Life in the Fast lane: Life planners talk up the importance of listening

Do you believe in ley lines? I used to live near East Grinstead, which is apparently famed for being a converging point, perhaps explaining why there is such a density of different religions there, from Scientologists to Rosicrucians. There may be some ley lines going through Leicester too, and there are definitely some Kinder lines: there is a high density of life planners there.

Matthew Walne of Santorini Financial Planning and Rajesh Modha from The Finance Lab met on a Kinder course and started their own life planning firms in Leicester. They were drawn to the life planning method for different reasons, but both think the best way to employ the methods they learnt on the course, without coming across as ‘too Californian’, is to remember to listen. Modha uses a fact he heard to illustrate his point: an adviser will interrupt their client within the first 83 seconds of them talking.

Marketing blitz

Walne started Santorini in February and is already is carving out a niche in the local community. He has advertised his business in local lifestyle magazines and has employed a PR agency to help promote his brand. He anticipates this will attract the type of client with the correct mind-set towards life planning.

Modha is in the process of reconfiguring his business from being focused on mortgages and protection to planning. He has become directly authorised and is waiting for approval to start trading again. Modha generously treated me and my colleague, Lawrence Fisher, to the best samosas we have ever eaten, so we are thinking of a reason to visit him again. Apparently his clients are given them too – good for client retention!

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