Jeff Doblin, CFA, CFP® has been named a partner for Forum Financial Management, parent company of the Wealth Advisor Alliance. He joined Forum as a financial advisor in 2017. In the following Q&A, Jeff discusses financial planning, the power of thinking long term and how emotions can affect decision making.
What motivated you to join the Forum partner group?
Since I joined Forum in 2017, I knew that I wanted to help shape the future of the firm. I am excited to dig a little deeper and see if I can add value to an already successful experience for our clients. When I look at the individuals associated with this firm, and especially the partnership, I am extremely motivated to learn and grow with such great professionals and more importantly, great people.
How do you view your role as a financial advisor?
I provide a second set of eyes and ears for all things financial. When clients have any questions related to their finances, that is where I come in. I help clients stay in their seats, and I make sure they are accountable to their plan.
Why is it essential for people to plan for the long term?
Anything can happen to the markets in the short term. If we are trying to plan for a goal that is far in the future, it is important that we let the markets work. Once we know what clients are trying to achieve, we can reverse engineer savings rates to help them get there.
What fascinates you about the psychology of investing?
It is amazing when our own money is involved how we tend to make decisions based purely on emotions and not based on reason. There is never a perfect time to invest. We just try to make sure that our clients make decisions that benefit them for the long term.
What are the benefits of Roths/Roth conversions?
I find this is a very misunderstood topic in financial planning. Just the question of whether to contribute to a Roth account (after-tax) or a pre-tax account can be a very complicated one. Many clients think they make too much money to contribute to a Roth account. While this may be true of the traditional route to contributing to a Roth IRA, there are multiple ways to contribute to Roth accounts.
You can contribute funds into a Roth account via:
- Regular contribution to a Roth IRA subject to income limitations
- Backdoor Roth
- Roth conversion
- Roth 401(k)
- Mega backdoor Roth
How do you look at equity compensation?
You want to talk about a topic that is loaded with emotions, this is definitely one. I have quite a few clients who are paid partially in the stock of the company that they work for. I often hear people say they know the stock is going to go up or think they know what the stock is worth. By the way, the CEO of the company likely doesn’t know what the company is worth, or more appropriately, what the company will be valued at by the market. The question to consider: If you were paid in cash instead of stock, would you use that cash to buy more shares in the company? If the answer is no, you probably should not be holding a lot of the stock, not to mention the benefits of diversification and the potential pitfalls of concentrated positions.
What have you learned from being an advisor that you would share with someone considering becoming a financial advisor?
If you like helping people and you like constantly learning new things, this is a great profession for you.
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