The Human Side of Money

Evan Beach is the Director of Wealth Advisory for Campbell Wealth Management, an RIA firm in Alexandria, VA that oversees around $800 million AUM almost exclusively for clients over the age of 55.  Most recently, Evan wrote an article discussing how to tailor everything in your practice or your firm around what clients want (and not what we think they want) based on what research tells us and shares the tremendous growth their firm has seen as a result.   Imagine how much easier it would be to get someone from prospect to life-long client if you could look into their mind and know what they value.  We’ve been given those answers, and in this episode, Evan and I discuss how to take those answers and apply them to your practice in a way that will deliver better client outcomes and boost your new asset growth. We discuss: The behavioral reasons why Evan decided not to charge for financial plans The moment Evan realized that his whole onboarding process was designed around what he thought was important instead of what clients wanted The importance of a “test driving experience” Why positioning your value around behavioral coaching can actually work against you To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X: @jbrendanfrazier Connect with Guest:  Campbell Wealth Management LinkedIn: Evan Beach About our Guest:  Evan Beach is a Certified Financial Planner and wealth manager at Campbell Wealth Management in Alexandria, Va. Evan and his team are well known throughout the Capitol region. His expertise and practice is focused around comprehensive financial planning for seniors, retirees, and those approaching retirement. Evan is a graduate of the University of Delaware, The College for Financial Planning, and Georgetown University. He currently resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Ali and dog, Tenley. Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advice offered through Campbell Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor, and separate entity from LPL Financial.

Meghaan Lurtz (Twitter and LinkedIn) is a Senior Research Associate for Kitces.com, where she researches and writes on virtually everything that falls under the realm of the human side of money. She’s also involved with colleges and universities across the country in their financial planning programs and has her Ph.D. in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University. One of her areas of expertise also happens to be one of the most underutilized, under-appreciated and most effective tools for improving behavior and igniting behavior change with clients or prospective clients. The ability to help someone bridge the gap between their current and future self. Once you know the tools, ideas, and methods to do so, you’ll watch clients and prospects seamlessly move through the process in a way you never imagined possible. In this episode, we discuss: The research behind why saving for our future selves is like saving for a stranger The signals to look for and ways to determine whether someone needs help bridging the gap between their current and future self Questions to ask a client or prospect (and when to ask them) to help them clearly define and vividly describe their future Five practical and specific ways to bridge the gap with someone that Meghaan has seen work effectively with clients Three reasons why we tend to prioritize our current self to the detriment of our future self For more information and resources discussed in this episode, visit: www.wiredplanning.com/episode10 To join a community of like-minded advisors and planners around the world looking for top-notch insights and information on how to leverage behavior, psychology, communication, and emotion to master the human side of money, visit Wired Planning. Follow Brendan: Twitter LinkedIn

Technology is a familiar foe to the profession of financial advice. With Charles Schwab and Bank of America both recently announcing their plans to offer free financial planning software to the masses, the industry continues to inch closer and closer to the commoditization of our technical expertise. The reality is that constructing a financial plan and building a portfolio will soon be available at a lower cost, in less time, and with fewer mistakes than working with a financial advisor. This brings up some familiar questions: What does this mean for the role of a financial advisor in the future? Should I expect fees to compress and prices to drop? How do I add enough value to justify higher fees? Most importantly: “What can I do to forever insulate my value from the continued threat of technology? Tune in for the insight! To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X: @jbrendanfrazier

Daniel Crosby is one of the most highly respected minds in the modern world of behavioral finance, especially within the realm of financial services. As a Chief Behavioral Officer, his job is to help advisors with the practical application of behavioral finance through tools, training, and technology. He is a best-selling author of two books on the topic (The Laws of Wealth and The Behavioral Investor) and hosts the Standard Deviations podcast.  We discuss: How to effectively embed and communicate the value of behavioral coaching in your practice The most common misconceptions about behavioral coaching Three specific strategies everyone can use to help improve client behavior An exercise to walk you through where your practice can benefit from behavior and psychology How behavioral coaching can insulate your value from any future threat posed by technological advancement The technology Daniel is building that will allow you to take behavioral finance to a whole new level To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Resources: “The Laws of Wealth” by Daniel Crosby “The Behavioral Investor” by Daniel Crosby Standard Devotions Podcast Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X: @jbrendanfrazier Connect with Guest:  LinkedIn: Daniel Crosby X: @danielcrosby About our Guest:  Educated at Brigham Young and Emory Universities, Dr. Daniel Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets. Dr. Crosby recently co-authored a New York Times Best-Selling book titled, Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management. He also constructed the “Irrationality Index,” a sentiment measure that gauges greed and fear in the marketplace from month to month. His ideas have appeared in the Huffington Post and Risk Management Magazine, as well as his monthly columns for WealthManagement.com and Investment News. Daniel was named one of the “12 Thinkers to Watch” by Monster.com and a “Financial Blogger You Should Be Reading” by AARP. When he is not consulting around market psychology, Daniel enjoys independent films, fanatically following St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and spending time with his wife and two children.           

