Markets are emotional, and money causes people to be irrational. It’s our job as financial advisors to manage both emotional and potential irrationality. We are psychologists who help people manage their money.

On this episode, we discuss the ability to explain the “why” of certain aspects of the financial advisory industry with our clients to help reduce fears, worries, and irrationality and work with our clients toward their financial goals.

An amazing mind in our industry, Jonathan DeYoe, CPWA, AIF, Founder and CEO of Mindful Money, shares how we can flip the script on the delivery of financial advice to our clients. He shares lessons from meditation and how those can be translated to building a financial advisory firm that shifts the conversation and the focus from performance relative to a benchmark to performance relative to your goals and objectives. We have an intriguing conversation about how these lessons from meditation and Buddhism can apply to the financial advisory industry.

Nelson Greene, VP of Business Development at Benjamin, shares his knowledge and experience of working in banking, wealth management, and custodial businesses, and how these apply to financial advisors.

On this episode, we discuss the importance of financial advisors, the three verticals of why adoption of innovation is so difficult in our industry, and building client experiences around thoughtfulness.

COVID-19 created a lot of change. When you look at major companies, these companies have changed their work policies to be fully remote and are closing down their offices. COVID-19 forced new work policies and innovation, and we’ve discovered that we have the capability to work in an entirely new environment.

What is the financial advisory industry going to do? On this episode of Bridging the Gap, we look at what work policies could look like when we get back to our “new normal” post-COVID-19.

Consultant and financial planning advisor Shanna Tingom joins us on this episode of Bridging the Gap to discuss how to create an efficient financial advisory firm. With experience in building her own consulting and financial planning firms, Shanna knows from firsthand experience how to integrate and innovate in a way that helps firms become more efficient through technology and process innovation. She has overcome the same hurdles that many advisors face when it comes to technology, and now she helps other firms overcome those hurdles to create an efficient firm.

What does a client value? There’s a gap between the advisors’ perception of what the client values and what the client actually values, and this provides an opportunity for discussion. According to a study by Vanguard, 72% of the perceived value of an advisor is identified as these three things:

1. Trust

2. Personal Connection

3. Proactive Outreach

These are based on the “relationship” with an advisor. On this episode, Matt looks at the relationship between advisors and clients, how this relationship has evolved, and what we can do to bridge the gap of perceived value.

We're back with the new season of Bridging the Gap, and we're looking at what has happened to the financial advisory industry in the midst of COVID-19. The financial advisor industry has recently experienced an uncomfortable transition. This was a first of its kind scenario: advisors had to react and push forward without a prior checklist of items to check off. In the past, we've been able to react to market-related events. The COVID-19 pandemic turned our entire industry on its head. We look at how financial advisory firms responded.

Committed, transformative, and visionary...these are a few words that I took away from my conversation with Conor Richardson. Conor is a Certified Public Accountant and author of the book "Millennial Money Makeover," a book designed to navigate this generation through the financial issues of their time so that they are set up for lifelong success. In this interview, we discuss the future of Millennials, technology, and how Generation Y needs to start approaching financials today.

Innovative, well-versed, entrepreneur and client centric…these are just a few words that I took away from my conversation with Josh Bennett. Josh is a Certified Financial Planner that has a background in serving and helping families implement actionable financial advice. After spending some time at Charles Schwab and other wealth management firms, Josh decided to start his own innovative firm, Vincere Wealth. Focused on tech professionals and business owners, Josh provides extreme value to a niche industry and does so with a leading focus on innovation and value. Today, we talk about where Josh feels the industry is going and what got him to the point he is at today with Vincere Wealth.

A creator, innovator, outsider, and leader. These are just some of the words that I took away during my conversation with Anders Jones. Anders is the CEO and co-founder of Facet Wealth. Facet is a company that is changing the landscape of investment management by providing access to high-quality financial planning to all households. Anders comes from a background of innovation within the startup world, after being a part of the company LiveRamp and going through the sale of the company, he spent time investing and managing other startups. He has now taken the lessons learned from these experiences to start another endeavor and bring those lessons into our industry. Today we talk to him about everything from tech to financial services to open our eyes to a different perspective.