This weekend I was able to spend some quality time with old friends. Nothing really planned, it just kinda happened. It made me think about my many years as a Financial Advisor, when oftentimes, after many years of dealing with a client, at what point did the relationship tip over the "client zone" into the "friendship zone"? Now let's face it, most client relationships can never fully tip over into the friendship zone in the same way as your relationship with your bud from high school can. Or even the relationship you may have developed with other moms in the neighbourhood, or parents from coaching softball. But there comes a time when after many years of advising clients about their money that an intimacy develops between client and Advisor. In my own experience, I found that the line between client and friend can appear to become blurred. The demarcation of that "line in the sand" between friend and advisor can seem to move, especially in times of distress that the client has. Its during those times that  the Advisor is oftentimes the quarterback for finding a solution. Its at those times that I found my work as an Advisor most rewarding. When a client would ask "what do you think?", and then actually take your advice. It's when clients don't take our advice that it gets hard. I often found that, even if the advice I gave may not have been taken, I often wondered about the nature of the relationship. Just when I thought after all those years of building trust by creating a plan, ensuring it's execution and perhaps even modifying it as circumstances merited, that I would…