explains it this way:

“Secular work becomes spiritual when done to the glory of God. Spiritual work becomes secular when done to please and impress men.”

My level of fulfillment through my work reached new heights when the secular and the sacred were merged. This seems so simple now as I reflect, but it required a shift in my perspective. Recognizing the opportunity to love and bring glory to God (primary calling) through my practice (secondary calling), transformed my work life and brought a fresh perspective. In essence, I was transformed into the person I was born to be and now Labour Day becomes important – not the day I was born, but a better understanding of “why” I was born. Dr. Ken Boa sums this up perfectly:

“When we keep our primary calling first and seek to express it in and through our secondary calling, we become more holistic in our thinking and practice.”

Our Relationships Don’t Belong to Us!

Our Relationships Don’t Belong to Us!

I read this statement in a devotional recently and was challenged with the thought. Paul David Tripp writes that:

Fellowship is God caring enough to put people in your life to encourage, rebuke and comfort you.

New Morning Mercies, Paul David Tripp (Aug. 19)

I’ve been in relationship with some people for many years now, which begs the question: “Why are these people (or this person) in my life?”

Tripp explains it this way:

“We cannot allow ourselves to have an owner’s view of our relationships, as if they exist for the sole purpose of our happiness. Our relationships don’t belong to us – They belong to God for his use, for his purpose.”

This changes our perspective – if we don’t own these relationships and they are not “about us” solely, there must be a reason, a deeper purpose. The unseen part of relationship is how they came to be and also why they came to exist.

If we take the “owner’s view” it means either we or the person we are in relationship with took the initiative to establish contact. This easily excludes God’s part in this relationship and means we can miss seeing his purpose.

My wife and I met while we were attending the same college. We take for granted our chance meeting at an airport in late April 1985 and then meeting again the following weekend in her hometown. This was the only weekend she was home because she was between semesters while attending university. That chance weekend meeting clinched my decision to attend the same university that summer where our relationship began to develop. The rest, as they say, is history.

Was this simply a series of coincidences, where each of us initiated our relationship to spend time together? Or was God more involved than we often give Him credit for?

I choose to believe that my relationships are an example of God caring enough to infuse people into my life for His use and His divine purpose.

One of the other life-changing experiences for me was joining the community of Christian financial professionals, known as Kingdom Advisors. It was a game-changer when it became clear that I didn’t have to separate my faith from my work as a financial advisor.

Here’s the advice from Kingdom Advisors:

“Don’t spend another day feeling divided between your faith and your career. Get certified by Kingdom Advisors and fully integrate your faith into your financial practice.”

I’m looking forward to connecting with advisors in a cohort this fall (meeting weekly starting Sept. 4th) to walk with advisors through 20 Modules of Core Training. This journey together will be a key to fully integrate your faith into your financial practice and continue to build God-ordained relationships.

The Secret to Growing Your Business

The Secret to Growing Your Business

In the past several weeks I have had multiple conversations with self-employed entrepreneurs who have expressed the urgency to focus on growing their business.

I completely understand the urgency and have been in the exact situation myself ​- fully focused on growing the business with little time for anything else. ​Based on my own experience, as long as my sole focus remained on growing the business, I was working hard and striving for success. I was doing all the right things like marketing myself, networking, asking for referrals and in general, working hard. None of these are really secrets to success, are they? They are simply the necessary elements we would immediately think about and without implementing, success would be extremely unlikely. All of these efforts gave me only a measure of success as a financial advisor.

However, it was only ​when I focused on ​incorporating God into my business that I truly came to reach a level of success that I desired and at a rate of growth that I had never thought possible. In the last 5 years that I was a practicing advisor, my business grew by more than 1200%.

As I look back, this business success happened only when I began to invest some of my time away from the typical business opportunities. I started a training course that gave me a different perspective, namely that God was more interested and involved in my business success than I realized. Somehow, I was convinced that my own efforts had brought me this success, but then again, I wasn’t the first to come to that conclusion. God reminded the Israelites how He fed them manna and cared for them in the wilderness because He knew they might want to take the credit for their prosperity.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Deut. 8:17-18 NIV

Despite this verse being underlined in my Bible, it was far too easy for me to emphasize the part I played in this success, and in so doing, diminish the role that God played in it. Sure, my ability played a part, but who gave me the ability? While my training, education, sales skills had to be developed, ultimately it was God who had positioned me in this role to start with. He had opened the opportunity to be trained in this field and I certainly would not have chosen this path on my own.

