By Peter Dougherty
FOR some time, I’ve wanted to describe the many benefits that Bissan Wealth Management provides its clients but struggled to find an effective way to do so.
Full disclosure: I work as a financial planner at Bissan, so it’s possible that my opinion is biased. It may be.
On the other hand, Bissan Wealth Management’s strengths are reasons I joined the company instead of the other financial firms who offered me employment in Spain.
I had no reason to be biased when I decided to work with them.
Curiously, it was when I wasn’t thinking of how I might describe Bissan’s virtues that a way of doing so dawned on me.
I was reading an article about Sean Payton, an NFL (American football) head coach. Although any NFL head coach is considered the absolute elite of the sports coaching profession, Payton is in a class of his own.
Offensive creativity is his trademark; his teams have scored more points (2,804) and gained more yards (40,158) than any other team in a coach’s first 100 games in NFL history.
What I discovered is that each Monday, he sits at his computer and watches every touchdown that was scored in the NFL the prior week and divides them into two categories: did it result from a play or a player?
If it’s player, he skips it; he can’t replicate it. If it’s play, he moves it into a folder of ideas to adapt.
This intrigues me.
First, I find it instructive that a head coach who’s already achieved the successes of Sean Payton would continue to devote time searching for innovative ideas.
But what is particularly compelling is the clarity of thought that dividing each touchdown into one of two categories provides — it’s either 1) useful or 2) it’s not. There’s nothing in between.
This clarity of thought provides a lens with which I can explain what Bissan provides its clients. Sean Payton doesn’t look at a touchdown scored by a gifted running back and think, ‘why can’t my team’s running back make that move or run that fast?’
Instead, he finds the innovative plays with which almost any player could have success and looks to implement those. It’s only those plays that he keeps in his folder.
The analogy between Payton’s ‘idea’ folder and Bissan Wealth Management’s inventiveness only goes so far.
Unlike Coach Payton, we don’t search for financial planning and investment successes every week at Bissan.
Nor do we keep a folder of innovations in these sectors.
What is similar, however, is the strategic clarity with which we both seek out those ‘plays’ that don’t require special circumstances to be successful.
Those that work for many different types of players (clients) in many different game conditions (market environments).
One of these is ‘goal-based financial planning.’ At Bissan, we have been utilising this approach with our clients for several years.
It starts with what you want your money to accomplish – such as retiring comfortably, buying a home, or leaving a legacy – and then builds an investment and savings strategy around those specific objectives rather than simply trying to maximize returns.
Goal-based financial planning works well for all types of clients under any market conditions.
Another is factor investing, an investment model that finds the characteristics (‘factors’) of assets that have higher expected returns and/or lower risk.
This is a systematic investment approach that enhances portfolio construction. It serves clients well across a wide range of goals, circumstances, and market environments.
Factor investing is a fundamental component of Bissan’s investment philosophy.
The other parallel between the two methodologies – Sean Payton’s and Bissan Wealth Management’s – is that not every touchdown (or market event) should be incorporated into our playbook (financial philosophy).
For Coach Payton, this includes times when a player makes an unusual athletic effort.
He does not include them in his folder of ideas to adapt. For Bissan, these include financial fads and market gimmicks.
It’s important that we evaluate and understand them but not let them distract from our focus.
Because I’ve been describing benefits that Bissan Wealth Management provides its clients by way of an American football analogy, it’s fitting that I conclude this article with a final one.
Here it is: We can’t promise every play will gain yardage at Bissan. But we can promise to stick to the game plan, avoid costly mistakes, and keep moving the ball down the field.
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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