Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the news that a study by financial advisor AI platform Jump, which analyzed thousands of anonymized client meetings, found that advisors were broadly able to improve client sentiment over the course of meetings. Notably client sentiment saw a bigger boost when advisors demonstrated stronger emotional intelligence (including by having balanced talk time with their clients, asking open questions, and serving as an empathetic listener to client concerns), suggesting spending time during meetings to better understand and respond to client concerns could ultimately pay off in the form of improved client sentiment (and perhaps, ultimately, greater client retention and referrals).
Also in industry news this week:
- A survey from Vanguard finds that “peace of mind” was the most-cited reason its clients cited for pursuing an advice relationship, with an advisor’s ability to monitor the client’s financial situation in the background while also acting in the client’s best interest as key drivers of creating this sentiment
- The SEC this week proposed amendments that would change the definition of “small entity” when it comes to the application of regulations for RIAs from having less than $25 million of assets under management to less than $1 billion, which could potentially lead to reduced regulatory burdens for a wide swath of firms
From there, we have several articles on investment planning:
- Why investment concentration can be a double-edged sword and how advisors can offer value when clients express concerns that their portfolios are either over- or under-concentrated
- Why liquidity risk is an important part of evaluating a potential investment (and why it’s sometimes overlooked by investors)
- While advisors might pride themselves on providing evidence-based investment recommendations, investment research and performance can sometimes offer contradictory conclusions
We also have a number of articles on retirement planning:
- A review of studies on the drivers of happiness suggests that certain “additions” (e.g., finding more opportunities for socializing) and “subtractions” (e.g., “buying time” by outsourcing certain undesirable tasks) could improve wellbeing in retirement
- How financial advisors can help retiring clients successfully make the adjustment from full-time work to having “7 Saturdays A Week” (both financially and in identifying what they are planning to retire “to”)
- While studies can provide aggregate information about the drivers of happiness, each individual’s preferences are likely to differ from the broader population, suggesting that a more personalized approach to planning for retirement could lead to a more satisfying result
We wrap up with three final articles, all about attention:
- Six ways individuals can improve their attention spans, from scheduling breaks to avoiding “task switching” as much as possible
- Why “critical ignoring” is a valuable skill at a time when there is no shortage of (sometimes unreliable) information sources available
- An experimental study suggests that relying on AI tools to create written products that require deep thought could lead to less-convincing work and an accumulation of “cognitive debt” in the process
Enjoy the ‘light’ reading!
Source: Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (January 10–11)
