Case Studies | Corgenius

“I wholeheartedly recommend Amy and the Corgenius program to my peers. It is an excellent resource for improving your interpersonal skills and offering an overall better client service experience.”

Lauren Genuardi

Telemus

The Business Need

Most of our clients are high net worth individuals and have relationships with our firm that span well over a decade. Not only do I work with these clients through all kinds of life transitions, I often have the opportunity to work with their children and, in some cases, their grandchildren. While these kinds of long-term relationships put us in the unique position of being able to advise in many areas of an individual’s financial live, they also require us to learn how to confidently support our clients through difficult times.

The Challenges

Although I have dealt with deep grief personally with my father dying when I was in my late twenties, I still struggled with how to convey my experiences with personal loss and grief to clients in transition. Like others, I have limited professional experience communicating in these situations and often felt my comments were just anecdotal. Not really knowing what to say, I would mostly tiptoe around in conversations in order to avoid emotional topics, keeping the conversations fact-based and focused on the work-at-hand.

The Solution

Amy assured us that the point is to be ourselves. In order to genuinely support our clients, we must be able to open up, be vulnerable, and share our life experiences. In turn, as clients become more willing to share their stories with us, we learn to listen with care and respect. Once we understand that everyone processes grief and transition differently and there is no right or wrong way, we are able to truly be there for others and offer support when it is needed most.

One practice we now do more proactively is to involve the children of our clients in family discussions when appropriate and emphasize the many benefits of family involvement. Corgenius also offers a wide variety of resources that enable us to further enrich the lives of our clients and help demonstrate how much we care about them.

Business and Personal Value

Prior to working with Amy I felt awkward dealing with clients in transition. Corgenius training has deepened my connection with my clients and has given me the confidence to expand the depth of conversations with them -- whether it’s about end-of-life planning and final wishes, caring for a parent with a cognitive impairment or starting over after divorce. Working with Amy impacted me on a personal level as well. Her insights were invaluable on how to share my father’s legacy with my two sons who never had the opportunity to meet him. She also gave me advice on how to help my young sons process their great grandma’s death.

Our motto at Telemus is “Enrich your life. Enjoy your wealth.” In many ways, my work with Amy has given us more avenues to help my clients do exactly that. I wholeheartedly recommend Amy and the Corgenius program to my peers. It is an excellent resource for not only improving your interpersonal skills, but offering a better client service experience overall.

“I have learned a lot from Amy Florian that has helped me not only in my professional life, but also in my personal life. Friends and family have lost loved ones, and I have been more prepared to support them through those transitions. I readily recommend Amy to my peers because of the value she can add to their skill as a financial advisor.”

Alexander J Cudzewicz, President

Oak Brook Asset Management Corp.

The Business Need

As the clientele ages and the business environment becomes increasingly relationship-centric, financial advisors must be able to appropriately interface with clients on a professional as well as personal level. This includes knowing how to support them through major life transitions. Once overlooked, this skill is becoming increasingly relevant to advisory firms. Oak Brook Asset Management Corp., an investment advisory firm based in Scottsdale, AZ., is no exception.

Consisting primarily of engineers, nurses, teachers, school administrators, and business owners, most of the firm’s clients have been customers for decades. Now reaching or at retirement age, they are encountering losses, retirement and job terminations, divorces, and other major life transitions with increasing frequency. Like other advisory firms, Oak Brook Asset Management was skilled in handling their clients’ business needs, but much less equipped to appropriately communicate with them about their grief.

The Challenges

Like many other advisors, Firm President, Alexander J. Cudzewicz, long felt he had difficulty relating to grieving clients. Feeling awkward, he was often unsure of what to say or do and wondered if his approach was sufficient to support these clients as well as maintain the relationships.

Because there's never been a guide that really explains how to handle these potentially challenging and often professionally awkward situations, training is crucial to help firms learn how to assist clients in transition.

The Solution

Working with Amy Florian, the firm began to develop the insight and practical skills to communicate and support clients in their time of grief. For example, they learned appropriate responses for uncomfortable moments at a funeral or wake. They learned how to react when a client breaks the news of a loss situation in their lives. Most importantly, they learned the value of taking the time to listen and understand what clients are experiencing as they work through their grief – even if their conversations only briefly mention finances.

The Business and Personal Value

The financial advisory business is all about trust and relationships. Learning how to effectively communicate with clients in transition has been a strong influence in the firm’s ability to reinforce trust and strengthen relationships. As Oak Brook Asset Management increasingly sees in its business, clients hire you and, more importantly, stay with you because of that.