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We look to financial advisors to help with the technical mechanics of financial planning, but increasingly we look for advisors to help in managing our financial lives; to serve as expert advisors; and to shape our behaviors to ensure that we can meet goals that are critical to us. DataPoints works with advisers that are focused on their clients well-being–many of whom operate under a fiduciary standard that demands that they never fail to …
Over the past few months, we asked advisors which type of client is the most challenging to work with, and the results are probably not too surprising: nearly one-third of advisors shared that the most challenging type of client is one who wants to beat the market. A little more than one-fourth of advisors shared that the most challenging client is one who cannot stick to a plan, followed by a little less than …
Control. Control. You must learn control. – Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Approximately 57% of Americans are financially literate, typically measured by answering simple financial literacy questions correctly. The work of Anna Maria Lusardi and her colleagues have demonstrated the woeful state of the world related to financial knowledge and education in the United States and around the world. Often, this group of researchers measures financial literacy with a few …
All of the studies and resulting data that have looked at the issue appear to agree that client behavioral management is one of—if not the most—important functions of financial advisors. In one of the seminal research studies—although not technically an inquiry into the role of financial advisors in relation to client behavioral management—the researchers concluded that of all the activities undertaken by large corporate pension fund managers, strategic portfolio allocation accounted for on average 93.6% …
What does it take to build wealth over time? I was fortunate to work with Dr. John Grable and Michelle Kruger from the University of Georgia’s financial planning performance lab on a research paper examining that topic, and the research was featured in the January edition of the Journal of Financial Service Professionals. The study used DataPoints’ proprietary list of financial tasks, which is based in part on the behaviors and habits documented in the 40+ …