What is Financial Advice? (EP.142)

While there is no way of knowing what the best portfolio is, empirical data and financial economics have fixed the problems surrounding investing. But if we’ve fixed investing, then what’s the point of financial advisors? Today we dive into this topic and reveal why financial advice is still valuable to the everyday investor. We open the episode by touching on our movies and books for the week, as well as the latest from the financial world. We then explore why, despite their failure at making predictions, experts are so important across many industries. After defining what financial advice is, co-host Benjamin Felix systematically unpacks the value that financial advisors provide as they relate to key areas including goal-setting and quantification; asset allocation; understanding your human capital and insurance needs; selecting the right financial products; and tailoring strategies to tax considerations. Later, Benjamin highlights how financial advisors can help investors overcome their biases while helping them align their investing goals with living a meaningful life. We close the episode with our Talking Sense segment, followed by the bad financial advice of the week. When so much data is available, it’s necessary to revisit the relevancy of financial advisors. Join us to hear why they continue to play such a valuable role in helping people meet their investing goals.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Cameron shares the birthday message he received from Seinfeld’s ‘Soup Nazi.’ [0:00:35]
• We discuss community feedback and the documentary The Last Blockbuster. [0:02:53]
• Details on financial educator Paul Merrimen, our next guest. [0:06:10]
• Updates on podcast merchandise and shipping times. [0:07:32]
• Elon Musk and Mark Carney; hear about our books of the week. [0:09:00]
• We talk about the latest from the financial world. [0:10:14]
• Introducing today’s planning topic: What is financial advice? [0:18:40]
• The role of financial planners when index fund investing is so easily available. [0:19:45]
• Exploring what financial advice is and what it isn’t. [0:23:37]
• We unpack the link between goal-formation and quantification and sound financial advice. [0:24:35]
• The challenge of trying to predict what will make us happy in the future. [0:27:07]
• Happiness, life satisfaction, and goal-setting as it relates to financial advice. [0:29:00]
• Pricing your goal and avoiding the hedonic trap of never ‘having enough.’ [0:32:00]
• Asset allocation as key to the value of financial advice. [0:34:02]
• Quantifying human capital and your insurance needs. [0:37:00]
• Why knowledge of financial products is the basis of financial advice. [0:37:50]
• How taxes impact investing strategies. [0:39:05]
• Why managing wealth and getting financial advice is an iterative process. [0:40:02]
• How financial advisors help you eliminate biases that affect decision-making. [0:40:40]
• The many reasons that people seek expert advice. [0:43:28]
• We summarise the arguments for the value of financial advisors. [0:47:00]
• Advice on determining a financial advisor’s level of expertise. [0:48:34]
• Hear our answers to the profound questions posed in our ‘Talking Sense’ section. [0:51:02]
• Courtesy of TikTok, we share our bad financial advice of the week. [0:53:30]