Psychology of Financial Planning

Chapter 2Multicultural Competence in Financial Planning

Our clients have diverse backgrounds, worldviews, and experiences that impact the financial planning process and the client–planner relationship. We should consider examining the ways clients are influenced by their own cultural identity and their minority and majority status across some important categories within their culture. The better a financial planner understands their own cultural identity, the more they will become aware of the biases and assumptions that can impact their work with clients. Becoming aware of how our own lived experiences differ from those of others will help increase our empathy and effectiveness.

Exercise 5: Your Multicultural Experience

In the space below, identify your own exposure to individuals of different cultural backgrounds. This could have been through travel, education, or another personal experience. How have those experiences impacted you?

Exercise 6: Your Current (or Future) Clientele

How diverse are your current clients? Have you had success in engaging clients with diverse backgrounds or have you struggled to retain clients who are different from you and other members of your firm? If you are a student, do you feel adequately prepared to engage individuals with different backgrounds than you?

Majority and Minority Status That Impact Financial Planning

We are all vulnerable to biases that grow out of our own backgrounds. We also tend to categorize and ...