In an interview with Morningstar India, Mr Kinder, a veteran financial adviser in the US and founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning, said that considering financial concerns of clients alone will not be sufficient to meet fiduciary tests imposed in a number of countries by law.
“Kinder has taught life planning courses on five continents, and believes that it is impossible to be a fiduciary without being a life planner,” said a document from the research house reflecting on a discussion with Mr Kinder.
“A fiduciary, in the purest sense of the term, needs to consider all aspects of their clients’ lives – life concerns and financial concerns.”
Mr Kinder previously expanded on his vision of life planning in an interview with ifa from the United States in 2015, saying this approach goes well beyond goals- or objectives-based advice.
“What we are committed to is essentially the client’s dreams and freedom,” Mr Kinder told ifa. “Who do they want to be and what do they want to achieve? This is our first preoccupation.”
For more on the emergence of the financial life management and life planning movements see http://www.ifa.com.au/editorial/cover-stories/15457-beyond-wealth
Portfolio construction is an aside, the real work is helping clients live a life that is true to themselves, not doing so is the number one regret of the dying, it’s never that they should have held a larger percentage of shares in their portfolio.
I actually agree with Mark, whilst our advice around portfolio construction/management is a 101 of what we do, I also feel that listening to the client, and trying to qualify and deliver their goals/expectations is very important.
I’m all for planners considering more than just the investment and planning elements; adding life coaching (or whatever….), but not as a [i]substitute [/i]for a coherent portfolio construction method and planning approach, which is typically what we find. When I see a financial planner touting unquantifiable (and hence unmeasurable) elements such as “discipline”, “confidence”, and “dreams” etc as part of their value proposition, I start to wonder if it is because they don’t actually have a value proposition when it comes to the actual measurable elements of investing and planning.