A Financial Planner’s Misguided Critique of the Adviser-as-Therapist Debate

There’s nothing quite like watching someone swing at shadows, is there? Enter Daniel Wiltshire, a financial planner at Wiltshire Wealth, weighing in on the ever-juicy ‘advisers as life coaches’ debate. From the tone of his diatribe, you'd think he'd just unearthed the Rosetta Stone of financial philosophy. Unfortunately, what we really have here is a case of someone who doesn’t quite know the difference between a financial planner and a financial adviser—and is confusing childhood memories of money with meaningful goals for financial planning.

Daniel opens with that classic chestnut: financial advisers on LinkedIn droning on about the ‘meaning of money’. His scorn is palpable as he refers to it as ‘self-evident pseudo-philosophy’, probably while sipping a latte and tapping out a few more unimpressed emojis. I’m sorry, Daniel, but “money doesn’t buy happiness” has become more of a social platitude than an existential revelation at this point. And while we’re here, let’s set something straight: there's a world of difference between someone rambling about the meaning of money and a values-based approach to financial planning.

You see, while Daniel's out there lamenting the "pseudo-life coaches" lurking behind every spreadsheet, the real issue is his own confusion. He talks of advisers delving into the psychology of clients as if that’s a mortal sin, but let’s be clear: meaningful financial planning starts with meaningful goals. And no, those goals aren’t about reliving some traumatic playground experience with your lunch money. They’re about values—something solid, unlike beliefs, which can be about as reliable as a horoscope.

What Daniel fails to grasp is that beliefs are flimsy foundations for financial plans. They shift with the wind and buckle under pressure. Values, on the other hand, are true. They ground clients in their financial journey, helping planners create strategies that are more than just about accumulating wealth but about aligning money with what truly matters in life.

But of course, none of this fits into Daniel's narrative of financial advisers morphing into glorified life coaches to sell you something. According to him, therapy-style approaches are just a sales tactic wrapped in pseudo-empathetic nonsense. He accuses advisers of dressing up a sales pitch as a moral calling, as if empathy and trust are just brand-building tools to rake in the cash. It’s a convenient argument if you don’t understand what financial planning is actually about.

Daniel’s concern with advisers getting into the "emotions behind money" clearly shows he’s missing the point. Financial planners—real ones—are forward-looking. We don’t get stuck in the past, wading through a client’s childhood memories. Instead, we focus on the obstacles that stand in the way of achieving meaningful financial goals. And yes, sometimes that requires a bit of coaching to address behaviours, because let’s face it—people don’t always make the best decisions on their own.

It’s amusing, really, how Daniel criticises advisers for not knowing where to draw the line between financial planning and therapy. In reality, it’s people like him who don’t know the difference between offering professional advice and simply pushing products. The sales-driven commission models of the past—yes, we see you, Darth Vader of financial products—may have worked for a while, but things have evolved. We’re in the business of values-based planning now, not quick fixes or disguised sales tactics.

So, Daniel, while you may fear that the industry is being taken over by ‘pseudo-life coaches’, what’s really happening is a shift towards a more meaningful and forward-thinking approach. And if that makes you uneasy, perhaps it's time to reconsider whether you're clinging to outdated beliefs rather than focusing on what truly matters: aligning financial plans with real, lasting values.