Communicating Uncertainty with ‘Sketch Guy’ Carl Richards

Money Checkup with Anjali Jariwala

Financial planners are like pilots, Carl Richards says. We can create flight plans for our clients, showing them a map of the next few decades. But life and the markets both change in ways we don’t expect. Financial planners need to learn to communicate that uncertainty, and to establish themselves as guides who can adjust plans as clients’ lives and goals change.

“You can have the best investment plan in the world, but if you don’t know why you have it, you’re not going to get where you want to go," he says.

As the financial planning industry evolves, Carl hopes advisors will continue listening deeply to clients’ goals, finding productive ways to talk through their emotional responses, and creating plans that align with those goals.