Great points Terry-Bell we continually ask our clients "what's important to them in life" by doing this we get to know what changes and what we need to look out for.
For example, 10 years ago, a clients health might have been taken for granted and so things like travel might have been at the top of their list, with a couple of health issues, or new grandkids, they will often move to the top of the list and that then becomes the topic of discussion. Knowing what are the good and bad things that have occurred over the past 12 months, also helps build a great "data base" for topics and shows the clients that we do really care.
We use our XPlan crm to capture this so that it easily flows out into our reviews and is readily available if we are speaking with clients.