Why financial triage sometimes matters more than sophisticated planning.
A few weeks ago, I signed up for a CFP® compliance session offered through the Financial Planning Association (FPA). It landed in the middle of a quick family vacation, but we were only about two hours away. Two hours there, a two-hour meeting, and two hours back. It cut into the day, but I wanted to attend, and the family understood. Besides, I’ve always liked what I call ‘windshield time.’ What I didn't expect was a lesson in financial triage.
For me, driving creates room to think. No email. No Zoom calls. Just a long stretch of road and enough quiet to work through questions and/or problems. On the drive down, I started thinking about my first pro bono client and our progress so far.
She is the beneficiary of her deceased husband’s 401K account. Statements are still coming in his name, and I saw what I thought could be a valuable planning opportunity. Not just to roll it over, but in my mind, to maximize her own retirement account and plan for her future. It was complicated and would need to be coordinated with her financial advisor and CPA, but the more I thought about it, the more interesting it became. I started smiling to myself because it could work!
By the time I arrived, I was excited. I shared the broad concept with a couple of people there. They agreed it was unique, interesting, and potentially doable. As planners talking to planners, we all geeked out on the idea. Then I got back in the car.
I had another two hours of windshield time, and somewhere on that drive home, my thinking changed. The idea was still good. It may eventually be very valuable to her. But I realized my excitement had more to do with the idea (and perhaps with me) than it did with what this client needed from me right now.
I smiled on the way down. I checked myself on the way back.
She Didn’t Need Everything I Knew
This was my first real lesson in financial triage. After more than forty years in financial services, it is natural to jump to a solution. I can often see the problem and find a fix. And, if I’m being honest, there is a little part of you that wants to say, ‘Look how cool I am and how much value I can add.’
But this client had been through a great deal. Her accounts, documents, decisions, and responsibilities had not yet been pulled together. She did not need another complicated idea to carry. She needed organization, simplification, and a clear understanding of what required attention now. She needed to make sure she had new estate documents with guardianship wording for her minor children; she needed to build up from a low credit score, and understand her cash inflow and outflows.
The planning opportunity did not disappear because I decided not to present it yet. I will raise it near the end of our work as something she may want to discuss with her advisor and CPA when the time is right.
I’ve begun to realize that pro bono planning is not about giving away everything you know. It is about knowing which part of what you know is useful to the person sitting in front of you right now. Of course, it is about her, not me.
‘Financial Triage’ Before Financial Optimization
Triage is not about ignoring important issues. It is about putting them in the right order. What needs attention now? What can wait? What can be simplified? And what is the next decision this person can realistically make?
For many pro bono clients, the first value of planning may not be a sophisticated retirement or tax strategy. It may be helping them gather the right documents, understand an account, establish a basic cash-flow picture, identify a legal question, or know which professional to call next. That can sound basic from the outside. It does not feel basic to someone staring at disconnected decisions with no idea where to begin.
Traditional planning often demonstrates value through the breadth and depth of the advice. Here, value may come from reducing the breadth: make the situation understandable, identify the immediate issue, and give the client one or two possible next steps. Triage comes before optimization.
Turning Individual Lessons Into a Program
At the same time, Diversified is firming up its partnership with the Foundation for Financial Planning and preparing to roll out the first version of a broader pro bono program.
In my last entry, I wrote about measuring the outcome, not just the input. Sure, we will count hours, meetings, advisors, and families served. Those numbers show participation, but they don’t show whether the work actually helped. That requires an ongoing feedback loop. We are looking at using our fourth-Monday advisor call to share success stories and lessons from actual engagements. Those stories can motivate people and allow good ideas to travel across offices rather than remaining with one planner or team.
We also envision a quarterly internal impact report, followed by an annual impact statement for stakeholders, community partners, and interested clients. The point is not simply to report hours. It is to show what changed because of the work.
But the feedback is also going to include more than clean wins. It’s going to show advice we decided not to give, an engagement that did not begin as expected, and a conversation that did not land. If we share only polished stories, we may inspire people, but miss much of the learning.
We also cannot create a bureaucracy around volunteering. We need to capture just enough to understand the impact, learn from one another, and improve the experience for the next client and planner.
The Advice That Can Wait
So here is where we are a few months down the pro bono path: One client reminded me that the most interesting planning idea is not automatically the most useful one. Another reminded me that an open door does not mean someone is ready to walk through it. (More on that later). Diversified is showing me that individual experiences become more valuable when we learn from them together.
The idea I had during that drive may still have value, and I hope her advisor and CPA explore it when the time is right. But my job was not to deliver my most interesting idea. It was to help her take the next step she was ready to take. For me, pro bono planning is not about giving away everything you know. It is about understanding what will help, what can wait, and what someone is ready to carry.
I still don't know if I made the right call holding back that idea. Maybe she would have loved it. But what I do know: when we trade emails, she's doing the work to get clarity. For me, pro bono planning often starts with financial triage: understanding what will help, what can wait. Giving her solid steps she could own felt like the real work, more valuable than another clever strategy.