Page 43 - Investment Advisor April 2021

Conclusions

RETIREMENT PLANNING
By Jeff Berman

Joe Duran: 9 Ways to Help Your Clients

Live Richly Instead of Dying Rich

Here’s how to help clients live the lives they want, according to the head
of Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management.

financial decision is emotional” and
“every investment decision is a conflict
between the fear of losing out and the
fear of losing money,” he noted, likening
it to a “tug of war.”
However, “the minute you’re feeling
emotional, your decisions are going to
be almost the opposite of exactly what
you should be doing when it comes to
investing,” he warned. It is important to
step back and have an advisor provide “a
sense of perspective on time and priori-
ties,” he noted.
Clients must understand that invest-
ment decisions that look good today
“can also go bad,” he explained, so it’s
y opening up honest conversa- don’t answer that question, they can important to ask whether it is worth
tions with their clients, advisors “make a lot of mistakes along the way” making a decision that can significantly
B can help them gain clarity about for reasons that include the advisor not impact the wealth they have built. One
their financial intentions and commit- having a “lens” on when to point out thing to keep in mind: “The pain of los-
ments for them to take the first steps “there’s a discrepancy between what” ing is much worse than the enjoyment
toward living the lives they want, accord- the client is saving that matters to them of gaining.”
ing to Joe Duran, head of Goldman Sachs and “what’s being done today with 3. Get clients to start looking at
Personal Financial Management. [their] money,” Duran said. money as “fuel.” The way to think
In a recent Goldman Sachs PFM 2. Help clients avoid making the about money is that it’s a resource that
Private Roundtable discussion called mistake that investors make most. allows investors to do things, and “what
“Get Personal and Have an Honest The biggest mistake investors tend to your job is as a human is to optimize
Conversation,” Duran provided several make is “your time perspective and your your decision-making,” Duran said.
tips advisors can use to help their cli- emotional biases … cloud your decision- Therefore, clients should ask them-
ents; here are nine that stood out: making,” according to Duran. selves before making a potentially risky
1. Figure out what really matters As humans, “we are naturally drawn investment decision if they are calm,
to clients, what’s driving their moti- into what we’re experiencing right now if they have put it into perspective, if
vations and why they work. If clients and feel the need to act … because every they have thought about what could go

APRIL 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 41