A shiny 50 pence piece from a grandparent could be the beginning of a global fortune, or it could be immediately spent on sweets. It could be the kernel that builds a set of values, like whether to save or invest, and it might also introduce the concept of earning through chores or install a fear of going without.
Financial coach Simonne Gnessen helps clients around the world with their attitudes to money, looking for those formative moments and connecting them to what might be holding people back.
She has discovered that even if an adult becomes wealthy it does not necessarily give them perspective and insight into their own financial behaviour.
Typically, clients reach out to Gnessen, a former financial adviser turned financial coach, because they are not attaining their goals despite successful careers.
“I unpack what is causing a client to act in a way that doesn’t best serve them,” says Gnessen. “Coaching is an area where education, mentoring and soft advice meet. It’s a fee-based service. I don’t sell products and there is no agenda.”
Why be a financial coach?
Gnessen decided to become a coach in 2000 after she took a year out to travel around Asia and Australia. Her trip made her realise how important fulfilling a lifetime goal was and she decided she wanted to enable others to do the same.
As she toured around Australasia, south-east Asia, China and India, she didn’t give a second thought to her old advisory job back in England. She had already turned down an offer to keep the job open.
On the last leg she checked into an internet cafe to see a tempting job offer in her inbox. It was a partner role in a new firm. Mulling the decision on a camel safari in Rajasthan, she decided not to go back to orthodox advice but to do something that digs deeper.
“Fundamentally, I wasn’t prepared to make big compromises. I felt I had evolved from that and I wanted to do something different,” she says of the decision.
Almost two decades later she runs her own coaching outfit, Wise Monkey Financial Coaching, which helps individuals and also trains advisers.
“There has always been a demand for coaching, people have always got themselves into a pickle, especially since the advent of credit cards, but I am noticing a change now.
“Since 2008, people haven’t been able to use their homes like giant cash machines, which has sharpened the need. Very often, people aren’t reaching their goals or they aren’t living the lives they dreamed of.”
Who can benefit from a financial coach?
Gnessen’s clients include successful professionals who are not effective savers, couples in a situation where one has inherited money and they disagree about lifestyle, and prospective divorcees too afraid to make the split permanent.
Sometimes after one partner dies the other might not have any experience of running the household finances while dealing with grief. Signs of trouble for an individual might include borrowing from parents or simply not looking at bank statements.
For international clients, Gnessen always takes the time to understand the local economy, school fees, the cost of home help and the exchange rate. She also recommends that clients use technology such as spending analysis apps to get a quick insight into their spending and to keep track of things before they get out of hand.
As well as working for fee-paying clients she carries out pro bono work, for which she finds there is also huge demand.
Why advisers should train to be a coach?
Gnessen is also inspired to spread her training to advisers who she hopes will incorporate coaching into their advice.
“This is a growth area of work,” says Gnessen. “Advisers are in a privileged position and I would encourage them to help clients be happy by listening more and asking more profound questions.
“If advisers don’t coach their clients it becomes very easy to collude with the reasons and excuses they give for the decisions they’re making. And those decisions mean they are not living the lives they most profoundly want to live.”
Coaching, she says, is also good business for advisers. It goes beyond helping clients achieve strong financial returns, forging much closer connections that make the job of an adviser “more nourishing” and she has complete conviction that “your clients will love you for it”.
Further reading:
Invest in your staff for business success – seven key areas
Simonne Gnessen, financial coach, Wise Monkey Financial Coaching was talking to Will Grahame-Clarke
