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Written by: Tripp Rockwell
Your Advisor’s not telling you that your long-term financial goals may be out of sync with the level of risk you’re willing to take in order to reach them. No risk, no reward, right? It’s time to advise your advisor on how to advise you on financial advice.
According to a recent survey by asset manager Natixis, while about 73% of investors polled said that pursuing returns is more important, nearly 84% also said they would choose safety over risk.
So how can you balance increasing assets vs. tolerating risk? And how do you relate this to your advisor? For financial advisors, this balance presents a challenge as well. How your advisor is able to accurately assess this is by delving into your core natural risk propensity and tolerance, part of your financial personality.
The opportunity is to educate your advisor on realistic expectations and strategies to best reach your goals. And while he or she has the tools and training available to them in order to help you along, not everyone is onboard with matching your individual personality behaviors with your personal financial goals.
Where advisors often fall short is not identifying all of the risks associated with your particular situation: investment, financial, and personality risks. This is an important factor because under stress, you might not be as clearheaded or know all the ins and outs of a given situation in order to rationally process what’s happening and make behaviorally smart decisions. You very well may be operating based on your core natural behavior.
As you’re transitioning jobs, getting married, buying a house or preparing for retirement, you’re under a lot of financial stress – worries regarding accumulating wealth may push you into new, riskier investment decisions. Then add market volatility, unforeseen personal events or escalating college tuitions or long-term health care costs, or the emotions associated with being in the “withdrawal stage” rather than “accumulation phase”, and you’re pushed according to your core natural behavior. In many cases, this mix of stress and decisions based on your reaction to that stress is not beneficial for the long-term success of financial goals.
Your financial advisor needs to be in a position to manage not only your portfolio, but protect you from your natural self. This is an important step in the investor/advisor relationship and necessary to your financial success, because under stress, your risk behavior is less predictable without an objective tool. You may want to jump at every opportunity, or over-spend, or take no action at all. This is where knowing your behavioral insights and communication style, help your advisor help you and your significant other.
In many cases, a couples’ behavior will be directly opposite one another. So there is an added challenge for your advisor to know the behavior of each of you in order to address both in different ways.
So, how do you uncover these behavioral risks?
You need an objective, third party system so that your behavior, under stress, becomes more predictable and therefore can plan accordingly. Then, in combination with your experience and wisdom, discovering your financial natural behavior will allow you to become a behaviorally smart investor and provide valuable insights to your financial profile. It’s an enlightening process to see if your advisor is right for you, and then in turn, to see if you’re a match to them. And who knows? With these insights, you may find out a lot more about yourself and your partner, than you’d previously known.
Be sure to discover all of your risks originating from your natural core behavior. It’s the only way to protect you, from yourself. And it helps establish a trusting relationship with your advisor to create a financial plan that is as unique as you.