If this sounds all rather blue sky or new age, it is far from it. It is in the field being ploughed by George Kinder and Bill Bachrach, who run similar courses, and my first contact with Dr Nemeth was at the Institute of Financial Planning’s conference last October.
It was her presentation to the IFP conference that inspired me to take her four-day course. The approach has some very practical and, for financial planners, forward-thinking applications.
The essence of Dr Nemeth’s presentation is about bringing “clarity, focus, ease and grace” to life. The first question she posed to her audience was “Would it be all right if life got easier?”
There is a spiritual element to the course in that the philosophy of Buddhism underlies her approach and Nemeth’s course attracted a wider audience than financial planners. This introduced a useful broader perspective within the course structure.
The approach is to develop you as an individual to help both remove the pressures of working life which can distract us from that clarity and focus, and waste time, and to provide the skills to communicate with clients at a deeper level and so coach them in making the important and lesser financial decisions that will affect their lives.
Not surprisingly, core to the training is clear communication. A financial life coach works with the client to establish important and meaningful money goals and to establish what action can be taken to achieve those goals.
Within the financial planning context it is about helping people understand their relationship with money and what it means to them as an individual.
The kinds of skills that Dr Nemeth looks to develop within financial advisers are miles away from the commission-based financial advice that has dominated the industry over the years.
I believe it is a further step on from straightforward financial planning in that rather than concentrating on investment returns and the accumulation of money, this approach places emphasis on what is important to clients as people and helping them understanding how their money and the financial planning process fit with their personal goals.
Applying philosophy to advice
The skill for individual financial planners will be to relate the technical, product, tax and regulatory aspects of financial planning to the philosophy. But in my view, clients respond very positively to someone who attempts to discover their values and builds a financial plan based on those values.
The approach championed by Dr Nemeth can offer valuable lessons which financial planners can use to develop their businesses. In my view, this is where financial planning should be heading as part of its progression to becoming a recognised profession.
So convinced am I of the potential this approach brings, both for clients and for staff, that I will be taking the five-day advanced training programme in Stockholm in April to become a certified coach.
