I am proud to be the first Certified Financial Transitionist® (CeFT®) in Africa. As a financial planner with 25 years of experience and a 5-Star achiever rating, this felt like the next best step for me to take to deliver even more value to my clients and grow in my skills and calling.
After 12 months of studying, training and preparing for the extensive 8-hour exam, I received my CeFT® designation in January, 2019.
As a CeFT®, I am trained and skilled in engaging with my clients with increased empathy and enhanced communication skills. I am able to have structured conversations that lead with purpose and follow a methodology that is crafted to create desirable outcomes for clients.
The qualification of a Certified Financial Transitionist®
Financial advisers who choose to enhance their qualifications need at least five years of client-facing experience and an advanced technical designation like the CFP® (Certified Financial Planner®) to qualify for the year-long CeFT® training programme. The course is completed online and includes both theoretical and experiential components.
Financial transitionists are specially trained to guide clients through life transitions using unique processes and tools that incorporate cutting-edge research in disciplines of neuroscience, physiology, sociology and psychology regarding the human experience of major life change.
A new direction for financial advice
There have been changes in the way that people are wanting to engage with financial advice and choose products. We are all acknowledging that life decisions can’t be separate from financial decisions; that they are intrinsically connected. With a CeFT® qualification I am able to change not only the approach to financial planning, and the structure of my business, but I am equipped to have new and more-meaningful conversations with you around your life and your finances.
Beyond understanding finances, I combine human aspects of transitions in a way that is comfortable and best suited to my clients.
My motivation for taking this journey is inspired by major life decisions that my clients are faced with, which get triggered by events such as:
- Marriage, divorce and repartnering
- Business liquidity events
- Inheritance
- Death of spouse
- Retirement
- Major career changes
As advisers, we need to understand how to help clients through these transitions, because they can lead to a significant shift in our sense of ‘normal’.
Clients-in-transition often struggle with communication, decision-making, managing expectations, and even implementation; and they require a different set of tools and protocols than most advisors are used to.
I believe that my responsibility as a financial adviser is to help my clients make decisions that are beneficial to both their current reality and future life. As such, my approach is not only centred around finances but also about understanding the emotions involved and minimising the stress.
In a world full of enormous opportunity and saturated with too much information, my ability to help my clients navigate the personal and emotional challenges they may face is what will ultimately help them flourish in these transitions.