Financial Planning Counseling Skills

Many of the day-to-day tasks performed by financial planners fall within the broader scope of counseling. Financial planners often face counseling like-incidents in their work. As a result, financial planners need a working knowledge of client and financial planner attitudes, values, and biases. Financial Planning Counseling Skills specifically describes how a financial planner can blend counseling, psychological, and behavioral finance theories, models, and approaches into their practice with clients. Discover:

• Chapter Applications that include testing materials, such as short answer questions, essay questions, matching charts and sample interview questions
• A running case study that covers topics for each of the ten chapters that apply principles learned in the chapters
• Charts that demonstrate how an office environment should be structured to positively influence a client's psychology
• Each chapter contains frequent discussion points set off in boxes for easy identification that provide practical guidance on points discussed in the text
• Key terms are highlighted and defined so students can easily find and understand the terms

Topics Covered:

• The application of counseling theory to the practice of financial planning
• Understanding the importance of using theory in practice and demonstrating how a financial planner can use counseling theories to build client trust and enhance client interactions
• How to establish, manage, and maintain client relationships, including how to build a trust-based client relationship
• How to communicate effectively with clients, especially how to obtain deeper insight into a client's values, goals and other valuable information and the importance of nonverbal communication
• Reflective listening skills, including how it allows planners to gain information and understand the entirety of the client's situation
• The importance of questioning skills, including open and closed-ended questions
• The issues with heuristics, or mental shortcuts that allow a decision-maker to process information or make decisions more quickly
• The role of a financial planner in identifying and monitoring client biases and how they impact client's decision making
• Sources of money conflict, including areas of potential conflict between spouses and family members, as well as money taboos and differing money personalities
• How financial planners can communicate the importance of agreeing on financial goals and objectives
• Discussion of the most common money disorders, including compulsive shopping, gambling, workaholism, hoarding, and financial denial, including the symptoms of these disorders and how a financial planner can support clients with these disorders
• Description of relational money disorders, such as parental manipulation and financial enabling
• Discussion of financial infidelity, including the impact of addiction
• How a financial planner can deal with clients' personal crises such as loss and grief
• How financial planners can mediate the impact of financial shocks by providing financial education