Work through disagreements

The situation:

You and your partner can’t agree on financial recommendations.

Outline your goals and fears independently of each other. Write it down. Then come together to establish common ground and see where you disagree with your advisor.

Helping both of you

• Your goals assume a comfortable financial future for you and your significant other.
• Create a system for resolving disagreements. Based on each person’s priorities, you could have veto authority on certain issues and agree to compromise on others.
• Consider the risks and responsibilities of joint accounts. Some couples choose a joint account for shared expenses and separate accounts for the rest.
• Talking about money can bring relationship problems to the surface. You might need the help of other professionals, such as a therapist, marriage counsellor or divorce lawyer.

Understand you and your partner might have different investment knowledge. You could have a firm grasp of the markets and household finances, but if your partner doesn’t, you have to be patient with filling that gap.

Each financial recommendation should help you and your partner. If you’re more concerned about cash flow but your partner is worried about retirement, learn how a particular asset allocation achieves both goals. Only move forward when both of you agree.

If you like your advisor but your partner doesn’t, it’s okay to make decisions about financial recommendations in private. You may need a week to discuss. But agree that once a decision is made, both of you have to stick with it.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.