10 Topics for Financial Client Education Seminars
Whether your company is helping its local representatives plan an educational seminar for their financial services clients, or your business is helping local franchisees plan events for potential clients that focus on helping, offering a plan for topics for the year can help focus your efforts.
Financial educational seminars have been around a while. Which is exactly why planning for a year with purposeful, timely subjects is so critical.
You don’t want to get caught in a zombie state of doing what you’ve always done because you’re on autopilot. Some of these topics you may already host. Some of them may be refreshed titles. And some may be new.
Whatever the case, hopefully you walk away with a fresh look for your client event seminars.
1 New Year, New Year: Financial Health
Of course, this is a great way to kick off the new year. Go along with the health kick and support your partners in teaching financial health.
An event like this could have an accompanying message of physical health, with fun and healthy food choices, tips on shopping smart for financial and physical health, as well as how to plan for other needs.
The usual tips on tax planning, debt reduction, retirement planning and more can still work for this session as well!
2 Lead by Example: Teaching Your Children About Financial Freedom
Whether it’s talking to teens about wise financial decisions, or helping parents show their kids how compound interest with $100/month could benefit them, empowering parents to talk to their kids about money starts with their understanding of it.
Then, once you have the parents teaching their kids, your partners have developed trust and (hopefully) have clients for life!
3 Protect Yourself: The Latest on Preventing Identity Theft
This subject is good anytime. But it’s especially good to revisit as new scams come out in the news – which is how you can promote it. Newsjacking, or putting the news cycle to use for your marketing, can help position your partners as the go-to resource for local news.
Focusing on “the latest” information also helps bring what might feel like a repetitive lesson into a fresh perspective by finding the latest scare or the newest solution. We often pay attention to the “newest” or “latest.”
4 Financial Freedom for Women
Here’s a lesson that could work great for National Women’s Month each March. Whether she’s a single mom, working on career advancement, going through a divorce, or a widow, there are certain potentially pivotal times in women’s lives. This session would address special considerations for budgeting, credit, investing, insurance and more.
5 The Smart Decision: Planning for College
It may sound good to offer this during graduation season for parents thinking about the next year, or just as college applications are going out, or for parents of young children. It can cover the needs of parents with children of just about any age.
This could even cover college students at later ages paying for school on their own.
However you frame it, covering all options for college savings will help set minds at ease, building trust for your local reps and partners.
6 How to Take a Vacation Without Going Into Debt
Spring break. Summer vacation. Winter holidays. However people choose to unplug, help them do it without saddling their family with more debt.
From savings to finding the best deals on airfare to exploring new options like Airbnb, bringing the most up to date, smart insights to clients can only help position a financial advisor as a thought leader.
7 Welcome Home: To Buy or Not to Buy
From first time home buyer seminars to “home buying 101,” covering the American Dream can include myriad tips for clients.
You could explore the rent vs buy question. You could have a mortgage expert go over options. You could invite a real estate agent or Realtor® to talk about getting the best deals. However you frame it, offering information on making the right financial decision for our home always helps.
8 The Golden Years: How to Plan for Retirement in the Current Market
Is social media in danger? What about pensions? Which 401k or IRA should I choose?
Retirement plans can overwhelm the average American consumer. Many of us have no plan for retirement. And retirement may look different for us all.
Not everyone wants a rocking chair to become our permanent seat.
So, how do you plan for the Golden Years? That’s where you and your partners come in, of course. #preachingtothechoir
The hook here is to use the current events and headlines to direct your course. Once again, we want the latest information and newest insights. Bitcoin? Stocks? Gold? Bring the most up to date information to this course.
9 Financial Blunders: Learning from Mistakes
From YouTube fails to AFV there’s something about other people’s failures that capture our attention. Bring this idea to a financial client seminar.
You could showcase well known blunders from obvious people, or anonymous stories from real life and closer people. Either way, put people at ease with examples of what not to do so they can learn what to do.
10 Diversity and Growth: Lessons on Managing a Successful Portfolio
A diverse income stream can shore up someone from financial struggles like recession. You know this. Your customers may know this. It doesn’t hurt to revisit it and bring all kinds of examples.
You may even bring in a multimedia approach like podcast clips, videos or a live guest speaker who can bring a deeper knowledge and examples.
BONUS: Avoiding the Holiday Hangover of Overspending
10 tips seems like a great number, but there are 12 months in a year. Taking one month off for the holiday season would mean your financial advisor partners have 11 opportunities to showcase their business with you in client educational seminars. So here’s one last idea to round out your calendar.
In November when the holiday shopping season nears, offer a title like this to get their attention and offer tips and ideas for great deals, how to save all year and other financial wisdom. Head off that holiday hangover and busted budget with terrific tips on wise financial decisions.
Seminar attendee photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Counting money photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Vacation photo by Anete Lūsiņa on Unsplash
Fail photo by Quino Al on Unsplash
