Last week, I covered a very broad range of the items and technology included in personal financial infrastructure in my post, Personal Financial Infrastructure. This week, let’s take a look at the humans involved in personal financial infrastructure. It’s true that today we rely greatly on technology and interface with humans less. However, there are still a lot of humans involved in our personal financial infrastructure. But who are they? What roles do they fill?
Technology has freed a lot of us from the need for a physical, shared office work space, or the need to actually go into a bank, or insurance agent’s office. Or, to even meet face-to-face with an adviser. It has made it possible for many of us to work and transact business from anywhere. It has not alleviated the need for live human support from time to time and that’s where we find our first line of human personal financial infrastructure – support teams.
There is still a live human behind a lot of those virtual help desks and even chat bots. In many cases, an actual human takes over where a chat bot fails. Real humans still help us with all sorts of things from banking inquiries, to stock trading, to IT support when our apps aren’t working just right. Advisers of all types use virtual assistants who are human to help with key tasks such as data entry, client profiles, writing drafts, and many other activities. The role of these humans is to support you.
Despite the availability of online services, there are still many professionals who are very much alive and breathing that we call on for services. Insurance agents, realtors, estate planning attorneys, and folks like me, a Certified Financial Planner™, are very much alive. Each brings a specialty and expertise to your financial team. Each has soft skills we pair with knowledge and that’s something that cannot be automated. Even with automation and technology, that human touch and interaction is still invaluable. The role of these humans is to provide advice and long-term support for your financial health.
For example, when robo-advisors first popped-up on the scene, many thought human advisers would be put out to pasture. The theory being that advice could be fully automated. Several years on, we find that even DIY-investors who use robo-advisors also hire and use human advisers. If anything, the robo-advisors have helped facilitate that interaction. Robo-advisors can’t talk you off the ledge when you’re about to a make a critical decision. They also cannot explain concepts, discuss pros and cons of decisions, or help with adjusting your goals. For those reasons, and more, like coordination of income streams, deciding when to retire or how much to retire (semi-retirement, anyone?), and whether to tap Social Security early, at full retirement age, or at age 70, human advisers are still leading. Robo-advisors can’t usually explain the nuances of why you should rollover an old 401(k) plan or maybe why you should sell your stock options.
Finally, there is you! That’s right, you! You are very human with very human decisions to make, questions to answer, and goals to reach. You are the key human in your human personal infrastructure because every decision made and action taken impacts you! Your role is to avail yourself of the advice available to help you lead your most abundant life.
As an independent, human, Certified Financial Planner™, I can help you with your financial planning needs. Contact me and let’s get started. #talktometuesday #getstarted #GetHelp #HowIcanHelpYou #Hireaplanner #vacation #CFPPro #infrastructure #humaninfrastructure #human