Cut through the noise and gave us practical methods to strengthen the relationship with our clients.

 Well organized; insightful; powerful conversations; excellent framework.

I attended a short session at my broker dealer's annual conference this year titled "Preparing to Meet Thy Boom."  I actually did not read the session description and assumed it was on marketing to Baby Boomers.  I was mistaken, and pleasantly surprised.  What I happened upon was Amy Florian, her life's experiences, and how I could use those to become a very effective advisor to widows of baby boomers!  I learned I must deal directly with death and the grief my widowed clients or potential clients are going through in a way that is honest and caring.

I was actually able to apply the morning's lesson, that very afternoon.  I received an e-mail from a client who's best friend and neighbor died the previous week.  The client and I had been trying to get together and this event had put her in a tailspin so to speak.  I was able to talk to her, let her share with me how wonderful her neighbor had been, cry on the phone (without fear), and then we set our appointment to meet when I got back into town. 

Thank you Amy for giving me real life tools that were immediately useful to communicate to a grieving client so effectively!
 

You did wonderfully in the three evaluation categories directly related to your presentation.  Your scores were right up there with the highest numbers any speaker has received at an FPA of Phoenix event.  In fact, when asked whether the attendees felt it was worth their time, money, and effort to be there, the score was 4.9 out of 5.  Thank you for your presentation!  We appreciate it and you.

Use of voice, body, slide mix....simple to colorful, static to motion.

Genuine.   Human.  The passion shows.

I attended one of Amy's workshops and was extremely impressed with how little I truly understood in the Grief process. Given my work in counselling clients about estate planning and settlement issues, I decided to do additional work with Amy to address specific concerns as to how to better communicate with clients, friends and my own staff in these types of issues. Amy has not disappointed in any of these projects. I intend to continue working with her and have introduced her to a number of organizations I am involved with to spread the word. I think she is awesome. I thank her for her insight and experience.

Amy, I would like to thank you for your presentation last week.  I want to share something with you that occurred on my return to the office. I received a call while at Collegium for a "death bed" planning case.

I was able to meet with the family and actually got the planning done prior to the husband's death yesterday at 8:00 p.m. In the course of dealing with the family during the "death watch" and in the hours that have passed since last night, I was able to incorporate some of your training into my usual discussions with remarkable results. 

While I have always honestly felt that I sincerely cared about the family, using your suggestions made all the difference in the world in terms of an ability to communicate that I DID care.  Your approach helped me forge a lasting relationship.

Many thanks.

On Friday I had the opportunity to use your information with a new client who lost her husband in April. We had a very productive meeting because I followed your suggestions and let her tell her story. I did not use the word should and I gave her time to tell me how he died. Needless to say, she hired me on the stop because she said she did not need any more time to think about things.

On the previous Monday I received another call from an existing client who informed me his wife died the day before. Once again, your advice was right on the mark.

Thanks again!

Hank
 

Your presentation was good on so many levels and really helped people come to terms with. speaking about death and dying.

Being that my practice has an emphasis on surviving spouses, I was very interested when the FPA of Illinois invited Amy to our Distinguished Speakers Series. Her presentation on the grief process was so powerful I retained her services as a consultant which has proven instrumental to my practice.  Since death is an inevitable element in the financial planning process, your ability to retain surviving spouses and their heirs as clients will be solely dependent on your knowledge and understanding of Amy’s programs.  This is a must have.

 Provided numerous practical, tactical "nuggets" and ideas.

All financial advisors should be required to participate in this program!

Amy Florian provides content that will differentiate financial advisors during the coming "death boom".

Great energy.  Great passion.   Great credibility.

Very useful and empowering information....empowering me to be able to serve.

Provide a way to help guide clients or their widows / widowers, through the grief process in a professional yet personal manner, thereby strengthening the relationship for the future.

In this crowded world of presentations (and die by presentations) I was absolutely moved by Amy's knowledge and skill set. A real subject matter expert bringing many years of experience in an easy to understand language and format. When she presents she is in charge of the floor, she is very aware and in full control of her audience. It ts dynamic, it is educational, and it is extremely powerful. She captures your full attention and I actually learnt some very powerful techniques that are very rarely discussed.

You can clearly tell that she is very passionate about what she does. In a recent presentation I gave her 12 out of the possible 10 rating for her performance. I am a big fan and with her disciplined approach, structure and constant coaching, she can make a real difference in how you would approach the grieve process. Phenomenal, powerful, and just hands down perfect. I highly recommend her. When was the last time you saw some mind blowing stuff from an expert?

I encountered a most extraordinary speaker. She gave us a wonderful presentation explaining how a financial advisor can support and interact with people who have experienced a life-changing loss, particularly a widowed spouse of a client. I am encountering this difficult situation more and more, as will every successful financial representative.

Amy Florian is terrific. Her “red letter language” is sincere and compassionate. She gives insight into what a person in this circumstance is looking for, and what we could say - and not say (those trite expressions we foolishly rely on at such times).

I attended Amy’s presentation, and I believe it is important for every financial advisor. She helped us understand how to build relationships with grieving clients from the time of their initial contact with our assistants. She taught us how to conduct the initial meeting with empathy and gave the right questions to ask to gain trust with these clients.

 Explain how to relate to, and communicate with, the grieving person.

 Explained exactly what to say and what to do.  Expresses yourself very genuinely and not as business.

 Share experiences - personal.   Appreciate you taking time for questions & others to share. Thank you!

 Presenting the psychology of dealing with grieving people.

Communicated very effectively.  Learning about the 5 things not to say, and the reasons why not to say these things, was particularly valuable.

 Deal with real-life issues in a pragmatic manner.  Fielded Q&A well!

 Amy,

We really enjoyed your talk last week to the FPA of Illinois.  As part of our Distinguished Speaker Series you surely proved yourself to be part of that group.  You are a talented speaker!

Your insights and practical "how to" tips really resonated with our members, and the inclusion of data about the importance of your topic was so good to help position it.  Thanks so much!

Regards,

Your presentation opened my eyes to the fact that I need training to become a much better financial planner when dealing with grieving clients.

 Held my attention.  Spoke clearly and expressively. 

Helped me to understand the grief process and also helped me act on writing a note to my cousin whose husband recently died.

Implement the portfolio for clients to keep things of importance.

In a simple and organized way, you were able to equip me with the tools to better serve my clients who have experienced a loss.  Thank you.

Relating to your personal loss makes all of your session so much more understanding.

Your speaking is personal and warm.  It is perfect for the topic.

I enjoyed your presentation. The information was practical, both professionally and personally. In the investment world, we get a lot of analysts and economists who are not professional speakers, so the quality of your message made an impression.

Very interesting topic and presentation. Amy did a great job!

 Easily explain complex issues with passion.

 Amy explaiins the grief process in an understandable way.  She indicates the pitfalls and best practices of dealing with those undergoing  the grief / transitioning processes.

 Spoke from the heart.  Explained the reasoning behind the content.

Excellent presentation.

 Presentation was excellent.   Not a topic I would have sought but it was eye opening.

Great information about dealing with a very difficult topic.

Each client is different (your words) so for some it would be great and for others perhaps not.

FP is all about relationships and we have virtually no training in this important topic.

Very fine presentation.