Financial Planners and Financial Advisors are professionals, I’m sure you are familiar with. Yes, they are specialist who help you with your personal finance requirements whether you need to make a blue print of your finances, plan for life goals, start investments, analyse risk covers, or manage portfolios. They are well trained to deal with the technical side of money and love number crunching. They seek a lot of information like – income, expenses, assets, liabilities, future goals and values of the same, current investments, etc to be able to provide the required solutions. They provide sound advice in terms of what is good and what is not so good for your financial future. However, there is a deficiency observed when it comes to the training on the personal side of money – yes money has a personal side.

 The personal side of money is evidently seen during times of Transitions i.e. during the times of change. When CeFTs refer to transition, they are talking about how an individual experiences events like separation/divorce, retirement, loss of spouse, loss of parents, sale of business, job loss, relocation, inheritance, lottery, etc. Transitions are important life pivot points which begin with an end and typically take longer than expected. They are often a time of confusion and always a time of opportunity. Transitions create an impact on your financials thus your ability to meet your goals.

 When money changes life changes, and when life changes money changes – Susan Bradley

Although every individual is bound to undergo at least 2-3 transitions, traditional schooling doesn’t teach us how to manage it. In fact, most financial advisors appreciate the complexities of times of transition only when they or one of their clients are suddenly in the middle of one and don’t know how to deal with it.

One of the mantras I learnt during my Certified Financial Transitionist (CeFT) training is that ‘Change is a Gift’. Of course, not every life event is experienced that way, particularly in the beginning; but when you realise that even the most heart breaking or traumatic events are followed by an opening and by possibilities and opportunities you start seeing change as gift. Financial Transitions planning is the art and science of helping clients unwarp this gift and make the most of it.

The Sudden Money Institute (SMI) created the Certified Financial Transitionist® (CeFT®) designation to give financial planners (CFPs) and their clients science-based, field-tested tools and protocols designed specifically to merge the personal side and the technical side of financial change. The training and certifying division of SMI, the Financial Transitionist Institute, awards this new designation only after candidates demonstrate: fluency with the unique skill set of the CeFT®; deep knowledge of the stages of transition; and skilful use of proprietary materials designed for Financial Transitions Planning. That yearlong-plus process includes mandatory coaching, over 30 hours of coursework, and a Day-Long Certification Exam that tests content, communication, and listening. 

The result? Professionals with experience and expertise who can create solutions that are customized for each client’s unique values, relationships, and vision of the future thus taking into account the personal and technical side of money.

The protocols that I as a CeFT am bound to are:

1)     Provide a safe space/ holding environment for the client – extreme emotions that come along with a sudden change, results in change of behaviour. Providing a safe space to the client means creating a holding environment where the client feels safe emotionally at a time when they are immersed in uncertainty and important aspects of their life is shifting. When the client feels safe, the brain defaults to a responsive mode, where they meet their situation as a challenge rather than a threat. And then the financial advice we provide is clearly understood and acted upon.

2)     Get on to the Balcony – with the narrow focus revolving around the recent change, it is very difficult to focus on the bigger picture. If decisions are made based on the zoomed in narrow view, it does no good. But if the decisions are made only keeping the bigger picture in mind, it can be equally bad. The ability to pause, zoom out and zoom back in later is very essential. The fluency with which this can be done helps the clients sail through the stormy weather.

3)     Co-create a Plan – we do not look to mysteriously solve problems and create a plan from behind the curtains, we help clients learn how to better move through the transitions and co-create solutions along with them. Neither the client nor we are experts, we both work on equal grounds.

As we look to normalize the situation for the client through deep listening and allowing them to process their experience in their own way and in their own time; the clients become more receptive to advice through rational thinking. The financial planning aspects are then looked at and thus both the personal and technical side of money is managed.

If you are dealing with any transitions in your life, I would request you to work with a CeFT as they are better equipped to understand the stage of transition you fall under, identify the state of the transition and thus provide tools to best suit your situation.

Here are the list of CeFTs for your easy reference: https://www.suddenmoney.com/certified-financial-transitionist-directory/