i think its okay to point out that an advisor of 30 years missed something. that is simply stating a fact. it is only distasteful to state that missing this one thing means the advisor is crap across the board.
you just want to plant a seed in the person’s mind to challenge their current advisor on everything going forward. this is prudent. this could end up resulting in that relationship deteriorating if the advisor is actually crap and you getting that relationship or it may not go anywhere.
doing it this way means you’re not the bad guy but just the guy who noticed a mistake and pushed the client to ensure they’re being properly looked after.
Greenie, you have to consider buying psychology. Accounting/book keeping are required by law or regulation, so people feel they buy help with these issues. For financial planning people have trouble thinking about it so they feel it is sold to them…hence the resistance. Selling to these people is about asking questions regarding things people psychologically care about – paying for kids school, funding the local library, leaving something to grand kids, retiring early so can golf more…etc. Then focusing them on the implications of not planning today to meet those goals. It’s not easy, but if you do it this way, you will find that people get in the mindset of buying rather than getting defensive about being sold stuff.
I think its important to understand what happened from a planning perspective and identify why a mistake has been made.
Greenie is only going to find out by asking a lot of questions to the prospect. Look at the many examples he’s already provided where big planning issues have been missed etc. Look at the life insurance ex.: Did the client just go out on their own and buy the life insurance without consulting his current financial advisor (IA)? Is the IA soley managing the investments, not providing planning services? Did the life insurance advisor who sold the policy get into details about the purpose of the insurance etc?