Certified Financial Planner (CFP) in corporate banking

If you look around in the market, you will find many banks and savings banks that offer financial planning for their customers as an additional service in their private banking or wealth management. This is of course in line with the basic idea of financial planning.

Personally, however, I have never heard of a financial planner in the role of co-advisor to corporate clients. And I wonder why that might be. After all, it is the declared goal and also an economic necessity to look after the private side of corporate customers and to provide them with their additional services and solutions.

The experience in many companies should be that the corporate client advisor mainly speaks to the entrepreneur in his role as managing director, since these topics dominate day-to-day business. On the large number of contacts the topics from an owner-perspective are mostly absent.

If I fancy that an institute creates a leaner financial analysis and planning for itself (in the sense of 80/20 = generate 80% of the knowledge with 20% of the effort): with a simple and structured recording of the assets (e.g. on the basis of own, available information or a financial statement of assets), then it would be structured and broadly able to address the entrepreneur in his role as an owner (or partner) with regard to his financial goals (with the company as a core asset!).

Using the second person (i.e. the financial planner) as co-RSM and a comparatively small aid, it is possible to dock on the already existing relationships and lead them to a new level. However, this is to be understood as a free entry into the conversation (= financial planning „light“ as a communication / sales approach, not as an independent service) and not as a „slimmed-down“ consulting mandate – in return it is right and cheap if the small financial plan has certain strengths where the individual institute is particularly efficient.

Targets for assets and asset allocation can then be discussed with the entrepreneur in a structured and systematic manner and you can start planning together for the future. When the ground is prepared – and the customer has been able to derive added value for himself from the initial discussion, he may also be enthusiastic about the entire financial planning service.

In my experience, an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur all around the clock. His private side also revolves around his business. The whole future depends on it: for him- or herself, the family, social status, … and: it is usually the greatest asset in the whole entrepreneurial family. Of course, an entrepreneur may need a home loan and savings agreement or want to protect his family members through life insurance, but in and of itself it is not his (or her) big issues that keep him (or her) awake. They are issues that are dealt with in passing. They are topics with rather low involvement – like a packet of flour in the supermarket. (Of course the customer wants the best product and the best price, but they don’t want to deal with it!)

However, when I talk to an entrepreneur about the future, about his future – whether from the perspective of a managing director or a partner – I will have his real attention. The solutions that flank the way into the future will emerge – I am firmly convinced of that. (It is also not entirely improbable that he / she him-/herself has the feeling that the shareholder side is falling short – in all the operational constraints, so that there is basically an openness or a need for support for these topics; only: to whom opens up the entrepreneur?)

In conclusion, I can only repeat my question: Why are there no (or only so few?) Certified Financial Planners as co-RSM in the corporate customer business of banks and savings banks?