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 of freedom that person has always envisioned.

George Kinder, the father of the life planning movement, joined the show to discuss:

• The two pieces of advice that George gives to anyone that wants to become a great listener
• “The Pause” – the one skill he said every advisor should know and learn
• The two things they train advisors to listen for to enhance the conversation
• A deep dive into the famous three questions and the best practices for applying them
• “Lighting The Torch” – the key step in the life planning process that ignites behavior change

 

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode20

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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. Doing so requires an understanding financial strategies and the ingredients of a meaningful life (which vary person to person).

Financial advisors excel at financial strategies but often fall short at helping clients illuminate the ingredients of a meaningful life.

Brian Portnoy has spent decades writing, speaking and teaching on how to map money to meaning on the path to funded contentment.

In this episode, we discuss:

• A real, tangible definition of financial wellness or well-being
• Using the “Four C’s” of contentment and the “7 Dimensions of Money Life” to map money to meaning
• The conversations to have with clients to uncover their meaning
• The behavioral and psychological challenges inherent with goals-based planning and why most advisors aren’t equipped for it
• The dimensions of behavioral coaching beyond keeping your client invested in the market

 

And more!

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode19

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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The greatest barrier for every client isn’t lack of information. It’s their own mindset and behavior.

Whether it’s someone who over-spends, 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, Director of Behavioral Science at Morningstar, joined the show to discuss how to better understand a client’s money mindset.

We discuss:

• The framework she and her team developed to assess a client’s money mindset
• The important distinction between financial and emotional well-being
• The #1 predictor of savings behavior and how to help clients with it
• Using a “What-If Journey” to help clients overcome their fears
• How role models can play a powerful role in changing behavior and overall well-being

 

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode18

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The decision to transition to a “human-first” strategy and what the vision looks like for the firm and for clients
• The importance of getting clients from a “thinking” place to a “feeling” place and how to do it
• The reason he intentionally avoids starting a question with the word “Why”
• The listening workshops his firm goes through to hone their listening skills
• How he came to the decision to hire a chief behavioral officer
• What he envisions for the role of a Chief Behavioral Officer and the ways he expects it to benefit client outcomes and the growth of the firm

 

And more!

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode17

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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 learning to communicate and connect with her clients to give them clarity, build trust, and ultimately change their behavior for the better.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Ways to create “space” for someone to open up and share more than they do with most people
• Reading body language and posture and effective ways to address it
• What Joy would tell herself 10 years ago about how to get better at reading people
• How to identify a “presenting” issue to know that there’s more to what a client is telling you
• A powerful questioning technique to get someone to make changes
• The two points in your life that have the biggest impact on your beliefs and behaviors around money

And more!

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode16

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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.

In Part Two of the conversation, Brendan and Moira discuss:

• A specific process to use at the end of every meeting to drastically improve follow-through
• The biggest mistake advisors make when trying to get clients to follow-through (also the most common)
• A specific process for the beginning of every meeting to make your advice stickier
• The #1 piece of advice Moira gives any advisor looking to improve their meetings, relationships, and follow-through
• What studies show is the primary determinant of client satisfaction in a meeting

And more!

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode15

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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 that works with people and their money knows that simply isn’t the case.

But, take a minute to imagine what your day would look like if every client immediately followed through and implemented your advice without having to follow up with a phone call or email.

While that might be a bit of a stretch, the quickest and most effective way to boost follow-through is by improving the “stickiness” of your advice.

Dr. Moira Somers, author of the best-selling book Advice That Sticks: How to Give Financial Advice People Will Follow, discusses:

• The parallels between medical and financial advice and what the medical research can teach us about the challenges and improving “adherence.”
• How much responsibility falls on the advice-giver when advice isn’t implemented (Hint: It’s way more than you think!)
• How improving follow-through and implementation benefits both your clients, your business, AND your well-being
• The most common reason clients fail to follow-through and an effective method to overcome it
• A proven method to help get through the friction of the data gathering process
• The most important role an advisor plays in improving future behavior

 

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode14

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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 maybe most importantly, what they identify as the most common barriers to referring more often.

That’s exactly what Dan Allison did. Relying on his background in clinical and behavioral psychology, Dan interviewed thousands of clients, asking them those exact questions to help better understand the psychology of getting more referrals.

We discuss:

• How to bring up the referral conversation in a comfortable way based on what the clients wants
• The big mistake most advisors make (but don’t realize it) when asking for referrals
• The one question that every firm should ask to instantly boost their referability
• How to ensure you get referrals when someone passively hands out your information
• What 60% of clients say when asked the reason why they don’t refer and what they say when asked why they do refer

 

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode13

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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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. He writes for Kiplinger and the Journal of Financial Planning and has become widely renown in the industry for his expertise in retirement planning and practice management.

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 shares the tremendous growth their firm has seen as a result.

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 and I discuss the specific ways Evan and his firm have evolved their processes, systems and conversations to deliver what clients actually want.

We discuss:

• The 5-minute exercise their firm uses that converts nearly every prospect into a client
• The changes Evan made to his meeting process to focus on what clients want that led to a massive boost in new assets
• The exact question his firm asks everyone in their first meeting that lays the groundwork for success
• The reason why he encourages clients to state their goals publicly as many times as possible
• Why Evan strives to make sure stories are an integral part of every conversation and presentation
• The stories he’s learned to tell that resonate the most with clients and prospects

 

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode12

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

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Evan Beach (LinkedIn) 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. He writes for Kiplinger and the Journal of Financial Planning and has become widely renown in the industry for his expertise in retirement planning and practice management.

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 shares the tremendous growth their firm has seen as a result.

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 and I discuss how to take those answers and apply them to your practice in a way that will deliver better client outcomes and boost your new asset growth.

We also discuss:

• The behavioral reasons why Evan decided not to charge for financial plans
• The moment Evan realized that his whole onboarding process was designed around what he thought was important instead of what clients wanted
• The importance of a “test driving experience”
• Why positioning your value around behavioral coaching can actually work against you

 

For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode11

To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning.

Follow Brendan:

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