Best Practices: What to Do After Presenting to Clients to Keep Momentum Going

A successful client meeting doesn’t end when the conversation is over. Important decisions often continue taking shape after clients leave the meeting.

You’ve walked clients through scenarios, answered their questions, and helped them visualize potential outcomes. But they may not be ready to decide on the spot. If they leave without a clear way to revisit the conversation, momentum can fade quickly.

This short video lays out a real workflow you can follow to review options interactively during client meetings and maintain momentum toward decisions afterward:

The Post-Meeting Gap

You’ve likely experienced this before:

You present a well-crafted financial strategy, and your clients respond positively. They understand the recommendations and appreciate the guidance, but they ask for time to think things over before moving forward. By the time they revisit the discussion days later, details have faded, and questions begin to surface.

Without a clear review process, clients may:

• Delay decisions
• Misremember recommendations
• Feel overwhelmed by too many options
• Lose momentum between meetings

The result is often inaction, confusion, and additional follow-up work for the advisor.

A Better Approach: Share the Experience, Not Just the Reports

Rather than sending static files after a meeting, consider extending the planning experience through My Plan and the Client Portal.

By sharing the same scenarios clients reviewed during your meeting, you create continuity between the conversation and the decision-making process.

Recommended Workflow

1. Build Your Presentation View

Create a Presentation View that helps tell the client’s story clearly and visually.

For advisors looking to streamline preparation, CoPlanner and Smart Presentation tools can help build a plan or presentation experience based on client-specific needs and goals.

Use Presentation View to:

• Highlight key recommendations
• Compare multiple scenarios
• Toggle techniques on and off to illustrate different outcomes
• Keep the conversation focused on the decisions that matter most

2. Narrow the Choices

Before sharing anything with the client, identify one or two scenarios that represent realistic paths forward.

These might be:

• Multiple plans with different strategies
• A single plan with distinct planning assumptions and techniques enabled or disabled

If you’re using a single plan, be sure to duplicate it before sharing so each scenario remains clear and easy to evaluate.

The goal is to help clients compare options without creating unnecessary complexity. Too many options can create decision paralysis. Focus on helping clients evaluate a small number of meaningful choices instead of every possible outcome.

3. Share via the Client Portal

Once your scenarios are finalized, use the Share to Client Portal feature in Decision Center.

Also confirm that:

• My Plan is enabled for the client (View this short My Plan user guide ).
• Shared scenarios are clearly named
• Clients understand where to access their recommendations

This allows clients to revisit the exact planning experience they saw during your meeting when they’re ready to make a decision.

Tip: To help clients stay focused on the decision at hand, use names that reinforce the purpose of the scenario and clearly describe the action being considered, such as Increase Pretax Savings by 5%, Retire at Age 62, or Accelerate Debt Payoff Strategy.

4. Create a Clear Next Step

Don’t simply share the scenarios and hope clients respond.

Create a task or next step that:

• Explains what clients should review
• Identifies the specific decision they need to make
• Establishes a timeline for their response
• Provides clear instructions for communicating back to you

Client alerts can automatically notify clients about their assigned next steps.

You can also remind clients that they can contact you directly through the My Advisor page without ever leaving the portal experience.

For Premium Client Portal Users

Premium Client Portal users can further reinforce engagement through mobile push notifications, giving clients another reminder to revisit recommendations and take action.

Why This Matters to You

When you share plan scenarios through the Client Portal, your clients can:

• Review recommendations at their own pace
• Explore options from the comfort of home
• Feel less pressured during the decision-making process
• Gain greater confidence in their chosen course of action

For you, this often leads to:

• More informed client decisions
• Improved plan implementation
• Fewer misunderstandings
• Stronger engagement between meetings
• A more collaborative client experience

Ultimately, clients feel empowered rather than rushed, which can make a meaningful difference in their willingness to act.

A Simple Conversation Starter

Consider ending your client meetings with a message like this:

“I’m going to share the scenarios we reviewed today through your Client Portal so you can revisit them whenever it’s convenient. I’d like you to compare these two options and think about which approach feels most aligned with your goals. You’ll receive a notification with instructions, and you can send me questions or your decision directly through the portal. Let’s reconnect by next Friday after you’ve had time to review everything.”

You’ll notice this script clearly communicates:

• What they’re reviewing
• Why they’re reviewing it
• Which decision they need to make
• How they should communicate their choice
• When you’d like a response

The more specific the instructions, the easier it is for clients to take action.

Final Thought

Some of the most important client decisions happen after the meeting ends.

By sharing Presentation Views through My Plan and pairing them with clear next steps, advisors can extend the planning conversation beyond the meeting itself, helping clients move forward with greater confidence, clarity, and commitment to action.

The Client Portal is built for more than client access.
Register for our live webinar on November 17 at 2:00 p.m. ET to learn how advisors are using Client Portal capabilities to attract prospects, streamline onboarding, and create more engaging client experiences.