Client Didn’t Take Your Advice. Don’t Take It Personal
Sometimes clients think they know better, disregard recommendations or choose to not ask for them before making a potentially costly financial decision.
Sign up for market insights, wealth management practice essentials and industry updates.
Advisors advise … duh! It’s in their title. But sometimes clients don’t listen.
Less than 30% of American adults can correctly answer Stanford University’s “Big Three” questions on interest, inflation and diversification. It makes sense, then, that people hire professionals to manage their finances. But clients don’t always take their advice — or even ask for it before making a potentially costly financial decision.
It can be frustrating, but advisors need to remember that clients aren’t professionals and it’s still a learning process for many. “There’s a lot of bad habits that take a long time to break,” said Bryan Byrer, founder of Millennial Financial Planning. “You’ve got to give yourself and clients grace because it’s not a personal knock against you as an advisor.”
See You on the Back Nine
Recently, one of Byrer’s clients made an expensive purchase without consulting him: a golf cart. “I’m actually friends with the client, so I saw it on their Instagram before they told me about it months later,” he said.
When they meet, Byrer doesn’t plan to make the client feel bad about the purchase. Instead, he wants to understand why they made it and establish checks and balances to prevent similar impulse purchases. “Money is a very emotional subject, and emotions drive behaviors,” Byrer said. Many of his clients have 30-plus years of financial habits to overcome.
A Little Tough Love. Ultimately, clients can do whatever they want with their money. But things can get tense when a client ignores an advisor’s recommendation, suffers the consequences and then expects the advisor to fix it.
“Preventing a financial problem is usually easier and less expensive than unwinding one,” said Thomas Ravert, managing director at Pathway Capital. Cleanup often requires more time, complexity and professional responsibility, he said, which is why he charges a premium in those cases. “That is not punishment,” he told Advisor Upside. “It is accountability and economics.”
And sometimes, an advisor may have to walk away. Daniel Lash, a CFP with VLP Financial Advisors, recalled a client who eventually ran out of money after repeatedly disregarding advice. “If you go separate ways with the client, the spending issue is not likely going away for them, but it will for the advisor,” he said.
