If you trust your adviser or trust your asset manager, the riskiness and anxiety of the whole enterprise is diminished.
A lot of bad things can result when we are overanxious about the engagements we are involved in and financial markets are fraught with all of the kinds of things that we as human beings find the most disagreeable.
This can often lead us to do precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time.
However, if we perceive the riskiness of the engagement to be reduced because we trust the person who we’ve confided with our assets, this brings enormous amount of reduced stress for clients.
Sadly, some advisers in the past have proved themselves to be far less worthy of trust than others.
If trust in your existing adviser has broken down, it’s very different to rebuild.
Unfortunately there are advisers that push products that are very expensive when there are cheaper alternatives, or because they are tied to a product.
This is evidence that they are not acting in your interests at all, that they are acting in their own selfish interests.
It is this behaviour that damages perceptions of benevolence, and those perceptions are very difficult to recover.
Herman Brodie says there are two components to trusting an adviser.
1.Make a conscious decision:
Is the adviser competent?
2. Sub-conscious:
Does the adviser have my very best interests at heart? Ultimately you must trust your gut instinct.
There is no secret formula to identifying goodwill. Everybody sees it in a slightly different place.
All in all, you should choose an adviser who is competent, but also one who will put your interests ahead of their own.
Only you can decide if someone ticks both boxes.
