Episode summary
Articulating The Evolving Value Of Financial Planning To Prospects - Kitces & Carl Ep 200
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · 35 min · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: Carl Richards
Summary
The conversation reframes the value of financial planning from a hard-to-quantify “advisor alpha” story to something more human: helping clients align their use of money, time, energy, and attention with what matters most to them. Carl Richards argues that the best version of planning is not just advice, but an ongoing process of goal clarification, experimentation, and change that helps people become who they really are.
The host and Carl agree that many clients still enter through a presenting problem, such as life insurance, an inheritance, or retirement readiness, because most people do not wake up wanting a “life plan.” But Carl says the deeper value is discovered over time, when advisors use money as an entry point to conversations about meaning, values, and behavior. He says the work is less about product sales and more about helping clients notice where their spending and priorities are aligned or misaligned.
A major theme is implementation. The host argues that the next value layer is helping clients actually get things done, not just giving advice. Carl agrees that non-implementation is signal, and says advisors should improve listening, ask better questions, run small experiments, and use nudges and client task management to help clients follow through. The treatment effect, they conclude, is a more aligned life, more peace of mind, and better financial outcomes.
Key takeaways
- Carl Richards says his preferred definition of financial planning is aligning a client’s use of capital with what is important to them.
- The host argues that the next differentiator in advice is implementation: helping clients actually complete the recommendations they receive.
- Carl says most firms should still start with the presenting problem, because people usually do not ask for a life plan.
- Non-implementation is information, Carl says, because it can signal that an advisor misunderstood what matters most to the client.
- The treatment effect of good planning, in their view, is not just better portfolios but a more meaningful, less stressful life.
Notable quotes
“my favorite version of financial planning is the alignment of your use of capital”
“I don't care about money at all. All I care about is humans and humans doing the stuff that lights them up”
“what starts to differentiate the advisors going forward and I increasingly are seeing in this direction of but did you actually help them get it done”
“non-implementation is information. nonimp non-implementation is signal”
How the episode opens
Michael Kites, welcome to the podcast. — David decided to join me today. — I the third DCR3. Welcome. — Welcome to the podcast. — That's that's right. I was gonna mention like welcome to episode, but I don't even know what what episode number are we on. So we are So this is a milestone. We are episode 200 recording roughly every other week which means I actually went and looked it up. We started this in January of 2019 and it has been seven and a half years.
Shut up. That cannot be right. — Seven and a half years. — I Wait a second. I only committed to this for 50 episodes. I told you. — I know. That's why I don't — I don't tell you what episode we're on because I'm hoping you won't notice. We're past number 50 already.
I I feel I feel slightly I don't know what the right word is. Taking advant I don't like 200. I've never done anything for seven and a half years except be married. — Say you're like New York Times behavior guy.
Oh, that's right. That went close, right? — That went 10 years. that went a decade almost to the week. And then Behavior App Radio, I just recorded episode 1512, but those don't quite count. Se that is amazing. That's amazing.
200 episodes. — We should put a book together. We should take all those episodes and put a book together cuz people love big thick books these days. — People love big people love big books. Big Well, you made a beautiful big blue book. I love that it was I'd like to think this podcast was it was not because of you. It was in spite of you.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- financial advice value
- client communication
- marketing intangible advice
- implementation of planning
- client transformation
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
More from Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
-
Helping Clients Who Want A Retirement They Can't Afford - Kitces & Carl Ep 203 -
The Top Factors To Consider When A Client Plans To Move Abroad, With Ashley Murphy -
Ep 515: Crafting Deeper Client Relationships To Drive Loyalty, Referrals, And Gain Career Flexibi... -
Key Rules And Pitfalls To Execute Qualified Disclaimers Successfully, With Dave Haughton -
Ep 514: Optimizing A $160M AUM Solo Practice For Client Impact Over Scale with Nick Ibello -
Value-Based Pricing And Charging As Much As The Market Will Bear - Kitces & Carl Ep 202
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces), this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Kitces. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
