Beware too much touchy, feely

Conventional wisdom puts investment performance second to the “therapy” approach to financial planning. It dictates you know as much as you can about client hopes, dreams, wants, fears. Know their family, their charitable involvement, their dog’s name. But according to this week’s Wall Street Journal, the current downturn has skeptics speaking out. According to the paper:

“It’s a process critics fear can go wrong without warning, making client and adviser uncomfortable. ‘If you’re going to open a can of worms, you’d better be prepared to do some good,’ says Michael Fitzhugh, a principal in the San Francisco office of money-management firm Aspiriant. The bigger danger, though, may just be the awkward feeling that it’s inappropriate and that sharing all those details effectively tangles the heartstrings with the purse strings.”