Podcast Summary
Managing Your Practice
Host: Dimensional Fund Advisors
Episode: Health Meets Wealth: The Power of Transformational Financial Advice
Date: January 31, 2025
Episode Overview
This episode explores the critical intersection between clients' health and financial wellbeing, focusing on how financial advisors can provide transformational advice that goes far beyond investment management. Host Catherine Williams (Head of Practice Management, Dimensional) is joined by Brady Faninski (President, TFO Wealth Partners, Ohio) and Richard Stott (CEO, CIO, and Founding Partner, Connectum Capital Management, Norway) for a candid conversation on building deeper, purpose-driven client relationships, the role of personal values and wellness in financial planning, and how firms can systematically foster trust and fulfillment across generations.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Origin Stories and “Teaching” Philosophy
- Brady Faninski began his career wanting to be a teacher and coach, soon realizing that financial advising offered similar opportunities to “teach and mentor,” only scaled for greater impact.
- Richard Stott grew up in his father's UK financial advisory business, observing the values and client care that would form the foundation for Connectum.
2. Defining the Health-Wealth Intersection
- Both guests agree that authentic financial advice means prioritizing clients as people, not just portfolios.
- Richard Stott: "Clients are quite surprised it takes us a while to get to investments. It's about them, it's about their lives." [04:45]
- Brady Faninski shares the powerful impact of personal experience: During his son's illness, “We found ourselves not caring about wealth and only caring about health… Wealth really is important, but not the most important.” [06:26]
3. Building Deeper Relationships: Advice Beyond Returns
- At TFO, most client meetings organically address health and wellness, not just financial performance.
- There's a deliberate effort to train advisors in storytelling, experience-sharing, and confidence-building to create more meaningful, holistic discussions.
4. Cultural and Regional Perspectives
- Richard observes that Scandinavian clients naturally integrate health and wellness into life goals:
“This conversation is not going to be the same for everybody across countries… In Scandinavia, quality of life measures are among the highest. It’s about ‘how much is enough?’” [10:22]
5. Planning for Longevity and Life Quality
- Advisors should help clients articulate not just financial needs, but desired life experiences, especially as medical advances extend lifespans.
- Catherine: "It’s one thing to be around for your great-grandchildren, another to be able to pick them up and play." [13:00]
- Richard and Brady share stories about how unpredictable life events (health crises, dementia) impact financial planning and the importance of acting early to create joyful experiences.
6. Fulfillment & Identity Across Life Transitions
- TFO uses dedicated tools like the “Fulfillment Index,” based on the book “Die with Zero,” to facilitate deep discovery of what truly matters to clients: time, health, wealth, purpose, and relationships.
- Brady: “It's amazing how… 55% of people find their purpose and fulfillment in their work. …After a business sale or retirement, many lose their sense of identity, which can lead to a crisis.” [18:43]
7. Impact of Deeper Advice: Legacy & Generational Relationships
- Richard shares an emotional story from his father’s wake:
“One of the people… came up to me and said, 'I just wanted to tell you what a difference your father’s advice made for me and my family. We'll be eternally grateful.' …Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” [19:50]
8. Embedding Caring Culture Firm-Wide
- Firms must encourage vulnerability and storytelling among team members so younger advisors can “borrow” stories and learn to empathize.
- Brady: "We have a core value called ‘be more’… Measure our day by how many families we helped, not just AUM or revenue." [24:08]
9. Boundaries, Capacity & Professional Scope
- Advisors should know their limits and have referral networks (psychotherapist, concierge medical, etc.) to support clients beyond financial matters. [24:42]
- It’s a privilege to be so trusted, but boundaries and support within the team are essential.
10. Business Impact & Competitive Differentiation
- Focusing on health and fulfillment is not a “loss leader” but a growth strategy: it builds client loyalty, engagement, and referrals.
- TFO’s radical reevaluation—shifting from typical business metrics to being “unrecognizable” by meeting deeper client needs—has driven growth and innovation. [28:39]
11. Advisor Self-Reflection: What Is Enough?
- Owners and advisors must periodically reflect on their own definitions of “enough,” contentment, and purpose, lest they chase growth for its own sake and sacrifice their own health or values. [32:15]
- Sharing personal journeys increases authenticity and connection with clients.
12. Practical Advice to Advisors
- Commit to having these conversations; bring vulnerability and authenticity.
- Brady: “If you're thinking about it, do it. Commit. …It will be super rewarding… I think it'll reinvigorate a lot of careers.” [35:07]
- Richard: “The longer I'm in this business, the less I talk about investments. …Conversations are about life, quality of life, aims, values, what makes them tick…” [36:18]
13. Adaptation and Scalability
- Make time and space for these deeper discussions; adjust for demographic expectations (e.g., female advisors, new communication styles for next-gen clients).
- Don’t force the conversation, but always introduce the concepts, even with prospects. Some will not be ready, and that's okay. [40:26]
14. Regulatory & Fiduciary Considerations
- These holistic conversations also support compliance and good stewardship (e.g., know your client, diminished capacity).
15. The Last Word: The Legacy of Good Advice
- Richard: “If you do the right thing by people, you'll never need to worry about business… The right thing, not necessarily the easy thing.” [41:47]
- Brady: “That's the legacy piece, isn't it? That's the pinnacle of what we can achieve as advisors.” [42:51]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- "The first wealth is health." — Ralph Waldo Emerson, cited by Catherine to set the episode’s theme. [00:00]
- Richard: “There’s this wonderful graphic… the intersection of your life, your money, and in the middle is real financial planning.” [04:45]
- Brady: “Wealth is important, but not the most important. …When we condense time, we make better decisions about wealth and health.” [06:26]
- Richard: “It's a privilege to be in that position of trust—it makes this job so rewarding.” [26:00]
- Brady: “We have a core value… just called ‘be more.’ We want to be the phone call.” [23:14]
- Brady: “If we listen to [clients] and determine or even get ahead of it and fill that unmet need… Referrals, AUM, revenue growth, profitability— all that will take care of itself.” [28:54]
- Richard (quoting William James): “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” [21:26]
- Brady: “If you're thinking about it, do it. …I think it'll fill them up as much as it fills up the clients when they walk out of that room and say that that was a good meeting.” [35:07]
- Richard: "The longer I'm in this business, the less I talk about investment... The more the conversations are about life." [36:18]
- Richard: “If you do the right thing by people, you’ll never need to worry about business. But it was the right thing, not necessarily the easy thing.” [41:47]
Key Timestamps
00:00 – 04:44 – Introduction, guest backgrounds, why “health meets wealth” matters
04:45 – 08:20 – Defining real financial planning, clients as people first
08:21 – 10:21 – Training teams, purposeful conversations, storytelling
10:22 – 13:54 – Regional differences, science of longevity, planning for experiences
13:55 – 18:43 – Fulfillment Index, purposeful discovery, transitions, and loss of identity
19:30 – 24:16 – Impact stories, legacy, culture-building in firms
24:42 – 28:19 – Professional boundaries, referrals, capacity, leveraging trust
28:20 – 33:53 – The business case: client-centric innovation, self-reflection on growth
33:54 – 41:46 – Practical advice, authenticity, time investment, regulatory notes
41:47 – 42:56 – The legacy of advice, lasting impact, and emotional resonance
Conclusion
This episode delivers actionable frameworks and stirring personal stories that underscore the power and necessity of weaving health, purpose, and holistic discovery into the heart of financial practice. Advisors are challenged to move beyond numbers, to become “the phone call” for clients and their families, and to recognize that by doing the right thing and committing to transformative conversations, they build not just businesses, but lifelong legacies.