Catherine Morgan is an award-winning financial planner and coach at The Money Panel and host of the In Her Financial Shoes podcast.  In addition to working with clients on a daily basis, she also has a financial coaching training program, where she teaches financial professionals across the world how to seamlessly incorporate the core skills and principles of financial coaching into their practice. We discuss: The Rapid-Fire 3-Pack of questions on behavioral finance that every guest answers How personal experiences shape your values, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors around money, including Catherine opening up to share her own powerful story Specific questions and strategies Catherine uses to guide clients through the process of uncovering their own experiences and the impact it had on their emotions, beliefs, and behaviors How Catherine crafts her messaging and designs her practice to have these conversations with clients and prospective clients given that no one ever says they want to explore their money beliefs The relationship-changing benefits of listening and Catherine’s tips on how to develop your listening skills To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Resources: The Money Panel In Her Financial Shoes Podcast Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X: @jbrendanfrazier Connect with Guest:  LinkedIn: Catherine Morgan X: @themoneypanel About our Guest:  Catherine Morgan is here to create more safe spaces, justice, and financial equality for women. As a Financial Adviser, Coach, and expert in several money-healing modalities, her gift is to help you heal your relationship with money to deserve, create and grow more wealth. Catherine is on a mission to help one million women become financially resilient, so that together they can create a world that’s full of safe, healthy, wealthy women who aren’t afraid to trust their intuition and follow their bliss. When more women have more wealth, we can change the world!

Neil Bage is highly renowned in the fields of financial services and behavioral science for his ability to bridge scientific theory with real-world understanding, particularly when it comes to human behavior in light of financial health and well-being. He’s the co-founder of Be-IQ, a multi-award-winning behavioral insights company that focuses on providing research and tools on behavioral finance for financial advisors and planners around the world. As he puts it, his mission is to bring “behavior to life” for financial advisors. We discuss: The “achilles heel” of our industry (Hint: it’s not a lack of technical knowledge) Why the future of financial planning will have the human as the centerpiece The importance of getting clients or prospects into a calm, peaceful state prior to a meeting and specific ways to do it The story of an advisor who used the tools from Be-IQ to finally breakthrough to a client after 15 years The “Empathy Gap” – What it is and why you should be aware of it in every meeting What Neil calls the “transformational benefits” for advisors who bring behavior to life To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X: @jbrendanfrazier Connect with Guest:  Be-IQ X: @neilbage LinkedIn: Neil Bage About our Guest:  Neil is the Co-Founder of Shaping Wealth, a learning technology platform transforming the human experience of money. He has served as a Chief Behavioural Officer in the UK and was the CEO and Founder of a multi-award-winning behavioral insights business. Neil has spent almost two decades researching human behavior as it relates to money, working closely with 6 Behavioural Science Professors across 4 Russell Group Universities. Over that time he has engaged with over 20,000 real people exploring multiple aspects of their behavior and relationship with money.

Andy Hart, founder of Maven Adviser and the behavioral finance conference Humans Under Management, emphasizes the importance of managing clients as humans rather than just assets. He discusses the dangers of jargon and shares specific strategies for enhancing client communication, including labeling techniques that prompt optimal behavior. Hart argues for prioritizing emotional intelligence in financial advising, revealing how understanding clients' future selves can lead to improved outcomes. His insights provide a refreshing take on integrating behavioral finance in practice.

As an expert in applied decision science and behavioral finance, Greg gives one example after another on how you can design your practice, your process, and your conversations for optimal behavior and better outcomes. Greg Davies is the head of behavior at Oxford Risk, where he focuses on improving financial decision-making through the use of behavioral science, and is the co-author of the book Behavioral Investment Management.  Greg works with advisors and planners around the world on how to apply behavioral finance in order to make optimal decisions in the face of complexity, uncertainty, and behavioral biases. We discuss: The two types of financial plans: One for technical knowledge and one for governing behavior How the implementation of technology unlocks your ability to give better advice AND focus more on the human side of the relationship The importance of nailing the risk assessment with a focus on anxiety-adjusted returns instead of risk-adjusted returns The three components of risk assessment: Risk Tolerance, Risk Capacity, and Emotional Capacity and how to incorporate them all Where he thinks behavioral finance will be within the industry in 2030 To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X:@jbrendanfrazier Connect with Greg Davies: LinkedIn: Greg Davies X: Greg Davies About our Guest:  Greg is a specialist in applied behavioral finance, decision science, sustainable investing, and financial well-being. He founded the banking world’s first behavioral finance team at Barclays in 2006, which he led for a decade. In 2017 he joined Oxford Risk to lead the development of behavioral software to help people make the best possible financial decisions. Greg holds a PhD in Behavioural Decision Theory from Cambridge; has held academic affiliations at UCL, LSE, Imperial, and Oxford; and is the author of Behavioral Investment Management. Greg is Chair of Sound and Music, the UK’s national organization for new music; and creator of Open Outcry, a ‘reality opera’ that premiered in London in 2012, creating live performances from a functioning trading floor. He is also a frequent speaker and runs CPD-accredited Behavioural Wine Tasting events with Master of Wine John Downes: A unique interactive event combining decision science, live psychology experiment … and wine.

After a serendipitous sequence of events, we’ve officially changed the name to The Human Side of Money. New name. Same look. Same mission. The sole purpose of this podcast is to be the your go-to resource for applying behavioral finance into your practice and mastering the human side of money!

In an industry where 99% of the training, certifications, designations, and conferences are geared towards the technical side of the relationship, high-quality, top-notch resources on applying behavioral finance in your practice are sparse. In this episode, Brendan answers the most common question posed by advisors and planners when it comes to the human side of money: “How do I develop this skill set?”  The answer lies in a 3-step process: Spark Innovation from Outside Perspectives: We need to look to experts in fields like behavior, psychology, communication, and more. Channel Outside Perspective Through Experience: We can learn from those outside of our industry, but ultimately, we need to have a community of other advisors and planners to collaborate with. Refine Through Practice: Like any skill, you’ll never get the results you want without practice. To sign up for Brendan’s monthly newsletter focused on the human side of advice → Click Here Connect with Brendan Frazier:  RFG Advisory LinkedIn: Brendan Frazier X:@jbrendanfrazier