We’re excited to announce that DataPoints has been selected as one of six finalists in the XY Planning Network’s 2016 fintech competition. Our behavioral analytics platform is transforming the way advisors and firms segment, coach, & develop their clients, and we’re excited to present alongside other fintech companies in September! Read about the fintech competition here, and we’ll see you at XYPN16! …
Back in 1999, I worked as a consultant to a large fiber-optic cable company that was staffing a new plant in Pennsylvania. For months, our crew of grad students and industrial psychologists administered validated tests, interviews, and work samples to thousands of potential candidates to fill manufacturing roles. In the work sample, applicants had to coil thin, translucent cables into circles and pack them into thick, zipper-top bags while racing against a clock. Only some …
Leaders tend to fall somewhere on the “transactional-transformational leadership” spectrum. A transactional leader typically uses the exchange of rewards for performance and focuses on keeping everyone in line in order to meet his and the organization’s goals. The transformational leader, on the other hand, focuses on the intrinsic needs of team members, motivating performance by ensuring the interests and goals of the team members and the organization are aligned. The transformational leaders I’ve worked with …
Using an arbitrary minimum asset level for clients unduly limits the market for financial services providers to those who have already “made it,” and ignores the substantial number of prospects that are ultimately headed for financial success. For advisors, using minimums often means excluding the coveted Millennial group because they do not meet asset requirements . . . yet. So why does the industry continue to focus on current asset levels? Defining target markets by …
According to Dalbar’s 2015 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior (QAIB), the worst gap between market and investor performance in the past 30 years was in October 2008 when, as the report states, the S&P 500 index lost 16.8% but investors lost a little over 24%. There are, of course, many psychological factors that explain the disparity: behavioral finance biases that model why investors act irrationally. However, to be able to anticipate this behavior, and …