Financial Planning Counseling Skills describes how a financial planner can blend counseling, psychological, and behavioral finance theories, models, and approaches into their practice with clients.
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
Professor and Athletic Association Endowed Professor of Financial Planning, University of Georgia
Professor John Grable teaches financial planning courses at the University of Georgia, where he holds an Athletic Association Endowed Professorship. Before his academic career, he worked as a pension and benefits administrator and later as a Registered Investment Adviser at an asset management firm. Dr. Grable has contributed to the profession of financial planning in numerous ways. He founded the Journal of Personal Finance and co-founded the Journal of Financial Therapy. He was also a founding co-editor of Financial Planning Review and served as the interim editor of Financial Services Review. He is well-known for his research in financial literacy and education, financial risk tolerance assessment, behavioral financial planning, and evidence-based financial planning. Dr. Grable has received numerous research and publication awards and grants focused on promoting the connection between research and financial planning practice. Over the past quarter-century, Dr. Grable has published over 200 refereed papers, coauthored several textbooks, coauthored a book on financial planning communication skills, co-edited a book on financial planning and counseling scales, coauthored a book on financial services ethics, and contributed to a graduate-level personal finance book. Additionally, Dr. Grable has served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants (IARFC) and held leadership roles with the American Council on Consumer Interests (ACCI) and the Financial Therapy Association. His contributions to the profession have earned him several awards, including the prestigious Cato Award for Distinguished Journalism in Financial Services, the IARFC Founders Award, the Dawley-Scholer Award for Faculty Excellence in Student Development, and the ACCI Mid-Career Award. When not teaching and publishing, he provides research and consulting services through the Financial Planning Performance Lab.
Jamie Lynn Byram
Jamie Lynn Byram, Ph.D., CFP ® , AFC ®
Dr. Jamie Lynn Byram earned her Ph.D. in Financial Planning at the University of Georgia (UGA). She graduated with a B.A. in both history and political science from Samford University in Birmingham, AL. Dr. Byram also holds four master’s degrees: a Masters of Business Administration from The University of Alabama, Birmingham, a fifth year specialist in education from The University of Alabama, Birmingham, a Masters of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary, and a Masters in Science–Financial Planning from the University of Alabama. Dr. Byram began teaching at the university level in 2007 at The University of Missouri–Columbia, and then at The University of Southern Mississippi, where she served as Program Director of the University’s financial planning program. Dr. Byram has also held teaching positions at the University of Georgia and Virginia Tech. After seventeen years of teaching, Dr. Byram pivoted to an industry role and is currently a Senior Financial Planner for Locker Financial Services, a Fee-Only comprehensive financial planning firm located in Verona, New Jersey. Dr. Byram also owns her own financial counseling practice, Peace Within Financial Counseling, LLC, and serves as the Financial Editor of Top Dollar, a newsletter published by Ebix, Inc. Her research interests include financial psychology, financial behaviors within marriages and partnerships, and financial literacy. Dr. Byram is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional and an Accredited Financial Counselor® professional.
Megan McCoy
Megan McCoy, Ph.D., LMFT, AFC®, CFT-I™
Dr. Megan McCoy, Ph.D., LMFT, AFC®, CFT-I™ is an Assistant Professor at Kansas State University’s personal financial planning program. Dr. McCoy holds a B.A. in Psychology from The University of North Carolina and an M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Drexel University. Dr. McCoy also attended the University of Georgia, where she earned a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Science with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an Accredited Financial Counselor® ,and a Certified Financial Therapist-I™. She volunteers on the Financial Therapy Association Board of Directors and is the co-editor of the Financial Planning Review. Her research interests focus on financial therapy, financial well-being, and financial communication, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. She has published over forty articles in top-tier mental health, family science, financial counseling, and financial planning journals. This year her research has won her research awards through the National Council of Family Relations and Financial Therapy Association. Dr. McCoy has been awarded grants from the Financial Planning Association, the National Endowment for Financial Education, and FP Canada to continue research in this area. Dr. McCoy has been featured as a financial well-being expert on the Today Show, NPR, BBC, the Wall Street Journal, and many other media outlets.
Michelle Kruger
Michelle Kruger, Ph. D., CFP®
Michelle Kruger earned her Ph.D. in Financial Planning at the University of Georgia (UGA). She graduated magna cum laude with a B.B.A. in Finance from the Terry College of Business at UGA. After serving as an Assistant Professor of Finance at Loras College, Michelle pivoted to an industry role. She is currently a Senior Financial Planner at Elwood & Goetz Wealth Advisory Group, a fee-only, comprehensive financial planning firm located in Athens, Georgia. Michelle is also currently a part-time Lecturer at the University of Georgia focusing on preparing students for careers in financial planning. Michelle has taught classes in practice management, computer applications, and other advanced financial planning and finance courses. Her research interests include financial planning interventions, risk tolerance assessment, and behaviors associated with building wealth. Dr. Kruger also conducts research through the Financial Planning Performance Lab, the nation’s only applied clinical facility designed to obtain evidence about the effectiveness of the financial planning process. She has served as a financial counselor at the Aspire Clinic, an interdisciplinary teaching and research institution, applying marriage and family therapy theories and techniques to her work with financial clients.
John E. Grable, Ph.D., CFP®
