Five Books to Help Advisors Navigate 2017

Financial advisors facing a potentially turbulent 2017 will want to stay informed as a means to remaining effective amid the storm.

Dealing with a changing interest rate environment, turbulent commodity prices, and, oh yes, Donald Trump moving into the White House all will test the mettle of the savviest money managers this year.

To help meet the challenge, financial advisors should turn to the written page – or at least digitalized e-reader – to spruce up their financial knowledge. Many advisors have already started with the following five books that could make a big difference in their practices in 2017.

See if they don’t make it onto your own personal best-seller list this year:

“Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein

“This year, I'm taking a big focus on client behavior and how to understand the thinking and influences behind client's choices and behavior,” said Justin Chidester, an advisor with Wealth Mode Financial Planning in Logan, Utah.

“This book by Thaler and Sunstein is as valuable for advisors, I think, as it could be for clients. It should help me find better work-life balance with owning my own practice.”

“Storyselling For Financial Advisors” by Scott West and Mitch Anthony

“My favorite recent read is a few years old, but is having a tremendous impact on the way that I communicate with both prospects and clients,” said Steven Fox, founder of Next Gen Financial Planning in San Diego. “That’s why I highly recommend ‘Storyselling For Financial Advisors.’

“The biggest takeaways from the book are to engage clients with metaphors and anecdotes with a set of stories you know very well, ask open-ended questions that probe deeper than they expected to discuss with you, and listen a lot more than you talk. They provide useful examples of effective dialogue throughout the book.”

“Thinking Fast Or Low” by Daniel Kahneman

“Investing is about decision-making, so I just pulled ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ off my shelf to re-read in 2017,” said Joshua Wilson, a money manager at WorthPointe Wealth Management, in Plano, Texas.

“On this subject, there are few thinkers in the class of Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. My copy is wrought with notes and highlights, yet I learn something every time I pick up this book.”

“Around the Year with Nick Murray” by Nick Murray

“How can you go wrong with daily bite-sized pearls of wisdom gained over 50 years as an advisor?” asked Pete Bush, partner and chief executive officer of Horizon Wealth Management in Baton Rouge, La. “Murray offers perspectives on every aspect of being an advisor in this business and priceless wisdom.”

“Dear Investors, What the Hell Are You Doing?” by Ken Weber

“This book identifies common mistakes investors make, including those in the industry, while providing an easy approach to investing,” said Jennifer Weber, a wealth planning associate at Morgan Stanley in Atlanta. “I highly recommend it.”

These aren’t the only worthwhile investment and motivational books on the bedside tables of smart U.S. money managers this year, but they’re likely to be near the top of the list.

Add one or all to your reading list, and see if the lessons learned don’t rub off on you – and your clients – in 2017.

Brian O'Connell is a former Wall Street bond trader, and author of the best-selling books, The 401k Millionaire and CNBC's Guide to Creating Wealth. He's a regular contributor to major media business platforms, including CBS News, The Street.com, and Bloomberg. Brian may be contacted at [email protected].

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