1. Introductions

Andy and Kathy Ellis pulled over feeling more confused than ever. They'd expected to find themselves downtown, surrounded by traffic and skyscrapers. Instead, a quiet residential neighborhood awaited them outside. And next to their car, a path led up to a simple house with a bright red door.

Kathy looked skeptically at the door, and Andy caught the glance.

"Ready to go?" He asked.

"I guess so," she said. "There's not even a sign."

Andy frowned. Coming here hadn't been her idea, and he was feeling on the spot to make the experience a good one.

Jennifer, one of Andy's co-workers, had been the one to recommend that they set up this meeting. A month earlier, she'd noticed that Andy had grown irritable. Taking him aside one day, she asked what was the matter.

"Sorry," he had responded. "I guess I'm feeling stressed about our finances. I thought that by now things would be more settled. I'm working a lot, and so is Kathy. We never seem to have time together anymore. But every month still seems like a challenge to pay all our bills."

Jennifer nodded, "I know that feeling. Here, let me introduce you to someone. He's a financial advisor--"

"We don't have money to invest," Andy had interjected.

"He's not that kind. It's hard to explain. You should just meet him."

And so, Andy had talked to Kathy. It had taken a small miracle, but they'd managed to schedule a meeting with this advisor amidst all of their gigs. Kathy had to turn down a gig to make it, and she wasn't too happy about it.

Still, she had promised to be here. And she was hopeful that maybe this advisor would have some answers to the things that had confused them most.

Andy got out of the car and came around to open the door for her. He bowed with mock solemnity, and she smirked. They'd been married for two years now, and were thoroughly in love.

"M'lady," he said reverently.

"M'lad," she replied, equally reverently.

They made their way to the door, both feeling a bit nervous. In the scheduling email, the advisor had told them they didn't need to prepare anything for this meeting. They had no idea what to expect.

Andy knocked on the door, and from inside they heard someone calling, "On my way!"

The person who answered the door was a friendly looking man, of about their age, in his 30s. From their emails, they knew that this must be David Lopez. He smiled when he saw them in such a genuine way that for a moment Andy wondered if they'd met somewhere before.

"Hello! You must be Andy and Kathy," he said. "Come in, come in!"

David ushered them inside and down a hall to what he described as his office. What they saw when they walked in was not what he expected.

The walls were covered in shelves holding a mixture of board games and books. Kathy glimpsed at some of the titles and saw a mixture of books on business, finance, psychology, and several fiction.

A desk with a computer sat against one wall, with a few chairs around it. Andy thought that they'd head there, but instead David ushered them towards a small couch and comfortable chairs around a coffee table. On the table sat a chess set, with a game seemingly in progress.

They all sat, Andy and Kathy together on the couch, and David across from them.

"Well," David said, "I'm willing to bet this isn't what you expected."

"No, not really," Kathy said.

"I get that a lot," David laughed. "I want you to feel relaxed. Like you're at a friends house. Me, I'm a huge nerd, so this is the kind of stuff I like." He gestured towards the chess board. "Have either of you ever played chess?"

Andy's eyes went up, "Maybe a bit a long time ago. My dad tried to teach me, but I never caught on."

"Same for me," Kathy said. "I remember how the pieces move."

"Good! Maybe sometime I'll teach you some of the strategies to it." David reached forward and moved a piece in a long diagonal across the board. "I like chess, because I've found that the playing of it has a lot of parallels to learning about finance."

He moved another piece. Andy thought it was called a castle.

"You can do beautiful things on a chess board. Take risks. Yank a draw or a victory from the jaws of defeat. But," he moved another piece. Kathy knew that was the queen. "But it all requires you to know how the pieces move."

He glanced up at them. "From your email to me, it sounds like you don't know how the pieces move in the financial world."

Andy grinned sheepishly, "No, not really."

"We work hard," Kathy said, "But it doesn't seem to do any good. At the end of the month we're still where we started."

"And at the end of the year we lose any headway we made when it comes time to pay taxes," Andy grimaced. This year had been particularly bad.

David nodded, "Yeah, I've seen that a lot."

Kathy leaned forward, "So tell us. What can you do for us?"

Andy's eyebrows went up. Kathy must be feeling impatient because of giving up that gig today.

David smiled, "I can show you the moves. In chess, everyone has a different style of play. Some people are aggressive, some people are more passive. I'll help you clarify your goals and outcomes so you know what kind of financial play style you want to have, and then how to achieve it."

Kathy waited. This was the part where David would ask them how much they had to invest, and they'd have to tell him the truth - they didn't have anything to invest. Then David would show them the door, and this day would have been a waste.

"Let me ask you this: How much experience do you have investing?" David asked.

"None. We can't afford to invest," Andy said.

Here it is, Kathy thought.

"I see. You said you can't afford to invest. Is it that you think you need a certain amount to get started, or that you're afraid of taking on the risk?"

"We have a little saved up," Kathy said, "But it's our emergency fund. We can't risk it."

"Totally understandable. Well, okay, that might be something we could work towards then," David said. "Just so you know, when it comes time to invest, I'm not going to manage your money."

