Schedule Appointment ▸
215-355-0989

4201 Lilac Ct.
Upper Gwynedd, PA 19446

Tag Archives: money management

3 Reasons Why Robots Won’t Replace Financial Advisors

Robo-advisors have been heralded as the “future of investing” by their fans, but can computer algorithms really replace human financial advisors?

Robo-advisors are less expensive than traditional advisors—but their low, up-front price comes with a loss in quality. Robo-advisors lack an irreplaceable human element, which prevents them from providing the essential qualities and services characteristic of traditional financial advisors. When you look more closely at the differences between the two, it seems obvious that robo-advisors could never truly replace human financial advisors.

How do robo-advisors work?

Robo-advisors are low-cost, digital platforms that use automated algorithms to provide investment advice. Investors fill out an online form detailing their current financial situation, monetary goals, and investing preferences. Then, the robo-advisor software analyzes the responses and dispenses investment advice.

A recent study by LendEDU found that Millennials, once believed to be the biggest proponents of robo-advisors, actually chose human advisors nearly two-to-one over automated investment services. Other findings from the study revealed that 52% of Millennials believed that robo-advisors are more likely to make mistakes, and nearly 70% thought a human advisor would get a better return on their investments.

Here are 3 reasons why human financial advisors provide more value than robo-advisors.

  1. Money is an Emotional Matter

When you compare a robo-advisor to a human financial advisor, the key difference is a human advisor’s ability to offer emotional guidance. Meeting our clients face-to-face allows us to provide behavioral coaching and hand holding, helping clients develop positive budgeting and wealth management habits that lead to long-term financial security. When markets decline or experience an upset, we work with our clients to help them make rational financial decisions and overcome detrimental emotions or impulses.

  1. Everyone has a Unique Financial Situation

Human financial advisors provide personalized counseling and guidance to help clients achieve long-term financial success. Automated online platforms are unable to match this level of personalization. Instead, robo-advisors rely solely on computerized algorithms to determine asset allocation. While traditional financial advisors may use similar strategies, we also rely on our professional history, as we have worked with a variety of clients with unique financial situations. Additionally, we may work with a team or have additional financial tools at our disposal to determine the best investment objectives for each client.

  1. It’s About More Than Just Investments

Investment advice is just a small part of a complete financial plan. The most sophisticated robo-advisors may offer automatic portfolio rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting, but they don’t come close to providing the full range of services that human financial advisors offer. As people move through life, their priorities and financial goals evolve. Human financial advisors are able to create nuanced investment strategies that take into account changing life circumstances. We provide comprehensive financial planning that includes retirement, insurance, and estate planning services, the best exercise of stock options, cash flow monitoring, and more to help our clients achieve their financial aspirations.

While robo-advisors are gaining more capabilities and media attention, they aren’t close to replacing human financial advisors. Robo-advisors may be useful for beginner investors with limited assets, but they lack the full range of benefits that would let them serve as true replacements for traditional, human financial advisors. If your finances could benefit from a personal touch, please contact us for a complimentary consultation.

 

Sources:

Brown, Mike. (2018, Aug. 23) Robo Advisors vs. Financial Advisors – Millennials Still Prefer Real-Life. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://lendedu.com/blog/robo-advisors-vs-financial-advisors/

Rixse, Chad. (2018, Apr. 25) The 4 advantages of human vs. robo-advisors. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/25/the-4-advantages-of-human-vs-robo-advisors.html

Wohlner, Roger. (2018) Is An Online Financial Advisor Right For You? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-advisors/121914/online-financial-advisor-right-you.asp

Investopedia. (2018) Robo-Advisor (Robo-Adviser). [Reference] Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/roboadvisor-roboadviser.asp

Top 5 Biases that Impact Investment Decisions

As financial advisors, we use facts and logic to guide our clients through investment decisions, rather than emotion. Even the most perceptive investors, armed with years of market experience, can fall prey to mental biases that lead to poor investment decisions. While it’s impossible to completely eliminate mental biases, we help our clients identify and minimize common investment biases that can lead to costly investment mistakes.

What are the most common biases in investing?

Behavioral psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky first explained the biases that inhibit investors’ ability to make rational economic decisions. There are two main categories of investing biases: cognitive and emotional.