The global financial crisis of 2008/2009 was a time of profound soul searching for me but was very pivotal in my journey. It led me to a deeper study to earn my CKA® (Certified Kingdom Advisor®) designation which helped me understand God’s activity in my business.

The result: first, surrendering the ownership of my business to Him, then second, my striving diminished as He grew the business. Maybe that’s exactly what John meant when he said, “He must increase but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

For the record, the S&P 500 did increase in value from 2010 – 2015 by 92%, so this does account for some of the growth in business. The remaining 1100% growth that occurred in less than 5 years is much more than I could have ever accomplished unless I decreased and He increased.
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Christian Financial Professionals Needed in Canada

Christian Financial Professionals Needed in Canada

I’ve been looking at some stats as part of a research project to determine the need for financial advice that aligns with the values and priorities of Christian consumers in Canada.

Financial Advisors in Canada

Firstly, what is the total number of financial advisors in Canada? According to an Advocis report released in 2012 there were just over 90,000 financial advisors.

https://www.advocis.ca/pdf/Financial-Advice-Industry-Economic-Profile.pdf

In 2020, the Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA) released a client research report, which stated the total number of advisors had grown to 136,000 as of January 2019. (The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) is the pan‑Canadian self‑regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on Canada’s debt and equity marketplaces). 

https://mfda.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020_ClientResearchReport-1.pdf

In a Sept. 29, 2022 press release, IIROC announced that MFDA & IIROC “have passed a special resolution approving the amalgamation of the two self-regulatory organizations (SROs). Effective January 1, 2023, subject to the conditions outlined in the Combination Agreement, the MFDA and IIROC will become one organization that will temporarily be known as the New Self-Regulatory Organization of Canada (New SRO).” This release stated that the approximate number of MFDA approved persons are 76,695 plus another 32,000 registered employees with IIROC. This means the New SRO will have 108,695 total advisors serving the Canadian public.

Financial Wealth in Canada

Next, it’s important to understand the level of wealth held by Canadian households. The MFDA Client Research Report also revealed that there are 16.2 Million Canadian households holding 4.4 Trillion in financial wealth.

Most households in Canada (79%) are mass-market households who own $100,000 or less in financial wealth (not exactly the target market for financial advisors). However, mass-market households only own 4% of the $4.4 trillion in financial wealth in Canada. Conversely, affluent households represent only 10% of all households in Canada but own 86% of the $4.4 trillion in financial wealth. Mid-market households represent 11% of all Canadian households and own 10% of total Canadian household financial wealth.

Wealth held by Christians

According to Pew Research published July 2019, 55% of the Canadian population consider themselves Christian. This would mean 2.42 Trillion of financial wealth is in the hands of Christians among 8.9 million households.

The research further shows that 33% of Canadians say that belief in God is essential to have good values. It is quite natural for clients to work with an advisor who shares their values. This would mean that over 5.3 million households in Canada would prefer to work with a Christian advisor; one having values based on a belief in God.

In the Investment Executive’s 2021 Dealers’ Report Card: The average advisor reported serving 206 households. This means that 26,500 advisors would be needed to serve the 5.3 million Christian households.

However, not all of these households are the ideal clients for advisors. The MFDA report showed that 79% of these households are mass-market, meaning they have less than 100k to invest and are therefore not the target market for advisors. The remaining 21% are mid-market (100K – 500k) or affluent (500k+), which is the target market for financial advisors (or 3.4 million households). This would mean that 1.87 million would identify as Christian (55%) and 1.12 million households (33%) would have values driven by their belief in God.

How many Christian advisors are needed to serve these 1.12 million households who say their values are driven by their belief in God? If we take the average advisor serving 200 households – a minimum of 5,600 Christian financial professionals are needed in Canada. To serve those who identify as Christian (55%), 9350 financial professionals are needed. (As a side note: it has been debated whether an advisor has the capacity to adequately serve 200 households effectively – the number is probably closer to 100 families, thus increasing the need for Christian advisors).

