Carl Richards has been hired by Consilium as its marketing specialist.

Consilium offers support services to more than 60 independent financial advice firms throughout New Zealand.

Richards is the author of multiple books on the subject of investor behaviour and runs a website and blog. Carl also writes a weekly article for the New York Times.

He said while there were local variants, human behaviour – and investor behaviour within that – seemed constant across the world.

Financial advisers were starting to realise how important managing that behaviour was when they were helping their clients reach their goals, he said.

“There’s been a tendency for a long time for our industry to throw prescriptions at things without taking the time to diagnose,” he said. “Real financial advisers are starting to understand diagnosis is a huge part of what they do.”

Advisers who had given clients the appropriate diagnosis and solution would be well placed to help their clients when markets became scarier, he said.

“That’s the biggest job of real advisers, to prevent the big mistakes we all make as humans. When I first discovered for myself the role that investor behaviour plays I thought ‘this is easy, I’ll run around the world educating people on it’ but I was naive. It’s not that easy. It’s hard to see your own blind spots.”

Consilium would help advisers with things that went beyond back-office solutions, he said, and included training and support on how to communicate more effectively with clients.

“As it’s becoming more and more clear that investment solutions are a commodity, advisers are running around trying to work out ‘what’s’ my real value now’.  It comes down to their ability to communicate on the client’s level with empathy and trust. Advisers who are looking for guidance on that, we can help.

“If they don’t understand how important it is already they will be forced to quickly because the industry is changing so fast and if they are not providing behavioural coaching to their clients they’ll find what they do is cheaper somewhere else. It’s the key value of a real financial adviser.”

He recommended advisers do “life boat drills” with clients, to talk about how they would respond to market turbulence and plan strategies to deal with it.

“The appointment of Carl in such a specialist capacity further strengthens our ability to meet the needs of our clients”, saidScott Alman, managing director of Consilium.

“We champion professional advice and those who deliver it. Carl’s comprehensive understanding of investor behaviour and proven ability to use media and technology to deliver messages that stick will greatly benefit financial advisory firms that work with Consilium, increasing their impact and extending their marketing reach.”