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10 Rules on Trust from Don Trone

For plan advisors, now is an especially good time to talk about trust, industry thought leader Don Trone believes. “For the past year, the integrity of the retirement industry has been slurred,” Trone writes in the spring issue of NAPA Net the Magazine. “The DOL believes that it has to promulgate a new fiduciary standard because it doesn’t believe we can be trusted. We need to demonstrate otherwise.”

Trone offers a list of 10 “trust rules” — truths that are universal and can be applied to anyone in any situation.

Rule #10: Be patient. It takes time to build trust; there are no shortcuts to becoming a trusted advisor. Never forget that if trust is broken, you may run out of time before you’re ever given a second chance.

Rule #9: Be reliable. Clarify client expectations, goals and objections, and deliver on promises. Be transparent and consistent with your decision-making process.

Rule #8: Be competent. Demonstrate that you have acquired a body of specialized knowledge that can be attained only through additional education, training and experience. And that you can apply that knowledge to a particular scenario, and do the requisite work.

Rule #7: Be seen. Step forward when you witness an inappropriate activity.

Rule #6: Be accountable. Money can’t buy trust. You can’t pay someone to trust you or to trust your brand. No amount of money thrown at hiring or firing people, painting over a tarnished logo or public relations can overcome a breach of trust.

Rule #5: Be courageous. We work in an industry in which many have allowed legal opinions and compliance requirements to become the surrogate for courageous and ethical decision-making. We need checklists to make sure that we have not omitted a critical step or practice. But we must guard against a “checklist mentality” where we forgo objective judgment because we’re able to put a checkmark in a box.

Rule #4: Be purposeful. People can sense when you are coming from a genuine place and responding to a higher calling. Even in the animal kingdom, the leader is the one that is most trusted to be equitable in meeting the varied demands of the herd or pack.

Rule #3: Be conscientious: Trust is values-based, and nothing erodes trust faster than evidence of character flaws. It’s why your reputation is so important, and why you need to be deliberate in whom you work for, associate with and support. Conventional wisdom used to be that “charisma” was the most desired trait in a salesperson. Not anymore; today it’s character.

Rule #2: Be selfless. It takes discipline and passion to serve the long-term interests of others. This is the essence of stewardship.

Rule #1: Be the point of inspiration for moral, ethical and prudent decision-making. To be the trusted advisor, you must make your life and work meaningful so that you can be of service to others. This is the essence of leadership.

In addition to Trone’s regular “Inside the Stewardship Movement” column, the spring issue of NAPA Net the Magazine includes the cover story on NAPA’s top plan advisors under 40, as well as feature articles on custom TDFs and the Obama administration’s take on open MEPs. The issue also features insights from regular contributors Jerry Bramlett, Steff Chalk, Nevin Adams, David Levine, Brian Graff, Warren Cormier, Joseph DeNoyior, Jania Stout, Fred Barstein and Lisa Greenwald Schneider.

To view Trone’s column, click here and select “Trust Rules.” And to view a pdf of the full 56-page issue, click here.

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