Financial retreats focus on fun

Ask most Americans if financial planning and fun go together, and you will probably hear: “Yeah, right!”

They will say that having fun with financial planning is impossible.

To be sure, most in our profession don’t focus on enjoyment as part of the financial planning process. As we know, there is much else to emphasize, such as asset allocation, picking the right investments and helping our clients amass enough money for retirement.

Nevertheless, I believe that there may be a different way to do financial planning, especially with clients who are far away. With a personal financial retreat, I can spend concentrated face-to-face time with my clients, as well as provide an opportunity for rest and recuperation.

Now, I will admit upfront that my home state of Florida is a great location for hosting financial retreats. Sandy beaches and brilliant sunshine beckon distant clients, especially when they tire of the wintry gray skies that dampen their spirits after the festive holiday lights are gone.

In addition, a host of nearby attractions, such as a nationally recognized zoo, outstanding live theater and music, and terrific ethnically diverse restaurants, don’t hurt a bit either.

I invite my clients to escape into, not out of, financial planning. I ask them to leave their routines behind in exchange for a combined financial retreat and Florida getaway. These are just a few of the focused client retreats that I have hosted:

• Moving from Success to Significance explores clients’ beliefs, values and feelings about money, and its relation to their heirs and society. They then create a written personal financial philosophy document to help with estate-planning decisions.

• Planning for a Re-fired Life offers an emphasis on meaning, motivation, passion and purpose after collecting that last paycheck. A retirement checklist is also covered.

• Starting Life Over as a Widow focuses on the emotional and financial implications. (As a widow myself, I empathize with these women.)

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS

Last November, I invited my Ohio clients Bob and Betty to join me for a mid-January Florida retreat. Knowing they were strongly committed to stewardship of their financial resources, I felt they would benefit from “Moving from Success to Significance.” They needed to update their estate plans, and they readily agreed to arrange their calendar to visit me.

Bob and Betty flew out of an icy blizzard Thursday evening and checked into their welcoming beachfront hotel.

The next morning, they joined me for our first session in my home office, where light, color and art abound. My client meeting room overlooks abundant tropical foliage, and a beautiful lake shimmers beyond the glass wall in the adjacent great room.

The three of us worked together that morning. We talked through their responses to a questionnaire I had sent them the previous week, and I clarified their responses to my guided questions during this coaching session.

We covered issues related to their family history, beliefs, values, money issues and more, and I included an analysis of their financial situation in early retirement. We explored their goals and aspirations through a free-form visualization exercise. As always, careful listening was the key.

At the close of our meeting, I assigned “homework” for their evening beach walk: They were to talk about alternative actions and resulting implications for the estate-planning ideas we had just brainstormed together.

Tasty grouper sandwiches at a nearby restaurant concluded our visit, and Bob and Betty were off to enjoy their weekend exploring local attractions.

When they returned to my office Monday, they told me excitedly about their weekend activities — but they were even more excited about what they called “the profound conversations we had.” It was “so clear what we really want to accomplish with our estate plan,” they said.

We reviewed the draft of their personal financial philosophy, which I had written after our initial meeting, and we edited it together, weaving in their new insights. As they prepared to return home, they knew that the four-page document was an accurate road map, ensuring that their financial and estate-planning decisions would be consistent with their values and personal objectives.

Kathleen M. Rehl, founder of Land O’Lakes, Fla.-based Rehl Financial Advisors, is a member of the Alliance of Cambridge Advisors Inc. in Highland, Mich.

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