An advisor’s take on the importance of genuine curiosity

I introduced my dad to Uber for the first time on a winter night late last year, heading home from dinner in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. My dad sat in the front passenger seat and by the time he had buckled his seatbelt, he was already talking to the driver, who replied to my dad’s questions in monosyllables. I felt for our driver: my dad was blissfully unaware that Uber rides are best conducted in mutual silence. Little by little, our soft spoken driver started opening up. He told my dad about his house in south Philly. He told my dad about his wife’s amazing cooking. He told my dad about his twin babies, their names and how they’d chosen them, and what they meant. This took place in fifteen minutes, and by the end of the ride as we said our goodbyes and apologized for disturbing his peace, the driver said, ‘That’s OK, I’m actually very talkative’.

This is par for the course for my dad, a physician who brought home a new story about his patients’ lives every night of my childhood. Nothing fails to capture his interest: tell him about your carpentry business, pet Chihuahua, granddaughter’s school project, cross country move, wacky theory, or favorite fishing spot. He will ask you another question, and probably another after that. Far from being tangential to their medical care, these conversations are my dad’s path to treating his patients best. He builds trust naturally because of his genuine curiosity about other people. In return, his patients are more willing to share information with him and follow his advice.

At Vanguard, I work in Personal Advisor Services, partnering with our managed clients to help them make the best financial decisions and meet their goals. Recently, our entire advisor team in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina had the pleasure of hearing a presentation by Mitch Anthony, a preeminent financial planning author and speaker who focuses on what he calls “life-centered financial planning”. Mitch shared an anecdote about a financial advisor who was held in particularly high regard by his clients. Mitch asked the advisor to distill his career success into one word, and the advisor replied “curiosity”.

Ah-ha! Over the years, I have often thought about the similarities between my job and my father’s. In both of our fields, we build relationships and share expertise as a means to help people live better lives. But it isn’t just that both positions share an analysis of client or patient needs, a reliance on technical subject matter expertise, and the communication of recommendations. What jumps out at me most is that I, too, leave work reflecting on all of the stories I’ve heard from my clients.

Last year, I was finally able to convince a particularly frugal couple to upgrade their truck (ten years old instead of twenty). Though they’d recently received a large inheritance, they were determined to be good stewards of what their parent’s generation had built from the ground.

Last month, a seventh generation Texan who rents out the farmhouse passed down from her great- great-grandparents told me that her tenants are out of work because of COVID-19. She’s giving them a break on their rent, because she’s ‘been there’.

More recently, I’ve had encounters with the following individuals: a client who found meaning in training therapy dogs after a career in public service; a newly retired client in a race against the seasonal clock to build a greenhouse for his wife’s flower garden; a client who described the Inherited IRA Required Minimum Distribution as an annual Christmas gift from her late father.

What I think of as “genuine curiosity” is not the same as small talk or nosiness. The only agenda is to learn about another person in order to better understand them. As Mitch Anthony described to us in his presentation, this understanding is key in evaluating what our clients are trying to achieve and personalizing the best way for them to get there. Given two clients with the same situation on paper – similar fixed income, debt, and savings levels – nine times out of ten I will come up with a different investment recommendation after speaking to them.

Another overlap between my dad’s career and my own is that we came to our chosen professions via a winding path. He studied religion and was preparing to go to divinity school when he changed course. I began to learn about personal finance only after joining Vanguard. I am a bookworm and a people person, and the idea of being a financial planner hooked me within days of arriving on campus. After studying for my Series 7 and 63 exams, I wanted to learn more and help our clients more directly. I was accepted to an eighteen month program to become a Vanguard advisor which involved training courses, shadowing tenured advisors, and taking my Certified Financial Planner™ exam.

Since becoming an advisor, the magical part of the job hasn’t changed. It always comes down to two things: learning about my clients, and collaborating with my colleagues. The advisors I work alongside are incredibly diverse in terms of their academic, cultural, and professional backgrounds, as well as their personalities and communication styles– we have extroverts, introverts, and a lot of good-natured crew across our three sites. It’s hard to overstate the value of this variety when it comes to helping other human beings with their money, in particular because we seek input from each other and our business partners in technology and methodology on a constant basis.

Across this diversity, I would argue that genuine curiosity is something that all of Vanguard’s advisors share. We are sounding boards, problem solvers, and teammates with each other and with our clients. If this is a field that you have ever considered (or haven’t considered, yet!), I would encourage you not to dismiss it simply because you didn’t tell your Kindergarten class that you wanted to become a financial planner. Being a financial advisor at Vanguard has allowed me to build strong relationships, have a positive impact, and constantly learn – I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

-Mary T.