The Human Side of Money

Most financial advisors conduct some version of goals-based planning. If you’re helping a client use their money to accomplish a goal, then you’re doing goals-based planning. But goals are formed and shaped by values. Yet, “goals-based planning” is an industry buzzword, and “values-based planning” is more like a foreign language. Natalie Taylor CFP®, BFA™ has bu...

There are at least three things every financial advisor wants in their relationships with clients: 1) Great conversations and connection 2) Use their money to live a fulfilled life doing the things they love 3) Seamless buy-in and follow-through on the advice given to avoid spending time following up Amy Mullen is the President of Money Quotient, a company that arms advisors with tools, resources,...

There are at least three things every financial advisor wants in their relationships with clients: 1) Great conversations and connection 2) Use their money to live a fulfilled life doing the things they love 3) Seamless buy-in and follow-through on the advice given to avoid spending time following up Amy Mullen is the President of Money Quotient, a company that arms advisors with tools, resources,...

Financial success relies just as much on knowing yourself as it does knowing what to do with money. After spending the majority of her career teaching people what to do with their money, Rachel Cruze realized that knowing what to do wasn’t enough. That the gap between knowing and doing is forged by how we think, feel, and behave with money (our mindset and motivations). And it’s these...

The value of behavioral coaching continues to show up as the top “value-added” service provided by financial advisors. And, while it’s no surprise to advisors that have been working with emotional human beings on an emotionally-charged topic like money, studies also show that over 80% of advisors DON’T actively promote this value to clients or prospective clients. We discus...

If you’re a financial advisor or advisory firm who wants to pursue growth through digital marketing, but you’ve always been unimpressed with the results, you’ve probably skipped the most important part: The human side of digital marketing. Knowing the behavioral and psychological principles to build trust and connection online while intentionally designing for the desired behavio...

Every financial advisor knows how crucial it is to effectively build trust and connection with prospects and clients. Study after study and story after story will tell you that’s what clients look for when choosing an advisor and it’s why they stay with their advisors. But, is it even possible to build the same level of trust and connection virtually? Is it reasonable to expect the sam...

As the value and future of advice continues to shift towards the intersection of technical knowledge and the human side of money, it has coincided with the rise of financial therapy. Financial Therapy is focused on improving how clients think, feel, and behave with money to improve their well-being. Nathan Astle, founder of Relational Money, helps advisors who don’t want to be full-fledged f...

We’ve all been inundated with information showing how behavioral biases impact financial decision making. But far less attention has been given to the fact that these same biases can undermine the identification and prioritization of goals. Research shows that there is indeed a gap between the goals clients think are important to them and the goals that are actually important. And that gap i...

One of the main challenges for financial advisors when it comes to applying behavioral finance is as simple as this: it’s a lot easier to construct a financial plan than to deconstruct your client’s emotions. Graeme Newell has been helping financial advisors better understand what goes on in their client’s minds by literally putting them in brain scanners for most of his career. ...

Research shows asking great questions builds trust, establishes likability, and uncovers valuable information. Which is why asking great questions forms the foundation of a successful first meeting that converts a prospect into a lifelong client. This episode is meant to be a guide for advisors to hone their question-asking abilities, so they can enhance client outcomes and forever change the traj...

Ask any financial advisor if behavioral finance plays an important role in delivering ideal outcomes to clients, and you’ll get a resounding “Yes.” Ask those same advisors if they know exactly what to say and do to seamlessly apply behavioral finance, and you’ll get a resounding “No!” Knowing someone is suffering from loss-aversion helps explain why he or she be...

For most financial advisors, the idea of work/life balance is nothing more than an illusion. Especially for those who started, survived, and thrived in the profession based on a mindset that success was simply a numbers game. Survival and success relied upon activity. There was a direct correlation between the amount of work you put in and the reward you received. Travis Parry used to live this li...

Financial planning without any regard for the person’s dreams, values, and life they want to live is nothing more than numbers on paper. A person’s dreams, values, and life they want to live without any regard for money is nothing more than a fantasy. Life planning is simply connecting the client’s dreams and values with the strategies of financial planning that create the life o...

There is zero correlation between the size of your bank account and the overall contentment and happiness of your life. If you’ve worked with people and their finances long enough, you’ve seen it time and time again. But, once you can align money with meaning, you have the foundation of a happy, meaningful life.  Financial advisors excel at financial strategies but often fall short at...

The greatest barrier for every client isn’t lack of information. It’s their own mindset and behavior. Whether it’s someone who overspends, someone who under-spends, someone who wants to sell out at the worst possible time, or even the person who never sends in the data you need, the key to changing their behavior starts with understanding their money mindset. Sarah Newcomb, Direc...

Adrian Murphy is the CEO of Murphy Wealth, a multi-award winning financial planning firm in the UK. Most recently, his firm made waves throughout the industry with the announcement that they were hiring a Chief Behavioral Officer as a part of their transition to a “human-first” strategy. We discuss: The decision to transition to a “human-first” strategy and what the vision...

When it comes to changing someone’s behavior, much of the focus goes to persuasion and nudging techniques. In reality, for financial advisors, the primary weapon of influence you have over someone’s behavior is your ability to communicate and connect at the highest level. Dr. Joy Lere is a licensed clinical psychologist and behavioral finance consultant who has spent her entire career...

Dr. Moira Somers, financial psychologist and author of the best-selling book Advice That Sticks: How to Give Financial Advice People Will Follow, consults with advisors and firms around the world to deliver “stickier” advice that leads to more follow-through and implementation. We discuss: A specific process to use at the end of every meeting to drastically improve follow-through The b...

The perfect plan is rendered useless in the absence of execution. Flawless technical advice minus implementation is worthless. While you would think that providing someone a step-by-step plan to accomplish their goals while minimizing their fears would be all that’s needed to spur someone into action, anyone who works with people and their money knows that simply isn’t the case. But, t...

You’ve heard countless trainings and presentations on the power of referrals and how to get them. In this episode, we’re approaching referrals in a new way: through the lens of psychology. Imagine being able to get inside the minds of your clients to better understand what they think about referrals, how they feel about referring, how they would prefer you to bring it up with them, and...

Imagine how much easier it would be to get someone from prospect to life-long client if you could look into their mind and know what they value. Or how much easier it would be to get a client to follow through on the advice given if you knew exactly what was going on in their mind? We’ve been given those answers, and in this episode, Evan Beach and I discuss the specific ways Evan and his fi...

Evan Beach is the Director of Wealth Advisory for Campbell Wealth Management, an RIA firm in Alexandria, VA that oversees around $800 million AUM almost exclusively for clients over the age of 55.  Most recently, Evan wrote an article discussing how to tailor everything in your practice or your firm around what clients want (and not what we think they want) based on what research tells us and shar...

Meghaan Lurtz ( Twitter and LinkedIn ) is a Senior Research Associate for Kitces.com , where she researches and writes on virtually everything that falls under the realm of the human side of money. She’s also involved with colleges and universities across the country in their financial planning programs and has her Ph. D. in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University. One of he...

Technology is a familiar foe to the profession of financial advice. With Charles Schwab and Bank of America both recently announcing their plans to offer free financial planning software to the masses, the industry continues to inch closer and closer to the commoditization of our technical expertise. The reality is that constructing a financial plan and building a portfolio will soon be available...