Your clients' lives can be stressful. From COVID to wars, extreme market turbulence to inflation, clients worry about their current financial status and their and their loved ones’ futures. Financial professionals should strive to offer advice in a way that reduces those strains.
This is not an easy task, but we have a solution...
BEHAVIORAL FINANCIAL ADVISOR™ (BFA™) designated professionals receive specialized interdisciplinary training that incorporates psychology and neuroscience with traditional finance principles. Through practical exercises, they grow in self-awareness, confidence, empathy, and emotional intelligence, and learn how to manage and control their own and others’ negative emotions.
WHAT ARE THE EXPERTS SAYING?
Jeff Sietstra, Vice President of Advisor Group’s Business Coaching & Consulting Team, and a BFA™ holder and instructor:
“The concepts presented in the curriculum are not new, but how they are adapted and applied to the planning and presentation of financial advice is uniquely valuable. Our training course not only demonstrates the importance of behavioral financial advice, but gives the tools, skills, and confidence to consistently apply it to your practice.”
Financial professionals schooled in behavioral financial advice are well prepared to recognize...
UNDERLYING EMOTIONAL MOTIVATIONS
Understand clients’ deeply held values and beliefs about money, and help connect them with their goals and behaviors.
CORRECT COGNITIVE ERRORS
Professionally identify and address blind spots or potential errors in judgment —such as wanting to deviate from a financial plan/goal to chase a shiny new object — especially when emotions are running high.
CURB HIDDEN BIASES
Challenge assumptions and remedy common biases like excessive optimism, confirmation bias, over-confidence bias, or illusion of control bias.
HOW IS THIS APPROACH DIFFERENT:
Stage 1
Participants are first taught to recognize mistakes and troublesome patterns in their own thoughts, feelings and actions.
Stage 2
Once a financial professional knows and can identity these pattens, they can present themselves better and handle situations smoothly when emotions threaten to detail progress.
Stage 3
The solid foundation they have gained will help them guide their clients through uncomfortable topics like mortality, the stormy waters of risk management and mitigation or the anxiety of accompanying uncertainty.
Stage 4
Using this approach they are better able to assist clients who need to have similarly difficult conversations with loved ones.
“As a financial professional, you can give the best advice, but if your client doesn’t apply it, it’s useless. Learning about behavioral financial advice teaches you how to read the room to respond to clients effectively, to guide them appropriately, and to persuasively present strategies and plans. It helps professionals improve their value proposition by adding a crucial new tool to their belt, which greatly boosts client experiences and deepens the relationship.” – Jeff Sietstra
Looking for opportunities to learn about the BFA Designation? Contact Iron Point today!