Financial Coach or Financial Planner?

Momentum is a place where you don’t have to choose.

“Again! ” I can still hear my coach as we returned to the line for the next sprint. If you have any touch points with the world of athletics, you are likely to have had a variety of coaches–some great, some not. It is common in financial spaces to come across the term financial coach and to shrink slightly back in fear of judgment and anticipation of someone who is going to cut your budget and make you do 100 financial crunches that you really don’t want to do. But someone with the term planner can also be intimidating to search out as well. When seeking financial help, the differences between terms such as a financial coach or financial planner can quickly become confusing, and often mean different things to different people.

The term coach makes us think of someone who is focused on the immediate, while planner tends to connote a longer-range view.

A planner is the individual we associate with telling us what needs to be done, while a coach might tell us how to execute that plan. Planners are assumed to deal with the high-level details of a client’s financial circumstance, and it isn’t uncommon for planners to require a minimum threshold of manageable assets, potentially in excess of $500,000, before even scheduling a first meeting. In the industry, financial planners may have a higher level of credentialing, but they may often perceived to talk “big picture” at the expense of joining you “in the weeds” of the day-to-day. While this isn’t always the case, the reputation persists.

These analogies are broad generalizations. There are many fantastic coaches and planners who find ways to creatively incorporate approaches that work for both themselves and their clients, but it is also undoubtedly true that someone looking for financial help might hesitate to step into the financial ring due to intimidation surrounding the connotations of working with a coach or planner. This trepidation may arise for various reasons, but regardless of the source, it functions to keep people away from the financial support that they deserve. 

Where does this leave us? Where does this leave the individual who has a basic foundation for their budget and spending habits, but wants to better understand the relationship between short- and long-term tradeoffs? Or the individual who is ready to think more strategically about their long-term financial picture, but doesn’t quite have $500,000 of assets waiting to be managed? The landscape of the financial industry is evolving, and it is safe to say that we need to build more support for individuals at various points of their financial and professional journeys.

The truth is that the financial coach - financial planner binary is a false choice.

And it is a myth I am passionate about debunking. Reviewing your complete financial picture holistically and providing sound investment advice are at the core of what I do, so in this sense I am a financial planner. But I am the type of planner who wants to join you in the day-to-day process and actual execution (to the extent you determine is helpful and necessary) more like a financial coach. Clients have reflected back the powerful combination of being a planner who is willing to meet more than 1-2 times per year, who is able to help you discover your financial values as well as optimize the specific financial decisions that flow from them. I am someone who understands it is an absolute necessity to be able to bridge your long-term financial vision with executing the “nitty gritty” of day-to-day details and small daily decisions that can keep your financial life on track. 

So the next time you think of a coach talking budget with you or a planner sitting behind a large mahogany desk, I want to instead offer a different vision: of someone with all the credentials and educational background to help you build an evidence-based long-term financial plan that you understand, but who also comes alongside you in the process and who will walk with you in the organization and implementation of that plan. What does this look like?

It is someone who is willing to talk about your goals, priorities, and high-level cash flow. . . and is also ready to walk you through the click-by-click process of opening a brokerage account, selecting investment options, and reviewing your budget and savings.

What do we call this coach-planner combination? The jury is still out. But in the meantime, you have my contact.

Ready for someone to help guide you in setting up for financial success? Schedule a free intro chat or sign up for blog updates to stay on top of the latest posts!