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Friday, November 30, 2012

Checklist Principles


The Financial Advisor Guide to Checklist Principles
  Stephen Wershing in Checklist principles

A financial advisor will improve practice management performance by incorporating effective checklists into office processes.  But, how does an advisor create them?  And do they differ between a financial advisor focusing on portfolio management versus financial planning?

I don't think there can be a good step-by-step method for designing checklists.  (A meta-checklist?)  When I consider the different types of lists there are, and the different situations in which they can be employed, the process of creating each will likely be unique.

There are, however, some great and valuable checklists, and others that are a waste of time of counterproductive.  What accounts for the difference?  I believe there are principles that are common to effective checklists, at least for the financial advisor.

These are the principles I have drawn from what I have observed through research and my work in financial advisor practice management.  I will elaborate on each in subsequent posts.  There may be more.  What do you think?  Are there other rules?  Have you followed guidelines in creating them for your own practice?

Effective, successful checklists are:
  1. Short and precisely worded
  2. Limited to between five and nine items
  3. Provide reminders, not explanations
  4. Focused on steps that are dangerous to miss, and can be easily overlooked
  5. Simple and exact, written in the language of the professionals who will use them
  6. Practical
  7. Written or edited by practitioners
  8. Rigorously tested
Article originally appeared on The Client Driven Practice (http://www.theclientdrivenpractice.com/).
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