Certified Kingdom Advisors are Needed

The Christian market segment has specific financial planning and decision-making differentiators that are important in their selection of a financial advisor, based on their  religious/faith paradigms including: planning areas and common language, financial stewardship, debt, lifestyle, investing, charitable giving, estate planning and wealth transfer, generosity, and retirement planning.

One of my mentors, Ron Blue, who is also the Founder of Kingdom Advisors, believes that “everybody’s advice and counsel comes from a value system. What I learned as a CPA and a Christian is that good advice has its roots in wisdom that is thousands of years old. I am applying this wisdom to decision making regarding money.” He also says, “There is a big difference between a Christian who is a financial advisor and a ‘Christian financial advisor.’ A Christian financial advisor integrates their faith into their professional advice.”

The CKA® designation is designed to build on an advisor’s base of technical competency and experience as evidenced by an approved industry designation, or a minimum of 10 years full-time experience in a specific financial discipline. The earning of the designation is a pathway for a Christian who is an advisor to become a Christian financial advisor. There is a significant need for sound financial wisdom in Canadian households, which can come through trained Christian financial advisors.

Financial advisors can learn more here: https://kingdomadvisors.com/

Client Meetings & Unexpected Questions

Client Meetings & Unexpected Questions

Financial advisors all have access to the same or similar tools and products. While they have different backgrounds, they still have similar training. They attend many of the same conferences and are exposed to the same content from the financial industry. So then …

“How is a Christian advisor different from an advisor who is a Christian?”

It can be very difficult to answer that question or explain it in such a way that the advisor truly gets it, and to be honest, understanding the difference is a journey. As an advisor myself for 24 years, I did not fully comprehend this difference. As I reflect back on the early days of my career, I recognize now that I was “an advisor who was a Christian” rather than a “Christian advisor.” My advice was not that different than a non-Christian advisor because I was trained in the same way they were, but I was on a journey …

Kingdom Advisors offers a training program that is meant to go deep into the core of who an advisor is and even why an advisor does what he/she does. There’s good reason it is referred to as Core Training.

Since October, I have been walking with a group of advisors through this training which concluded this past week. One advisor shared a conversation that he had with his clients who are in their 80’s, which I believe illustrates how a Christian advisor is different.

This elderly couple have both had health challenges and called to have a discussion with their advisor because they have been working through an important decision. The decision they had reached and wanted to discuss was that they both wanted to move forward with medical assistance in dying (MAID). A discussion on this topic certainly was not something this advisor was expecting and felt, in some respects was beyond his area of expertise; yet something within him felt this was an opportunity for a deeper conversation.

In a very thoughtful way, he complimented them for always educating themselves about important decisions they’ve had to make since that was his experience with them. He then asked a question that was a little outside of his comfort zone: “Have you considered this from a spiritual aspect?”

This question led to a much deeper discussion, one that this advisor had never had with these clients in previous meetings. The end of this story is not written but these clients expressed such a deep appreciation for the thoughtful question that has led them to deeper soul-searching. Near the end of the meeting, the clients had a question for the advisor:

“Why have we never had a discussion like this before?”

That is definitely a valid question from this client. It’s a clear example of “an advisor who was a Christian” and successfully practiced for many years being transformed into a “Christian advisor.” His immediate thought was to send these clients to a spiritual leader, but because he had journeyed through the KA Core Training, he felt compelled and confident enough to ask a non-financial question that caused the clients to think more deeply.

One of the quotes from the Core Training Module that we ended with this week stated:

“Your practice can become indispensable to your client families.”

This incident has helped me realize what truly differentiates a Christian financial advisor from other advisors, and from those who may even be Christians. It’s not just a willingness to go deeper in client conversations but a deep sense of calling to go where other advisors fear to tread.

I am truly grateful there are so many Kingdom Advisors in Canada, where I get to serve, as well as in the USA and other parts of our world; advisors who care enough to build an indispensable practice for their client families. Where are you on the journey?

If you are a financial professional in Canada, I would encourage you to join one of the upcoming Kingdom Advisors Regional Events in May 2022.