Altfest News
How Much of Planning Should Be Math?
Article
Karen Caplan Altfest | Rethinking65
Financial planning is not just about numbers, it is about understanding what your clients actually want to do with their lives and helping them do it. Karen Altfest, Executive Vice President, believes that advisors should master a range of skills, including communication and empathy—not just math—to help clients reach their desired lifestyle.
This article in Rethinking65 highlights the importance of balancing qualitative factors, such as emotions and personal values, with quantitative factors when creating a financial plan. Advisors should remember that they can offer very little without great communication and should therefore avoid overwhelming clients with an excessive amount of numerical data and focus on what matters most, in order to foster understanding.
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Karen C. Altfest, CFP, Ph.D
Karen helps many of the firm’s clients on a variety of investment and financial planning issues, and specializes in helping women clients and widows. Karen’s Financially Savvy Woman® programs, including the Women’s Financial $pa®, are popular with clients. Her focus is to educate and empower women.
Karen is frequently a speaker on the subject of women and money, and conducts educational seminars for recent widows and people looking to retire. Karen is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, holds BA and MA degrees from Hunter College, and holds the CFP® designation. Karen received her Ph.D. in history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).
She was the Co-Director of the Financial Planning and Investments Program at The New School in New York City and the Coordinator of the Financial Planning program, a professional program for financial planners, which she originated at Pace University in White Plains, N.Y.