The most valuable thing a financial planner can sometimes do?
Forget what they think they know.
Not knowing scares people.
That’s why so many people spend so much of their lives anxious.
They tell themselves they need to know what’s going to happen so they can prepare properly. Otherwise, something could go wrong.
And in many professions, that mindset makes perfect sense.
Financial planning, especially, is built on knowledge.
You spend years becoming qualified so that you know the right strategies, answers, and recommendations.
Your clients trust you because of what you know.
So, here’s an interesting question:
Is there ever value in not knowing?
Many years ago, I attended a practice-building programme led by psychologist Dr George Pransky.
During one session, a participant asked him a question about working with new clients.
He said:
“George, you’ve worked with thousands of clients over more than forty years. What advice would you give a beginner like me about how to approach a new client?”
George’s answer caught many of us completely off guard because he said:
“It’s true that I’ve worked with many people over many years. But when I sit with a new client, I’m exactly the same as you. I’m starting from nothing, and my experience counts for nothing at all.”
The room went quiet.
Surely expertise is the whole point? Surely experience is what gives you the advantage?
But George went on to explain something profound.
He said he wanted to be free of assumptions, labels, preconceived ideas, and thinking he already understood the person sitting in front of him.
Rather than bringing his past experience into the conversation, he wanted to meet the client with a completely fresh mind.
A beginner’s mind.
At first glance, that can sound counterintuitive. But when you think about it, it changes everything.
The expert’s trap
Expertise is valuable.
But expertise can quietly create assumptions, and these can stop us from truly seeing people.
The moment we think:
“I know this type of client.”
“I’ve seen this before.”
“I know where this conversation is going.”
…we stop listening as deeply. We stop being curious.
And curiosity is one of the most valuable qualities a financial planner can bring into a client relationship.
When you let go of needing to already know, something interesting happens:
1. You become more genuinely curious
Without assumptions, you naturally ask better questions.
You become more interested in understanding this client rather than fitting them into a category based on previous experience.
Clients feel that difference immediately.
2. You bring more creativity into the conversation
Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki famously said:
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
A fresh mind sees and notices more.
It allows new insights and ideas to emerge naturally rather than mechanically repeating the same patterns and conversations.
3. It deepens trust and rapport
Clients don’t just want technical competence. They want to feel understood.
When we show up primarily through our professional identity — the expert, the adviser, the problem solver — the relationship can become transactional.
But when we meet client’s human-to-human, with openness and genuine interest, trust deepens naturally.
And that changes the quality of the entire relationship.
The hidden opportunity in long-term client relationships
Many financial planners have shared with me that meetings with long-term clients can sometimes begin to feel repetitive.
An annual review becomes a portfolio update, a compliance driven checklist.
But the potential is far greater than that.
Those meetings can be engaging, inspiring, thought-provoking, and energising.
Because the truth is there is always a lot more to discover than what we already think we know.
People continue to evolve, their hopes and fears shift and their priorities change.
And if we approach those conversations believing we already know the client, we can easily miss what’s new.
One of the most valuable things you can do before a meeting is quietly let go of what you think you already know.
Approach the conversation with fresh eyes.
A beginner’s mind.
Not because your expertise doesn’t matter.
But because your expertise becomes far more valuable when it’s combined with openness, presence, and deep listening.
Final thought
Technical knowledge may get you in the room.
But the quality of mind you bring into the room shapes everything that happens next.
Sometimes the most powerful place to begin is not with certainty but with curiosity.
PS. Real financial planning – is it just about the money? Click here to learn more.
