Financial Planning Conversations

Competition, automated advice and increasing professional standards are among the trends driving your advice business in 2018.

Many people think they understand risk tolerance, but often they have fallen prey to one of the 10 myths that stalk this frequently misunderstood area. This podcast busts those myths to set the record straight.

The biggest drivers of trust in financial advisors are relationship factors, such as advocating for the client and acting in their best interest. So, can a robo advisor be programmed to create trust in similar ways?

What creates trust between financial advisors and their clients? What can damage that trust? And why does trust matter anyway? This podcast has the answers, thanks to new research.

Investment suitability is emerging as a critical issue for financial advice firms. This podcast previews a workshop being held in London on 1 November, where experts will explore the competitive challenges and opportunities. Grab a free ticket at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whats-happening-with-suitability-out-there-tickets-38620681498?aff=es2

Individual investors make common mistakes that cause them to buy the wrong stocks, trade them too often and underperform the index benchmarks.(First broadcast 24th February 2016).

Comparative reviews of risk tolerance tests in the UK and US show that FinaMetrica is a clear 'best-of-breed' choice, with a solid scientific base and more than one million client profiles completed.

Up to US$200 billion in asset management fees are up for grabs according to a new report from Ernst Young, which argues those delivering a superior client experience will win the assets and the fee revenue. (First broadcast 7th September 2016).

Find out if your risk profiling assessment tools are fit for purpose, or potentially giving you incorrect information as Paul Resnik guides you through a due-diligence checklist that will test your risk tolerance systems. (First broadcast 27th January 2016.)

Investment suitability is often not a clear-cut concept, with no agreed definitions and a lot of subjective judgements brought to bear. This podcast explores what suitability looks like around the world.

miPlan is an impressive new white-label robo advisor, whose risk tolerance assessments are powered by FinaMetrica. In this episode we look inside miPlan with Shawn Brayman from PlanPlus, the creator of miPlan, and our regular guest Paul Resnik, from FinaMetrica. (First broadcast November 2016).

Regulation in the United Kingdom and Europe is making fund managers responsible for their products' investment suitability - a new requirement that many are struggling to get their heads around.

A new guide to the language of risk has been released by FinaMetrica, to help the industry focus on how risk is described and put into context for customers. In this episode, the creators of the guide explain why and how they undertook this work. (First broadcast September 2016).

Many robo advisors do not do a very thorough job, as they don't collect the personal, financial and risk tolerance data they need to give good advice and make suitable investment recommendations. This podcast explains how to distinguish a good robo from a bad robo. (First broadcast October 2015)

Enterprises need an agreed, consistent process for quantifying, contextualising and explaining risk. This includes 1) a reliable and valid methodology to assess risk tolerance; 2) proven algorithms to link the tolerance measure to portfolio solutions; 3) an agreed and standardised language of risk; and 4) a standard process of demonstrating examples of risk and return. (First broadcast 1 June 2016)

Financial advisors who claim to give good advice must be able to prove these five critical things. (First broadcast: May 2016)

Poor investment suitability is the cause of tens of thousands of phone calls from anxious investors, which cost the financial services industry millions of dollars to answer. But fixing the investment suitability problem can dramatically reduce those costs.

The next market crash is coming, but advisors can prepare their clients so they keep their cool and remain invested. This podcast explains how to frame and manage clients' expectations of market volatility.

There is no common standard in risk tolerance profiling, leading to confusion for those seeking a robust profiling solution. This podcast discusses three common problems with profilers - no basis for their construction; the flawed combining of risk tolerance with risk capacity and the co-opting of prospect theory for risk tolerance.

Risk profiling has gone through five evolutionary stages from its small beginnings in the 1980s to its central part in financial planning today. This podcast charts that history and looks forward to the next stage, which has already begun to emerge.