Behavioral Finance

Right now, you don’t want to burn any bridges anywhere, as you don’t know how things will unfold. Be professional and be kind. But you also have every right to set boundaries and to protect yourself!

We have good and bad news for investors who want to know whether the stock market will soar, stall, or plummet. First, the good news. This article presents a market path for what lies ahead. Unfortunately, the “right” path lies among three likely scenarios.

I’m not someone who believes you should let offensive things go by. Look for your opportunity and be ready!

It’s always an honor for me to both attend and speak at the Barron’s conference. In thinking about this column, I am recalling many of the amazing presentations, great insights and fabulous speakers I heard.

The month of March featured a varied mix of articles among Advisor Perspectives’ top 10 most-read list, including book reviews, analysis of current events and primers on different subjects among its ranks.

Many people who are not interested in seeing anything about their own behavior that is causing a problem. They either have over-developed egos, or a lack of confidence so deep it is threatening to find an area of opportunity for change.

Like a crossword puzzle, President Trump has been bombarding the media with clues about his economic policy. Given the importance of inflation and interest rates to the economy and the financial markets, it's worth assessing his clues and formulating some answers about what Trump may be up to.

In this column, I’ll share some marketing secrets I’ve seen work well, whether you are trying to do lead gen or whether you are in a “finals” situation competing against other advisors, or whether you are talking with a prospect in your office.

Life’s challenges often force us to become more present, to experience each moment fully. In doing so, I discovered the importance of celebrating small victories – not just the major milestones, but the everyday wins that mark progress.

I’ve spent much of my career coaching and providing learning opportunities for those professionals who want to improve. This week I had an experience that moved me to write a column about the difficulty in opening one’s self up to being willing to be coached, and of making behavioral change.

It took just 16 trading sessions for US stocks to tumble into a correction, leaving a frazzled Wall Street asking just how long the “adjustment period” White House officials have warned about will last.

When clients are scared, you want to be there for them and respond to their concerns. However, if you don’t pause from time-to-time to make sure you are responding in the most effective ways, you will find yourself continually frustrated and even possibly resentful of the interruption.

I recommend you hold what I call an “obstacles session.” This is when you ideally have a third party in to ask your team what success would look like to them, and what obstacles are getting in the way of achieving this success.

By acknowledging that we are not always rational and are subject to cognitive biases, we can better understand market anomalies and develop strategies to mitigate – and even take advantage of – their impact.

Unfortunately, I hear stories about people unwilling to seek HR help for many reasons. It is a tragedy when this happens because good HR support can be the key to helping with so many things.

I have – painfully – learned one thing, in particular. Even if you can see what’s happening and could find the words to share your insights, if you have a leader that only wants to listen to an echo chamber, you aren’t going to get heard, no matter what you do.

It’s not easy when someone doesn’t want to look at their own culpability in relationships. But you can only control what’s controllable, and we don’t control others, much as we endeavor to do so.

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).