Kathy frowned. That wasn't the reaction or answer she'd expected. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'll walk you through how to invest your money, and I'll customize a plan for something called an asset allocation, but you'll never give me control of your money. I'm here to be your coach and advisor, but you will have total control of your money moves."

"That's... That's not what I expected..." Kathy said.

"I get that a lot," David said with a laugh. "I wanted to get that out of the way. So many people come to me and want to give me money. It's a dangerous way to go through life, offering people money. Sooner or later, someone will just take it!"

"Why don't you manage money?" Andy asked.

"Well, that's an answer to a bigger question, I think. Do you mind if we take a few steps back to get to that answer?"

Kathy shook her head, unsure of where this was going, "Go ahead."

"The big question to ask is, what should you look for in a financial advisor? And in my mind it boils down to one thing: Trust. You need to trust that every piece of advice I give has your best interest at heart. Does that make sense?"

Andy nodded, "Yeah, for sure."

"There are a few ways to make sure you can trust your advisor. One of them is by asking if your advisor is a fiduciary. Have you heard that word?"

"I think, maybe..." Kathy thought her dad had mentioned it once.

"A fiduciary is the highest level of legal responsibility. A fiduciary has to work in the best interest of their clients. In fact, they can get in trouble if it's discovered they didn't. Now, you probably want to ask me something..."

Andy piped up, "So, you're a fiduciary?"

"Yes. I'm a fiduciary financial advisor. Let me ask you this, do you think that's enough to earn your trust?"

Kathy shrugged, "Well, I don't know. I just learned the word. And if it's that easy, then why do people still get scammed? Why do people lose money in the stock market?"

David smiled, "Good! That's the perfect follow up. The truth is that it's possible for someone to be a fiduciary, but then also have a separate registration that allows them to side step the fiduciary responsibility. Stock brokers and insurance agents are great examples of this. They're held to what's called the 'suitability' standard instead of 'fiduciary' standard."

David moved his hands so one was at a higher level than the other. "The fiduciary standard is a much higher standard, see? Now, some advisors out there wear both hats. So they'll be able to claim they're fiduciaries, but then when it comes time to selling you a product, they're held up to a much lower standard."

David let his hands fall. "You might have another question for me now."

"Are you a broker?" Andy asked.

"No, I am not."

Kathy frowned, "It feels like there's still something missing. Why not manage investments?"

David grinned, "Thank you for helping me get back on track. It comes down to how an advisor gets paid. Brokers and agents get paid commissions to sell their products, which creates a pretty obvious potential conflict of interest. When deciding between two similarly beneficial products, they'll probably go with the option that pays them more money, after all.

"Sometimes you'll find a fiduciary advisor who will manage your assets. They might charge you a small percentage fee for the amount that they are managing. Now, that can also potentially cause a conflict of interest. If you can choose between investing in a 401k, or investing with the advisor, the advisor will only get paid if they manage the investment. Which do you think they're more likely to recommend?"

"Investing with the advisor?" Andy offered.

"Possibly, yes. I mean, it's just an extra incentive to potentially get in the way of truly conflict-of-interest-free advice. I decided I wouldn't manage assets because I don't want to have even the whiff of temptation." David grinned, "You know that quote, 'I can resist anything except temptation.'"

Andy and Kathy laughed.

"Okay," Kathy said, "That's starting to make sense to me."

"Also," David added, "By having you manage your own investments, it helps you learn how they work, and you also have constant access to them in case anything should come up." David leaned forward, "But the biggest reason of all is this: It helps me serve you. I don't have minimum requirements, so you don't need to feel like you need to wait to get started, and it saves you money. When advisors manage money it costs a lot. When you do it, it's a lot cheaper."

"I like cheaper," Andy quipped.

"Good! Lesson 1 is don't spend money when you don't have to. You're already onto it!" David laughed.

Kathy was feeling more relaxed now. There was just one more question, "So, how much do your services cost?"

"Well, if you're interested in continuing with me, I work on a per-meeting basis." David stood and went to his desk where he got a piece of paper. He came back and slid it onto the table. On it were a few options: Group classes, and 1-on-1 meetings. Their prices were surprisingly reasonable.

One of the options that Kathy saw was for Ongoing Services. "What does that mean?"

"Most people get their financial plan and spend the year executing it, with small adjustments that can be done through email. Some people want a bit more hand-holding as their getting started, so we meet quarterly or monthly."

Kathy nodded and looked at Andy. Andy looked back at her. David saw them looking.

There was just a lot of looking going on for a moment.

"Look," David broke the silence, "I'm not here to give you a hard sell. I only want you to sign up with me if this is what you really want. I'd love to help you both. So why don't you go home, talk to your friends and family, think things over, and I can reach back out in a few days to set up your first meeting if you're interested?"

Kathy looked relieved. She didn't like pushy sales people.

As David walked them back to the door he told them something that stuck with them, "The big thing to consider when you get home, is if you're ready to change your lives. I mean that seriously. It's both a positive and a negative. It'll be challenging, and it'll require more than just putting in effort during our meetings. You'll probably end up re-evaluating your relationship with money in general. And it'll all be to help you work towards your specific goals.

"I'm not here to take away all problems. I'm here to help you level up."

That thought lingered with them as they drove home.