What goes into picking a person to give advice?

Steven Podnos: ©Steven Podnos

I was recently asked to make a medical referral for one of my financial planning clients, which prompted some thoughts about what goes into making an important decision on what might be a serious issue.The client told me that they had asked ChatGPT for the “best doctor” in our area, but it did not help with a definitive choice.That provoked even more thought about how we pick people to give us good advice.

The advice of course is not limited to medicine, or financial planning, and more, but could be related to the best appliances to buy for example.So, what goes into picking that particular person to give the advice?

Let’s start with what is often not a reliable way to pick someone for advice.That would be credentials and/or being a list of “the best” whatever.We all know physicians (and others) with a stellar educational background and absolutely bottom of the barrel quality.Many “best of” lists are bought and paid for.

As to what matter, first, I’d say that trust is an issue.The advisor should be trusted to give their best opinion and preferably not profit from choosing one course of action over another.In medicine, we follow the Hippocratic oath on this-to first do no harm.Indeed, in my long medical career, I very rarely saw a physician that put their pocketbook over their patient’s best interests.In financial planning, we look for “fiduciaries”, or those that pledge to put their client’s interest over theirs.Someone paid to sell products has a conflict of interest. In other fields of advice, the opportunity for a trusted fiduciary is not always so easy.For instance, seeing a lawyer for advice only seems safer than seeking out a legal product like a complicated estate plan or asset protection vehicle.

Next, I’d say that having knowledge is vital to giving good advice.If it is someone complaining about chest pain, then having a good sense of the differential diagnosis is crucial.In financial planning, it is important to understand the options available to fit a client’s goal (saving for college, saving for retirement, buying or leasing a car, etc.).In other fields needing advice, it is probable that the more knowledge one has, the better advice one can give.Tied in with knowledge is the subfactor of experience-as it leads to knowledge. The cliches that one learns from both successes and mistakes is quite true.Experience leads to wisdom as I’ll discuss below.

Philosophy enters the appropriateness of advice.An aggressive accountant that pushes the line on saving on taxes might not be the best choice for a conservative individual.An individual that is often tempted by the latest hot stock needs an advisor with a different personality than one with the same opinions.Some physicians have a hard time ever giving up on a hopeless medical condition and push patients to keep on “trying”, when some of these patients would have a better quality of advice with less care.Conversely, the anxious patient (or investor) who does not want to rest requires another type of advice.

But the most important quality that can lead one to give good advice is wisdom.I’d define wisdom as the ability to put the person’s interests first, using both knowledge of the problem and having experience with it, and then distilling the possible solutions that “fit” that particular individual best.Physicians gain wisdom by integrating knowledge of options along with what they know about the individual and how they react and understand the advice.For most of us, the longer the medical career, the more wisdom.The same is true in many fields of work.Wisdom includes having empathy for the best types of advice to give a specific person and this ties in with the sections above on philosophy and knowledge.

Looking to ChatGPT for advice is a bad choice.It can’t filter for trust.It really can’t filter for knowledge. And it certainly can’t filter for wisdom.It can only supply (possibly biased) “information.”

In the medical field, it was relatively straightforward to refer patients to trusted medical practitioners.It would be the same physicians I’d go to myself.If it was a referral outside of my geographic area, I can usually find another physician (whose opinion I respected) who could give trusted advice.Or, it could be a physical therapist who treated many postop orthopedic patients or an OR nurse who spent many hours watching a surgeon’s level of care and skill.In the financial planning world as well as many other fields such as law-it is so very useful to have someone whose opinion you value giving you their recommendations on whom to see.

We can apply this to many aspects of our daily lives.When I need a contractor for my home repairs, I spend the time to get a trusted referral.Then I am not price sensitive and will almost never quote someone else.I’ll gladly pay the referred contractor and this almost never goes wrong.The same is true for accountants, financial planers, lawyers and of course, physicians.Give some thought to how you pick those that give you and your patients important advice!

Steven Podnos MD CFP practiced pulmonary and critical care medicine in both private practice and in the Air Force reserve for forty years.He is the founder and CEO of Wealth Care LLC, a fiduciary fee-only financial planning practice and can be reached at [email protected].