Praise for Advice That Sticks
Finally, someone is willing to tackle the complex issue of client compliance and how change occurs in the area of personal and business finance. Written by an expert in the field of financial psychology, the book delivers humility, humor and wisdom. It guides the reader in learning how to close the gap between good intentions and actions.
Courtney Pullen, M.A.
Author, Intentional Wealth
This is a great book! A worn and dog-eared copy belongs on the bookshelf of every financial advisor who views financial planning as a calling and a profession.
Rick Kahler, MSFP, CFP®
Author, Conscious Finance
Consumers know they need to do things differently with respect to their money, but are often dismayed or baffled by their own self-sabotaging habits. Financial professionals have not always known how to be helpful in creating lasting behaviour change. They’ve relied too much on the provision of information and the occasional stern lecture. This book will change all that. It is superbly written, and well-positioned to help a lot of people.
Kelley Keehn
Finance author & consumer advocate
Dr. Moira Somers has given professional advisors an inspired gift in Advice That Sticks. She shares dozens of adherence-boosting strategies, including outstanding recommended questions to ask clients. I love Somers’ delightfully dry humor, which sparkles throughout! This book’s insightful, disciplined, evidence-based process will enhance advisors’ effectiveness as advice-givers.
Kathleen Rehl, Ph.D., CFP®, CeFT®
Author, Moving Forward on Your Own
With this book, every financial professional has access to deeply practical advice on how to listen, observe and respond while helping clients make their best life and money decisions. This is the book that connects financial planners and wealth advisors with the human experience of decision-making, commitments and adaptation to change.
Susan Bradley, CFP®
Founder, Sudden Money Institute
Financial professionals need to understand their clients’ values, attitudes and beliefs about money, emotions, biases and social influences, and then connect with their clients with in a way that motivates and facilitates the right outcomes. This book highlights the importance of these skills along with Moira’s helpful insights and guidance for providing advice that sticks.
Joan Yudelson, CFP®
VP, Professional Practice,
Financial Planning Standards Council
ADVICE
THAT
STICKS
HOW TO GIVE FINANCIAL ADVICE
THAT PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW
MOIRA SOMERS, PH.D.
First published in Great Britain by Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2018
© Moira Somers, 2018
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
All case studies have been anonymized and no real names have been used.
ISBN (print): 978-1-78860-014-9
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-78860-015-6 (Kindle)
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-78860-021-7 (epub)
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.
For Jean-Louis
All these years later, I’m still so happy to be stuck with you!
Contents
Chapter 1 The Value of Advice That Sticks
Chapter 2 Why People Seek Advice
Chapter 3 A Curse, a Plague, and Other Problems Caused by Advisory Teams
Chapter 4 The Peculiarities of People and Finances
Chapter 5 What Makes Some Advice Harder to Take Than Others
Chapter 6 Client Characteristics (Part 1): Working with the Horse You’ve Got
Chapter 7 Client Characteristics (Part 2): How to Help When Life Packs a Wallop
Chapter 8 Under the Influence: Social and Environmental Contributors to Adherence
Introduction
Here’s what I’ve come to believe: Most people are at least mildly crazy when it comes to money.
I can say ‘crazy’ with some authority. I am, after all, a psychologist. I know crazy when I see it. And there is nothing – not full moons or federal elections or family get-togethers – that draws the crazy out of people faster than money.
The author Geneen Roth describes it more eloquently:
It seems that money, even more than food, activates our survival instinct and makes wise, otherwise rational people behave like starving dogs. Any distorted or frozen patterns in our psyches will inevitably show up in our relationship with money, which makes it the ultimate repository for shadowy behavior.
Geneen Roth, Lost and Found
Craziness. Starving dogs. Shadowy behaviour. So … are you sure you want to work with people and their money?
If your work involves giving people financial counsel, then their crazy, conflicted relationship to money is only one of the challenges you will face. Frankly, it’s not even the most formidable one. Factors such as the quality of your relationship with clients, their level of energy and insight, and a host of other social and environmental influences all contribute mightily to what the client will do with the recommendations you provide.
Unfortunately, the odds are high that you have not received much guidance on what to actually do about any of these other influences. As a financial professional, the bulk of your