In his latest book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, Dan Pink flips regret on its head. Rather than looking to the emotion as a catalyst for guilt or shame, the book focuses on the best of what regret can do for perspective: provide the opportunity to make smarter decisions. Advisors […]
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Assessing the Value of “Functional Quality” in Designing Financial Planning Engagements
In our Money Quotient training programs and research projects, we frequently refer to the groundbreaking work of professors Neeru Sharma and Paul G. Patterson at the University of New South Wales. In the late 1990s, they conducted a study that identified communication effectiveness as the single most powerful determinant of a client’s perception of service […]
Elicit, Provide, Elicit: The Art of Skillful Advice-Giving
Advice is inherent to financial planning. Heck, it’s in your title: advisor. But how you give advice can make or break the client/advisor relationship and directly impact the follow-through. The Righting Reflex The righting reflex is our natural reaction to hearing someone else’s problem. This is the powerful urge to provide our own opinions, solutions, […]
Nurturing Financial Resilience
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to us once again that economic uncertainties are ubiquitous and often hard to predict. We need to stay vigilant and be prepared for the rainy days. -Standard Center for Longevity To launch the “Financial Resilience in America” project, researchers at the Stanford Center on Longevity teamed up […]
The Pandemic has Changed Perceptions of Wealth & Well-Being
At Money Quotient, we frequently point out that a successful financial planning practice is built on getting to know and understand your clients. We also emphasize that this objective can only be met through exploring each client’s unique “frame of reference.” There are many other terms for this concept—such as perspective, world view, and mode […]
MQ Recommended Reading
A growth mindset seems to be at the heart of shared purpose relationships with our MQ Partners. Those who are consistently seeking ways to improve and expand how they interact with the profession and world resonate with us. Whether it’s our training, educational webinars, or annual events, we reference and quote several pieces of literature […]
We Can Do Better Than “New Normal”
As nature starts to show signs of a changing season, here we are, again. The pandemic continues to upend plans we thought we made in confidence just a few months ago. School leadership is trying to adapt. Businesses continue to explore hybrid models to serve their customers. We have all found ways to marry the old […]
Financial Choices and Matters of the Heart
No matter how much or how little money you have flowing through your life, when you direct that flow with soulful purpose, you feel wealthy… When you let your money move to things you care about, your life lights up. That’s really what money is for. Lynne Twist The Soul of Money […]
Your Client is an Adult – Treat Them Like One
At the end of a thorough financial planning engagement, an advisor hands their client a beautiful spiral-bound packet of information and says, “Here is what you need to do to accomplish your goals!” Three months later, they are exasperated with a client who hasn’t implemented any of their recommendations. If this sounds familiar, you’re not […]
Evidence-Based Financial Planning: A Call to Action
“The scientific method provides a framework for validating the profession’s best practices so that practitioners can have confidence that their “best” practices are based on the “best” evidence… …we propose that the time has come to commit ourselves as a profession to a more scientifically grounded and evidence-based approach to expanding our body of knowledge […]