knowledge topics

Motivation

KNOWLEDGE EXPECTED OF: Both CFP^® Professionals and QAFP^TM Professionals

Identify when motivation to engage a financial planner may be greatest, such as:
- Loss of spouse
- Retirement
- Divorce
- Loss of parent
- Birth of child
- Insurance settlement
- Inheritance
- Lottery windfall
- Career change
- Business succession
Identify motivations to seek financial advice, such as:
- Desire to reduce complexity
- Desire to take action
- Desire to save time
- Desire to receive encouragement
- Desire to help make better trade-offs
- Desire to help them persist
Identify the conditions that must be in place for change to occur.
- Individual perceives a need to change
- Individual possesses motivation to change
- Individual perceives that they have the ability to change
Identify behaviour changes to which adherence is most likely, such as:
- Single behaviour
- Requires short term commitment
- Relieves immediate pain
- Implementation is easy and simple
- Accompanied by high degree of support/supervision
Identify behaviour changes to which adherence is least likely, such as:
- Requires broader lifestyle changes
- Requires longer term commitment
- Focuses on prevention
- Implementation is painful, complicated, visibly different
- Heavily reliant on will power
Identify the types of behaviour that may signal resistance to change, such as:
- Agreement, but failure to act
- Ambivalence
- Arguing
- Closed body language
- Denying
- Defensiveness
- Interrupting
- Ignoring
- Negating
- Reluctance
- Resignation
- Rationalizing
- Rebellious
Explain reasons why resistance to change may occur, such as:
- Do not perceive that there is a need to change
- Motivation to maintain status quo is stronger than motivation to change
- Ambivalence to change
Identify factors that impact motivation to change, such as:
- Emotions / Feelings
- Knowledge / Understanding
- Risk / Uncertainty
- Perceived value
- Cost (e.g. dollar, time, commitment, emotion)
Identify the dominant motivational focuses that may occur.
- Promotion focus (i.e. goal achievement)
- Prevention focus (i.e. objective avoidance)
Identify language that may motivate a promotion focused individual, such as:
- Optimistic
- Benefits
- Lost opportunity
Identify language that may motivate a prevention focused individual, such as:
- Pessimistic
- Risk avoidance
Identify procrastination or avoidance actions that may signal non-readiness to change, such as:
- Failure to seek advice
- Refusing engagement
- Missing appointments
- Failing to return communications (i.e. phone calls, e-mails, mailings)
- Failing to complete paperwork
- Short attention span
- Closed language
- Short responses to questions
- Superficial responses to questions
- Failure to disclose information
- Omission of information
Identify behaviours that may inhibit motivation to change, such as:
- Lecturing
- Admonishing
- Scolding
- Setting deadlines
- Giving orders
- Blaming
- Warning or threatening
- Persuading with logic
- Moralizing or preaching
- Judging or criticizing
- Praising
- Shaming
- Victimizing or sympathizing
Identify behaviours that may motivate change,^† such as:
- Encourage a future orientation
- Establish pre-commitment strategies
- Establish structure for change
Identify how a financial planner may support in developing a future orientation,^†such as:
Explain how a financial planner may establish pre-commitment strategies,^† such as:
- Change peer group and social rewards
- Decrease immediate payoff of negative action
- Increase immediate losses of negative action
- Increase future payoff of positive action
- Decrease future losses of positive action
- Increase the number of options associated with negative action
- Decrease the number of options associated with positive action
Identify behaviours that may increase the losses felt by an individual,^†† such as:
- Paying for current consumption with cash versus cheque or credit card
- Contributing/investing in illiquid assets
  - Property
  - Retirement plans requiring taxes to be paid on withdrawal
  - Investments with pre-maturity penalties
  - Savings accounts earmarked for a specific goal
Identify behaviours that may reduce the losses felt by an individual,^†† such as:
- Pre-paying for services
- Paying oneself first
- Pre-authorized savings plans
- Commit to saving increases in income
- Commit to saving portion of tax refund
- Save coins or change (e.g. round up purchase and contribute to savings account)
Explain methods that a financial planner may use in responding to an individual who is resistant to change.
- Simple reflection
- Amplified reflection
- Double-sided reflection
- Agreement with a twist
- Shifting focus away from what is impeding progress
- Reframing
- Rolling with resistance
- Emphasizing personal choice and control
- Siding with the individual’s argument against changing
Explain how a financial planner may establish structure for change, including:
- Create a financial plan
- Provide step-by-step guidance
- Provide support
- Create peer pressure
- Create social proof
Define motivational interviewing.
Explain the purpose of motivational interviewing.
Identify motivational interviewing techniques,^††^† such as:
- Maximize questions and minimize statements
- Express empathy
- Articulate non-judgemental curiosity
- Evoke and/or sit with ambivalence
- Avoid argument
- Roll with resistance
- Support self-efficacy
Identify ways to express empathy, such as:
- Acknowledge the individual
- Summarize and reflect back to the individual their attitudes/motivations
- Invite discussion towards change
Identify ways to address ambivalence, such as:
- Ask the individual to identify why they may wish to change
- Ask the individual to identify what obstacles they perceive are standing in the way of change
- Ask the individual to identify if maintaining the status quo is acceptable to them
Identify ways to roll with resistance, such as:
- Ask the individual to identify what obstacles are impacting their ability to change
- Reflect back to the individual what their obstacles are
- Encourage the individual to identify possible alternative solutions or viewpoints
Define self-efficacy.
Identify that the most important predictor of sustainable behaviour change is self-efficacy.
Identify ways that a financial planner may support self-efficacy, such as:
- Encourage
- Motivate
- Help remove obstacles
- Provide on-going contact/follow-up
- Review progress
- Provide social comparisons
- Relieve pain or negative effects of change
Identify ways that a financial planner may help an individual sustain change, including:
- Ask disconfirming questions
- Have individual identify triggers that may cause them to revert back to previous behaviour
- Have individual identify methods to avoid and/or mitigate triggers that may cause them to revert back to previous behaviour
- Engage in regular contact
- Provide encouragement
- Facilitate removal of obstacles
Explain the importance of detached involvement.
Explain the importance of how information is framed.^††††

http://www.slideshare.net/rnja8c/behavioral-finance-for-financial-planners

http://www.behaviourchangeinstitute.ca/Motivational_Communication.html

http://www.behaviourchangeinstitute.ca/MI_2.html

Glossary of Verbs (mouse over to see definition)

Define

To state exactly the meaning of
Identify

To be aware of / to recognize and correctly name / to locate an appropriate resource
Explain

To make clear the meaning of / to describe something in more detail or reveal relevant facts or ideas related to it
Compare

To note the similarities and differences between two or more things
Estimate

To determine an approximate value for
Calculate

To find the value using mathematics
Convert

To change from one form or purpose to another
Evaluate

To reach a conclusion or make a judgement through careful study
Interpret

To give the meaning of / to construe or understand / to translate orally

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Financial Planning Body of Knowledge

knowledge topics

Motivation

KNOWLEDGE EXPECTED OF: Both CFP® Professionals and QAFPTM Professionals

Glossary of Verbs (mouse over to see definition)

RELEVANT CASE STUDIES

KNOWLEDGE EXPECTED OF: Both CFP^® Professionals and QAFP^TM Professionals