What is Money Languages?
Money Languages is a scientifically validated psychometric assessment test and proprietary set of client reports that enables financial professionals to understand how their clients think, feel and behave with regard to money and finances. Our assessments and reports give financial advisors the tools to understand their client’s money language and a roadmap for how to work with them much more productively.
Why is Money Languages an essential tool for advisors?
Approximately 70% of people don’t follow the professional recommendations their financial advisors propose (this is true in other industries such as medicine as well). Why is the good advice that financial planners are offering only appealing to a small percentage of their clients? Clearly something is getting lost in translation. Money Languages’ research has determined that–regardless of income, age, gender or ethnicity–people’s feelings and behavior regarding money can be divided into five distinct types (languages). Generally speaking, people only speak/understand their own language. Linguistic sociologists study how to deliver bad news in a manner that is likely to be most readily accepted and understood. But few people have studied the successful delivery of good news or forward-looking plans, especially not in the field of finance. Until now.
How does using Money Languages impact an advisor’s bottom line?
I. Know Your Client
Research published in the “Journal of Financial Planning” shows that advisors having a high Know Your Client (KYC) proficiency correlated to higher growth and better-quality client relationships.
- 73% of clients are willing to recommend planners with high KYC proficiency, versus 47% who are willing to recommend planners with low KYC proficiency
- 14% net client growth rate (experienced by planners with high KYC proficiency), versus 6% (experienced by planners with low KYC proficiency)
- 74% of client relationships were defined as “personally fulfilling” by planners with high KYC proficiency, versus 48% by planners with low KYC proficiency.
II. Rise of the Behavioralists
The same research also shows an emerging, very high-performing segment of planners deemed the “behavioralists.” They are early tech adopters who provoke their clients in particular ways. Only one in seven planners in the survey was classified as a behavioralist. These planners outpaced their non-behavioralist peers in these ways:
- 30% net growth rate, versus 11%;
- 18% referrals (per 100 clients), versus 9%;
- 73% of clients willing to recommend, versus 60%; and
- 75% of client relationships defined as “personally fulfilling,” versus 60%.
Behavioralists excel at balancing the human and the technical. They are taking greater advantage of cutting-edge science and technology (such as data aggregation and revealed preferences tools) to get a more evidence-based, holistic picture of client’s actual financial behaviors and underlying values and preferences.
How does Money Languages work?
Just like there’s more than one way to live the good life, there’s more than one way to write a successful money story. Money Languages helps financial planners identify the strengths of a wider spectrum of the population, recognizing how to best harness the tendencies and rhythms of different personalities.
Money Languages doesn’t change the financial plans you create, our assessment tool identifies the money language your client speaks. It then gives you a brief proprietary assessment report on the best way to deliver your plans in your client’s money language. This increases the likelihood that your clients will follow through and put your plans into action. Our proprietary reports reveal:
- Areas of strength and opportunities for growth in terms of the client’s feelings/behavior surrounding money
- Conversation prompts in terms of what to say and what NOT to say to clients depending on their money language
- Strategies moving forward for building a lasting financial relationship with clients who speak different languages
What is the research behind Money Languages?
We created a large-scale nationally representative sample of more than 1500 people ages 18 and older, with a special focus on married individuals from the same household. Using a combination of factor analysis using principal axis factoring with promax rotation, we identified latent constructs in the data followed by cluster analysis to identify meaningful and homogenous subgroups of respondents. Money Languages drew from this research and the findings of sociology, psychology and statistics to identify five financial languages (i.e.: types): the planner, the worrier, the believer, the seeker and the tracker.
Who are the people behind Money Languages?
Money Languages was created by interdisciplinary academic researchers and practitioners of consumer science, financial security and marketing, Our team includes Christine Whelan, PhD, Dee Warmath, PhD, Anthony Cernera, PhD and Bill McGarvey.
How can I take the assessment test & what does it cost?
Similar diagnostic instruments used in the world of financial planning are licensed at approximately $200 per use, which is the price point Money Languages has also targeted. We are currently piloting Money Languages with large institutions and individual advisors at discounted rates. If you would like to take our assessment test and discuss using Money Languages in your financial planning practice, we are willing to offer an initial 10 client assessments on a trial basis for free. We invite you to contact us here.