Cognitive investing biases involve information processing or memory errors, whereas emotional investing biases involve taking actions based on feelings rather than on facts. Let’s take a look at the 5 most common investment biases, along with the remedies we use to minimize their impact on our clients.

  1. Confirmation Bias
    It is natural for investors to be drawn to information that supports their existing views and opinions. Confirmation bias leads investors to attach more emphasis to information that confirms their belief or supports the outcome they desire. This can have a negative effect by reducing diversification and causing investors to overlook signs that it is time to make adjustments.

How We Help Minimize the Effects: We provide our clients with up-to-date information gathered from a variety of reputable sources. Our investors are fully informed of the pros and cons of their desired investments, giving a more balanced view that leads to better decisions.

  1. Overconfidence Bias
    A common behavioral bias in investing is overconfidence, which causes investors to overestimate their judgment or the quality of their information. This can lead to “doubling down” on a losing investment instead of knowing when to cut losses or under-reacting to important information about changing market conditions.

How We Help Minimize the Effects: We help our clients develop and stick to a solid investment plan and make adjustments that are based on actual market conditions.

  1. Recency Bias

Investors who suffer from recency bias have a tendency to overvalue the most recent information over historical trends. For example, recency biases can threaten an investors’ financial well-being by spurring them into increased risk-taking after experiencing a favorable gain in their portfolio.  It can also occur when the investor experiences an isolated loss and decides not to make any portfolio adjustments for fear of further loss.

How We Help Minimize the Effects: We help our clients focus on the long-term performance of their portfolios, by reviewing both historical and current performance.

  1. Loss Aversion Bias
    Research has shown that humans feel the pain of a loss approximately twice as much as they feel the pleasure of a similarly sized gain. This can lead investors to focus on their investment declines more than gains and can lead to inaction that stagnates the growth of their portfolios.

How We Help Minimize the Effects: We help our clients accept that losing money is an inevitable part of investing. We work together to create a financial plan with predetermined exit strategies.

  1. Anchoring Bias

Anchoring bias is the tendency to “anchor” on the first piece of information received rather than evaluating the market as new information develops. For example, when investors anchor their belief about the value of a stock at the initial trading price rather than the current market conditions, this can lead to unwise decisions that can damage their portfolio’s profitability.

How We Help Minimize the Effects: We help our clients to assess investments based on current market value.

Investing biases can lead people into making financial decisions for reasons other than factual market conditions, significantly diminishing their financial stability. That’s why we believe one of our main responsibilities as financial advisors is to help our clients avoid the cognitive and emotional biases that can lead to faulty investment decisions.

Sources:

Parker, Tim. (2018, May 3). Behavioral Bias: Cognitive Versus Emotional Bias in Investing [Blog post] Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/051613/behavioral-bias-cognitive-vs-emotional-bias-investing.asp

McKenna, Greg. (2014, Nov. 20) Trading Insider: 5 Cognitive Biases That Can Hold Traders Back [Blog post] retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trading-insider-5-cognitive-biases-that-can-hold-traders-back-2014-11

Lazaroff, Peter (2016, April 1) 5 Biases that Hurt Investor Returns [Blogpost] Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterlazaroff/2016/04/01/5-biases-that-hurt-investor-returns/

DesignHacks.co (2017, August). Cognitive Bias Codex [Infographic]. Retrieved from http://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cognitive-bias-infographic.html

5 Reasons Women Should Take Control of Their Money

During a recent conference, I started chatting with the woman next to me. We got on the topic of money and financial planning, and she mentioned that her husband handles their finances and investments and she feels like she is not in the loop. She is a perfectly capable woman having run her own business for many years. It’s unfortunate that a good number of women, even professionals, relinquish control of the family finances to their husbands. In fact, she said that if her husband passed away tomorrow, she wouldn’t know what to do with their money or even where all the accounts are located!

That was a huge eye opener for me. How many other women are in her shoes?

Turns out there are a lot. A recent study found that women are no more confident about money than they were ten years ago. And only 20 percent of women feel prepared to make financial decisions.

When it comes to your finances, you can’t afford to take a backseat. Here are five reasons why you should take control or least be an equal partner in the management of your money:

Continue reading "5 Reasons Women Should Take Control of Their Money"

Check the background of this firm