Obese doctors & bankrupt Financial Planners

One memory I have of my first holiday to South Africa was being introduced to a family doctor at a braai we attended on the first day we arrived.

This chap was clearly a well respected member of the community, held in high regard by all in attendance.

But throughout the BBQ he was smoking like a chimney and drinking enough white wine to sedate one of the Hippos we would see on safari later that week.

For a health professional to engage in such self-destructive behaviour – particularly in the company of a large number of his patients – was something I considered at the time (and continue to consider) a little ‘odd’.

Following my blog earlier this week about the keynote presentation by Dr James Rouse at the IFP annual conference, I commented on a related trade press article questioning how effective Financial Planners might be in ‘stewarding the very good life’ if they were themselves overweight, inactive and focused solely on money.

It’s was a controversial statement and provoked a response from a couple of people I respect on Twitter.

@martinbamford@FTAdviser over weight people can’t give good advice?

— Richard Allum (@TheParaplanner) October 9, 2014

@martinbamford@TheParaplanner@FTAdviser my excellent GP is overweight as is his equally excellent GP wife. — clive waller (@clivewaller) October 9, 2014

Others were more supportive of my view.

@martinbamford@FTAdviser Think you’ve got it spot on Martin. Takes financial planning to a different place tho. More like life planning.

— Rebecca Aldridge (@RebeccaAldridge) October 9, 2014

Now I wasn’t claiming for a second that overweight individuals cannot deliver good financial advice. Of course they can.

What I was arguing is that our roles as Financial Planners are becoming more holistic; the sole focus on the financial aspect of life has expanded to include achieving lifetime goals.

To do the very best we can with each of our clients, Financial Planners should practice what they preach.

There’s a commonly used expression in our profession; “A poor Financial Planner is a poor Financial Planner”.

Assuming you would never seek financial advice from a bankrupt, other than perhaps to learn from their experience and avoid making the same mistakes, it seems remiss to work with a Financial Planner who is not personally living a fulfilled and meaningful life.

I would not take advice from an obese, alcoholic GP who was also a smoker, regardless of their professional expertise.

It’s similar to what author and public speaker David Maister refers to as ‘the Fat Smoker syndrome’; how individuals can overcome the temptations of the short-term and actually do what they already know is good for them.

Obese doctors and bankrupt Financial Planners occupy a similar space in my head; probably capable of fulfilling their professional obligations but unlikely to be inspiring what they preach and not a natural choice as advisers.

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