Good Life founder and CEO Conor Delaney believes that health and wealth are interwoven. A former college athlete, he’s run 10 marathons across the world and launched an organic café and gym. He has also built a successful business by empowering independent financial advisors to improve their businesses and their lives.

Here he explains how healthy advisors can play a bigger role in their clients’ lives.

The Convergence of Wealth and Health

The financial intersection with health and wealth is so interesting. On the one hand, people are living longer. From a financial planning standpoint, they’re going to need more to live well into their retirement years. On the other side, if you’re not healthy, healthcare is not cheap. The advisor is now asking, “What should we be preparing for given the client’s health –and do I have the opportunity to help shape that?”   

Next to the doctor, I would argue that there’s nobody more important than the financial advisor. There’s nobody that’s going to have a more intimate relationship with the client than the financial advisor. If we can take that and own that from a responsibility standpoint, I think it’s something that can put us as a catalyst of positive change in a client’s life above and beyond their financial plan.  

The Disciplined Advisor

One of the cool things about going independent is that you are no longer beholden to the manager of your office and their expectations. You can make your own schedule and create your own experience. With that comes this need to be self-disciplined. At Good Life, we encourage advisors to make health a priority because it builds discipline.

When I was 24-25, I was trying to go to the gym every day. I remember talking to the trainer one day. I said, “Tony, I’ve got this great idea. I was reading about the Atkins diet. What do you think?”

He said, “Dude, it’s a lifestyle; it’s not something that’s going to start or stop. It’s not a fad. It’s something that you need to commit to long-term. You need to make your health journey something that is sustainable.”

Making that day-to-day commitment to your health drives the discipline that will also position you to build a successful practice. When advisors come to the independent channel, they are moving away from the <30% payout and shifting to one that is >70%. We help them design their branding and website. We help them move all of their accounts and set up all processes. This creates an asset that can be worth $2 million+. What muscle are you willing to grow to maximize that asset, inspire your clients, and perform your best?

The Future Looks Buff

For advisors, being the smartest guy or most seasoned advisor is not necessarily the winning formula anymore. You can go to Google and buy an annuity just by clicking a button. Clients want to be inspired. They want to work with somebody who has it together, inspires them to be better, and can show them the path to get there.

I believe we’ll see a new advisor generation take shape. I think of it like some of the changes that came to golf when Tiger Woods got to the scene. Tiger comes along, and he’s like, “We’re going to put a workout regimen around this. We’re going to be elite athletes.” He spent the next 20 years transforming the sport. I believe the healthy advisor can do the same.

Can we equip our bodies the right way to outperform, outthink, and out-energize those around us? Then, most importantly, our clients are going to win because they are getting the best version of us that they can get.

It Starts With the Advisor

As a firm, we have a sense of purpose to build and equip advisors to run a better race in life. Statistics show us that half of marriages end in divorce. Type 2 diabetes is projected to increase by 54% from 2015 to 2030. Only 48% of parents highlight having strong relationships with their kids.  Our advisors and their clients are facing these problems, too.

We watch shows like “The Wolf of Wall Street,” where you win at all costs in business and neglect to talk about how to address your personal life. 

There’s a place for a partner firm that goes beyond speaking the vernacular and is motivating and inspiring. At Good Life, we believe we are being called to demonstrate leadership across more than just financial planning. It’s a cool opportunity we have organizationally to help so many people set a positive path forward. Good Life can slide in and provide direction, resources, and a support system and teach them to be leaders for their companies, their clients, and their communities.

If we succeed there, we know they will not only have success in business; more importantly, those are the people who are going to be multipliers across the varying ways they are having influence.