Avoiding Regret in Financial Planning: Be Prepared for Change

Regret is a ste
taskmaster. It simply will not let you rest. Thoughts of “coulda, woulda, shoulda” constantly nag at you and begin to gradually feel like the mental equivalent of having a pebble in your shoe that you just cannot seem to get rid of. In order to keep regret at bay, it is wise to make decisions based on the best information you have at the time, leaving the door open to make greater decisions when greater information arrives. While this is easy in theory, sometimes our “old decisions” are so warm and comfortable that we become paralyzed and unable to make new decisions as our information changes. I see this happen often with my clients, and each time I am reminded of an unforgettable lyric written by the 1970s singing duo England Dan and John Ford Coley: “Oh it’s sad to belong to someone else when the right one comes along.” Ouch!
What a dilemma to realize the one you’re with today isn’t the one that’s supposed to stay.
Growth can be painful because it implies you didn’t get it right the first time. This need not be the case when it comes to your financial future. Markets change, people change, and, most importantly, you change. Needs arise that have never peeked their heads above water before, so it only natural to make new decisions based on new information. In financial planning, change is both expected and welcome. I believe paranoia is the best planning approach.
Like clockwork, I know that one of the first questions a new client will ask me is: “Why don’t the big boys view planning like this?” (An excellent question by the way.) The “big boys” – Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, etc – have the biggest budgets; they control financial advertisements and have influence in the financial media. Yet, the best financial advice can be found outside their ranks. Boutique firms are signing up private wealth clients who are realizing the “big boys” have big conflicts of interest. Pleasing private clients and public shareholders is a difficult balancing act. The only way to succeed at it is by keeping clients partially blindfolded and dependent on a broken system.
In my view, the more you empower your client to learn and understand, the stronger partnership you build, and the faster you travel toward their Point of Independence. That, after all, is the ultimate objective. The reaso
I am here is to usher clients into permanent financial independence, even if it means they don’t need a financial planner anymore. This is heretical to the establishment, but it’s just what today’s private client is seeking. So let me ask in the words of that 1970s anthem for change: has the right one come along for you?