The Problem with Most Values Statements
Walk into any advisory office and you'll likely see values posted somewhere: "Integrity. Excellence. Client-First." Generic. Forgettable. And rarely referenced when actual decisions need to be made.
Here's the uncomfortable reality: values that don't guide behavior are just corporate decoration. For financial advisors handling clients' life savings, retirement security, and legacy planning, values must be more than aspirational, they must be operational.
Why Values Matter Uniquely in Advisory Practices
In financial advisory, values serve as the foundation for everything that matters: client trust, team culture, and consistent decision-making during challenging situations. When a client asks about a product that pays you higher commissions but isn't optimal for them, your values should make that decision automatic. When team members face ethical gray areas, shared values provide the framework for consistent responses.
Values alignment is especially critical because clients need to see consistent, values-based behavior from every team member—whether they're meeting with a senior advisor or working with client services. Inconsistency erodes the trust that took years to build.
The Hybrid Approach: Best of Both Worlds
Rather than starting from scratch or simply adopting generic corporate values, successful advisory teams use a hybrid approach that combines professional comprehensiveness with authentic ownership.
Start with a curated list covering five key areas relevant to advisory practices:
Client-Centered Values: Fiduciary responsibility, educational empowerment, long-term partnership
Professional Excellence: Expertise, analytical rigor, quality and detail orientation
Integrity and Trust: Honesty, transparency, confidentiality, accountability
Team Culture: Collaboration, respect, inclusion, work-life integration
Community Impact: Local involvement, financial literacy advocacy, accessibility
Then customize relentlessly by asking: "What's missing that matters to us? How do we make these feel authentically ours?" Rewrite values in your own language. A value isn't yours until it reflects how you actually think and speak.
The Three-Phase Development Process
Phase 1: Individual Reflection (1-2 weeks) Each team member identifies their top 10 professional values and writes why each matters. Consider what kind of practice you want to be known for and what values would attract your ideal clients.
Phase 2: Team Discovery (2-3 sessions) In your first session, share individual values and identify common themes. Discuss what's missing from standard lists. In the second session, dive deeper—for each value cluster, discuss what it means in practice, how you'd demonstrate it to clients and each other, and what behaviors would violate it. Use dot voting or ranking exercises to prioritize. In your final session, narrow to 5-8 core values that are authentic, distinctive, actionable, and memorable.
Phase 3: Documentation and Implementation (1 week) Create definitions with specific behavioral examples and client impact statements for each value. Most importantly, plan how you'll integrate values into daily operations.
Making Values Work Daily
The difference between decorative and operational values lies in consistent application:
In Client Interactions: Reference values when explaining your approach. Use them to guide difficult conversations. Include them in service agreements.
In Team Meetings: Start with a "values moment," share examples of values in action. Use values as criteria for evaluating decisions.
In Hiring: Evaluate candidates for values alignment, not just technical skills. Include values demonstration in performance reviews.
Example in Action: We define Client-First Fiduciary Care as, “We make every decision by asking 'What's best for our client?' We provide transparent, unbiased advice even when it means less revenue for us."
Notice the specificity, it answers the commission question before it's asked.
The Bottom Line
Values aren't perfect until they're authentic. The goal isn't beautifully worded statements for your website—it's genuine beliefs that guide your team's decisions and behaviors daily. Values that are lived consistently are far more powerful than values that are perfectly worded but rarely referenced.
Start with professional comprehensiveness, customize with authentic ownership, and implement with relentless consistency. That's how you move from wall poster to guiding principles.