How often do we ask our clients to refer their friends and family to us? Perhaps some of us don't do it enough, but we seldom think of our obligation to refer our clients to someone else.  I am not talking about earning referral fees from service providors (which I do NOT reccomend for a number of reasons), I am talking about using our unique relationship with our clients to improve their lives by referring them to other financial professionals.

An associate recently told me of a client's thank you letter.  He had urged them to get a term life insurance policy after noting that they did not have one while he took thteir loan application.  I know as a younger person I neglected to buy coverage for myself because I  thought I didn't have a pressing need.  His client was in the same boat, but gave in and got a small policy at the loan officer's prodding.  Several months later he got a thank you note.  The client was diagnosed with breast cancer and was grateful that the insurance was purchased while she was healthy.  Now that she was effectively uninsurable, she felt the (obvious) pressing need for the coverage. 

What would have happened if the loan officer had not made a point of pressing the issue?  It wasn't within the scope of his job as a loan officer, but he had a deep and lasting impact on his client's life.  We owe it to our clients to expand the scope of our interviews to include some friendly advice on Insurance, estate planning, retirement planning, and college savings.  Be careful not to cross the line and overstep the limits of our licensing, but also be careful not to ignore our obligation to protect our clients by referring them to other professionals they might not know they need.