By Peter Dougherty
AT 6.19pm, as the sun begins to set in Bilbao, German Guevara is erasing a whiteboard.
In less than an hour he’ll be back in front of it – but this time his audience won’t be clients. He’ll log into a conference call, headset on and slides queued up, and explain to a group of professionals preparing to take the European Financial Planner (EFP) exam how to value an inflation-indexed bond.
The afternoon was spent reviewing the financial objectives of a family; the evening will be spent fielding questions about the factors affecting an indexed bond’s price to voices chiming in over the line.
For him, the transition isn’t a shift in roles so much as a continuation of the same work – making financial concepts understandable.
German doesn’t teach finance professionals for the title. He teaches because it improves his work as a financial planner. If he can’t explain how inflation impacts a client’s portfolio to someone hearing it for the first time, he knows he hasn’t mastered it himself.
He teaches because finance confuses some people and intimidates others, and German believes it shouldn’t. And he teaches for the moment when the conference call goes quiet, then someone says, “Oh, I get it now!”
That spark – the instant complexity turns into clarity – is reason enough.
That German is both Partner/Chief Financial Planner at BISSAN Wealth Management as well as EFP Program Director at Fikai School of Finance in Bilbao isn’t surprising at BISSAN.
In fact, three other colleagues of mine also teach part-time: Rafael Faus (Senior Lecturer, Financial Management Department at IESE Business School), Jordi Huguet (Associate Professor, Department of Finance at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya) and Jose Suarez-Lledo (Instructor, IESE Business School and Adjunct Professor, Universidad Pompeu Fabra).
What is surprising is that four members of our ten-person BISSAN team give finance lectures to students, trading client meetings for classrooms without missing a beat. Four out of 10 is a very high ratio.
For Rafael Faus, teaching at IESI Business School is only the start of his list. He also gives classes at Barcelona Finance School and San Telmo Business School.
In his words: “I like to stay actively involved while also teaching. In the case of families, to give them tools and knowledge they can apply at home, taking into account what is actually being done with clients; and in the case of professionals, to encourage them to adopt the financial planning approach.”
According to Jordi Huguet, his motivation for teaching is: “I want to help equip students to make better decisions. I believe my role as a teacher is to give them the important financial tools to do so.”
Jose Suarez-Lledo also has compelling reasons for maintaining a role in academia. As he says: “I continue teaching in order to help educate the new generations and because that interaction with students generates interesting ideas for professional practice.”
In my opinion, teaching doesn’t pull my colleagues away from their work. Instead, I think it strengthens it. Preparing a lecture forces them to revisit first principles, pressure-test their assumptions, and explain complex ideas without hiding behind jargon.
Students ask the kinds of questions that demand clarity, not shortcuts. And students question norms. They’re less conditioned by ‘this is how we’ve always done it.’
The result is sharper thinking, cleaner communication, and a discipline that carries directly into every client conversation.
Teaching doesn’t dilute BISSAN’s focus – it deepens our expertise and sharpens how we serve clients.
Peter Dougherty is a Financial Planner at BISSAN Wealth Management in Spain. He holds an MBA in finance from Columbia University in New York and an MS in Spanish Taxation (Máster en Fiscalidad y Tributación) from Nebrija University in Spain. He is a European Financial Planner (EFP) in Spain and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® in the United States.
For more information: https://www.financial-planning-in-spain.com
Peter Dougherty
- MBA in finance
- MS in Spanish taxation
- BS in Economics
- European Financial Planner in Spain
- Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® in U.S.
- Author of two financial planning books
Certified Financial Planner™ in U.S.
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