“It requires substantial expertise and the ability to manage emotions and expectations”

Even when we readily spot the problems of others, we rarely see our own. In the immortal words of Pogo, we have met the enemy and he is us.

We all suffer from bias blindness. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman’s seminal book, Thinking Fast and Slow, begins as follows: “The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than your own.”

Whether we’re talking about Lennon and McCartney or Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, we all tend to work better with help, advice, support, correction, criticism and accountability.

A smart investor looks for what can be done that offers the greatest opportunity for success in the markets. A smart person looks for what can offer the highest likelihood of meeting his or her needs, goals and desires. But finding and implementing the best ideas for doing so is deceptively easy conceptually but monumentally difficult to put into practice.

Accordingly, good financial advice is both invaluable and rare. It requires far more than selecting investments. It requires substantial expertise and the ability to manage emotions and expectations. We shouldn’t ever be afraid of saying so and we should never shy away from providing the kinds of service that will demonstrate it beyond doubt. Good advisors add value — and a lot of it.