Client Psychology

Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

In Client Psychology, you will:

• Adapt to disruptive change in the financial planning industry by becoming more client-centered.
• Articulate how better knowledge of client psychology, decision making, and behavioral finance can help you build deeper, long-lasting customer relationships.
• Gain skills that will help your clients achieve better outcomes by understanding their needs and preferences and helping them cope with life events and market volatility.
• Study with the renowned Wharton finance faculty, leading scholars from a variety of academic disciplines, and CFP^® professionals to gain day-to-day practical skills to serve and grow your client base.
• Improve your communication skills with a stronger grasp of how client psychology can guide clients toward better decisions.
• Develop new insights into how to adapt to a changing U.S. population and a surge in millennial clients with different views on elements of financial planning.

Experience & Impact

Client Psychology combines the power of top finance experts from Wharton with the experience and know-how of the Certified Financial Planner Board — which certifies and set standards for 81,000 professionals — and its Center for Financial Planning. The lead faculty in the program are Christopher Geczy, the academic director of the Wharton Wealth Management Initiative and the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for Quantitative Financial Research, and Charles R. Chaffin, the director of academic initiatives and programs for the CFP Board and author of the recently published book Client Psychology.

This first-of-its-kind program consists of two distinct modules covering different content. Participants can take either Module 1, Module 2, or both.

Through insights based on rigorous research, experience, and interaction, participants will not only learn from thought leaders but develop new methods for communicating with clients, helping them achieve their goals, deal with potential financial stress and hardships, and make key decisions. This specially developed course takes an interdisciplinary approach that draws on the latest breakthroughs in behavioral finance, psychology, therapy and counseling, and even neuroscience.

The academic study of client psychology is a burgeoning field, which merges traditional financial knowledge with an understanding of best practices from aspects of finance, financial planning, and a variety of the human sciences. The course will focus heavily on how practitioners can hone their skills in client communication through observation, exercises, and even role playing. The goal is for financial planners and advisors to gain both the know-how and the tools to refocus their practice to emphasize the client, thus achieving better results and building life-long relationships. Participants will learn how to relate better to a fast-changing client population and gain cutting-edge tools to build closer bonds with clients and ultimately deliver better outcomes.

MODULE 1: JUNE 15-17, 2020

Session topics include:

• Client Behavior and Decision Making
• The Challenges to Evidence-Based Decision Making
• Understanding Client Communication Styles
• Heuristics and Biases
• Building Relationships Through Neuroscience
• Elements of Clinical Psychology Including Spending, Saving, and Money Disorders
• Expert Perspectives From Practitioners

MODULE 2: NOVEMBER 16-18, 2020

Session topics include:

• Understanding Resilience and Optimism
• Persuasion and Influence
• Risk Aversion and Client Personality
• Future Self
• Self-Efficacy and Reflective Practice
• Expert Perspectives From Practitioners

Listen to the Audio Clip:

Academic Directors Christopher Geczy of Wharton and Charles Chaffin of the CFP Board talk about Client Psychology on Wharton Business Radio, SiriusXM.