Morningstar Magazine - August/September 2017 - 19

A Heavy Emotional
Price New research
uncovers an
issue few are willing
to discuss.
BEHAVIOR GAP

Carl Richards

Klontz and Sonya Britt at Kansas State University
wondered if financial planners might be experiencing post-traumatic stress after the 2008
financial crisis. So, as part of their research, they
conducted a survey and found that:
"Ninety-three percent of financial planners
reported medium to high levels of stress...including
intrusive thoughts and images, sleep difficulty,
feeling numb, attempts to avoid thinking about or
getting upset about it, and waves of strong feelings.
These symptoms were accompanied by selfblame, negative thoughts about self, negative
thoughts about financial institutions, uncertainty
about how to help clients."

We have a problem, and it's time to get serious
about it.

Sleep difficulty. Feeling numb. Negative
thoughts. Uncertainty.

Financial professionals are struggling to handle
the emotional stress of their jobs. Think I'm
exaggerating? Pause for a minute and consider the
primary function of a real financial advisor:
It's to be a release valve for their clients' anxieties.

I'm betting most of you don't describe your firms
or the work you do using those words. But
that's how people are feeling about their financial
jobs. Of course, we don't discuss this problem
because we can't even admit we have one.

We pay a heavy price when we help our
clients deal with the irreducible uncertainty that
comes with financial planning. Many things
are beyond our control, and it's our job to walk
clients in off the financial ledge during
scary markets. But as a result, it's wrecking us
emotionally and physically.

Just recently, an advisor reached out to me via
email telling me that, after 20 years in the industry,
he's struggling. He doesn't know what to
do about the stress he feels. Why me? Because
I suspect that if he went to many other places
he'd get told to toughen up. Driven, rational
financial advisors don't talk about things like how
they're feeling.

I've known about this problem for a while now,
and it turns out some people a lot smarter than me
have figured out what's happening. Bradley

Now, I know you may not relate at all to this
problem. You've got your "feelings" under control.
If that's true, lucky you.
But based on the research by Klontz and Britt,
plus the conversations I have with advisors
from around the world, it's a problem growing
bigger by the day. So, as the President of
Unspeakable Things in the Financial Industry,
I'm talking about it. I'm asking you-begging
you-to start talking about it, too.
Because the scary markets will return. The fear
and anxiety will swell again. We'll need to walk
clients in off the financial ledge. But if we
haven't figured out how to take care of ourselves,
it won't be long before we start peering
over our own ledges. And who will be there to
walk us back?
Consider this column a call to arms for the people
running or working at financial firms, big or
small. How should we deal with anxiety and stress
when it's part and parcel of what we do?
Because it's not going to stop, and we don't want
one more skilled professional leaving the industry
because it's become too much. K
Carl Richards, CFP, is the author of The Behavior Gap
and The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way
to Be Smart About Your Money. He also writes the weekly
Sketch Guy column for The New York Times.

It's time to change that attitude throughout
the industry, both personally and professionally.

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19
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Morningstar Magazine - August/September 2017
