Behavioral Finance

I know that dealing with someone who is irrational is next to impossible. Trying to show them how much their approach hurts others only fuels the fire and gives them more righteousness.

There are times in life when factors conspire to make it very difficult to be as productive as we need to – and want to – be. But even in the midst of these times it’s important to feel like you have some control and do the things that will keep you on track. Control the controllable.

I’m devoting this column to reminders around change management and what to think about for the human element in the midst of change.

Technical analysis is one of many tools we use to manage clients' wealth. While inconsistent, as with every forecasting model, it is the best means for quantifying investors' collective behaviors. Simply put, historical price and volume data provide a critical context for price levels likely to motivate buyers and sellers.

What happens when you simply don’t like a colleague but you need to work side-by-side with them every single day?

When you aren’t the one in charge, you will always be vulnerable to whatever decisions the leaders might make.

It’s that time of year when Wall Street soothsayers look ahead 12 months and try to divine the path of US stocks.

As you look toward the new year, I’ll share an idea you can give yourself and your team as a gift in 2025.

We’ve published the most widely read articles for 2024 in the investing and practice management categories, but that leaves out quite a few memorable pieces we've shared this year. You may want to check them out!

We’re continuing the Advisor Perspectives tradition of highlighting the most-read investing articles for 2024. Enjoy!

A wise mentor of mine once told me, “Businesses would be so easy to run if only there weren’t human beings mucking things up all of the time!”

I don’t have the ability to say what is the best for any given situation because every situation is different. I can, however, answer your question about why people are pushing back on the full-time return to the office.

For a twist on this week’s column, I will share some stress management techniques I often teach to help mitigate the overwhelming feeling of “I can’t do this all!” and to find ways to enjoy the December rush.

In this article, Beverly Flaxington gives advice on how to navigate organizing events for staff and clients.

The decision of whether to generate lifetime income with an annuity should be made on its own merits, e.g., as part of a holistic, goals-based investing process. In those cases where annuitized income is deemed beneficial, though, this article has illustrated why the purchase of a qualified annuity from IRA assets may be more attractive than you might expect.

To truly benefit from stock investing, it’s necessary to embrace both the emotions and the rewards that come with positive skew. This means learning to live with tail events. It may be uncomfortable when they occur, but they are an integral part of long-term success in the stock market.

Where I teach, there is a program designed for people who get into management roles but have never been given the skills to manage effectively. It’s common across industries.

The headlines regarding Trump's proposed tariffs and their inflationary consequences are undoubtedly worrying, but will they prove correct?

You might not be able to do all of what’s needed to bring together strong teams and help your employees succeed, but even if you focus on just doing one thing differently and better, it can help improve outcomes.

Our model, How America Spends, has been tracking the purchasing behavior of 135 million U.S. households since 2014. This model is not a black box – it is a data file representing the spending of 135 million households on goods and services since 2014.

These steps should help you share what’s important to the team with your senior advisor so he recognizes your point of view, and help you uncover what’s meaningful to someone considering joining you, as well as allow your senior advisor to be open about his objectives.

Let's keep our client meetings focused and manageable. By doing so, we not only respect their time and attention but also increase the likelihood of them taking the necessary steps to achieve their financial goals.

Members of successful teams generally get along with each other. Bev Flaxington offers some insights on how to cement those relationships.

Questioning leads to closing. A number of the advisors I work with are pretty good at engaging, asking questions and caring about the answers. However, they are really uncomfortable with the close. I promised you I wouldn’t give you coaching on “closing,” so I won’t.

I’ve identified long-term care as the greatest unsolved challenge in the field of goals-based retirement investing. This doesn’t make me Sherlock Holmes. Anyone who has requested a quote for LTCI knows we’ve got a problem.

There is a demographic that likes to work with you and consistently hires you – you probably just don’t have it defined for you and your team. If you don’t know who you work best with, there is no way that your prospect efforts will be profitable. Rather, they will be coincidental.

Determining your client’s risk tolerance is a critical first step in constructing a tailored investment portfolio.

I often hear my clients talk about the struggles with the next generation and how hard it is to work with them. Here are some of my best tips for how to lead the next generation (or potentially any generation that needs a little boost).

Risk. It’s a tiny word for a critical investment concept, one that necessarily merits ample discussion by advisors with their clients. Unfortunately, evidence suggests this may not be happening evenly across the advisory industry.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s research unit and Hyundai Motor Co.’s Boston Dynamics are joining forces to speed up development of humanoid robots with artificial intelligence.

There are only a couple of workable options. You can’t tell someone like this she isn’t listening or that you feel shut down when you speak with her. That will only lead to defensiveness.

By bringing wealth advisors and attorneys together with medical professionals, clients can receive more comprehensive care. Family offices and their clients can mitigate risks through a “triangle of support” formed by financial, legal, and medical advisors.

The US Justice Department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business in what would be a historic breakup of one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

It is more common that teammates really enjoy the people they work with and have one another’s backs, but they don’t particularly want to give up personal time to spend more with workmates.

Storytelling allows you to describe what you do, and whom you do it for, in a way that is transferrable and understandable.

Just as the industrial revolution changed the way goods are manufactured and consumed, so the technological revolution will do for services. Once something can be made at scale, the market for it can expand and be segmented. The same goes for financial planning.

Care about being a financial “doctor” and don't assume all is well because you have addressed the surface issue. Here are some ways to avoid delivering a poor bedside manner when clients need help.

It doesn’t take away from one’s success to share things that are troubling in order to deal with them differently and perhaps find another way. While you want to be careful, of course, about to whom you share your secrets or your inner feelings, you don’t want to bottle them up indefinitely.

Christine Benz is Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning, but she’s written a book that evokes Viktor Frankl as much as Bill Sharpe, aiming to go well beyond the mathematics of saving for, and living in, retirement.

The money manager who hasn’t cracked open the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Portfolio Management, or Financial Analysts Journal for the past few years probably hasn’t lost any steps.

Try to understand specifically where you are going off track. Many times these are behavioral disconnects. If you have a boss who is highly attuned to rules and quality and you are someone who doesn’t notice details as much, you might be failing in their eyes. First, start with seeking to understand.

This week I had the chance to run a half-day workshop helping seasoned, successful advisors learn techniques for emerging as strong leaders, so I’ll share some of the information here in this column.

The late Jack Bogle — father of the first index fund — famously loathed their exchange-traded offspring, warning that it only incentivize speculative trading among “fruitcakes, nut cases and lunatic fringe.” Fast forward to 2024, and critics warn a new generation of ETFs are designed to do exactly that.

Try a combination of things to get people energized. Often once people do engage, they find themselves enjoying it!

Whether someone’s problematic relationship is with food or money, recovery involves addressing the trauma and issues that underlie the behavior.

When feedback is done well, it can be the greatest gift you give to someone.

While high rates can make borrowing costlier and slow down housing markets, they also open favorable opportunities in financial products like annuities. In other words, annuities are back and stronger than ever before!

It is overly optimistic to think people will simply change if they don’t see and understand the hurtful nature of what they are doing.