Financial advisors are so often focused on getting clients to save and invest, and keeping them invested (including and especially through times of market volatility) as a way to add “advisor alpha”, a recent DataPoints study of nearly 1,600 investors who are actual clients of financial advisors provides a positive affirmation of these client outcomes

DataPoints released its first quarterly client financial psychology report brief, the Client FinPsych Report. This quarter’s report focuses on the investing-related attitudes of nearly 1,600 financial planning clients spanning over 140 financial planning firms in the United States.

While behavioral finance may be the most familiar subject within the psychology realm to advisors, Fallaw selected “client and planner attitudes, values, biases” as the most important to understanding clients out of the six under the topic in the CFP Board’s new list.

The reality is that there are far more “financial behaviors” that impact an individual’s financial success than just their willingness to stay invested and tolerate market volatility, as exemplified by the research underpinning Thomas Stanley and William Danko’s “Millionaire Next Door”, from one’s frugality to their focus on goals to their ability to withstand the temptation of keeping up with the Joneses (and be ‘socially indifferent’ to the spending habits of others).

Learn the key behaviors needed to build wealth no matter your age.