Many people around the world harbour apprehension about the finance sector. Seldom is this from a lack of financial information being available, instead it’s often due to a lack of clarity. Financial firms produce an endless stream of reports, forecasts and commentary. Yet despite all this data, many of us still feel uninformed about how the financial world truly works.

For native English-speakers living in Valencia and throughout Spain, these misgivings are often heightened. Our trusted advisor back home knows little about the financial structure within Spain. Trustworthy financiers in Spain are unfamiliar with financial regulations of the US or UK or Canada, and largely unaware of tax obligations imposed by the IRS, HMRC or CRA.

BISSAN Wealth Management is the financial planning firm in Spain that’s making strides to reduce our apprehension about finance. Peter Dougherty, a financial planner at BISSAN, is a dual-certified financial planner: a CFP® professional in the US and a European Financial Planner certified by the European Financial Planning Association of Spain (EFPA España). He is also the author of a book written in English that’s aimed at making the finance sector accessible to us: “The Dougherty Code: Secrets of Financial Planning in Spain Revealed”.

Peter believes that those who understand a subject well are usually the ones who can explain it easily. That’s one reason he values the fact that many of his colleagues at BISSAN also teach finance at universities and business schools. Teaching forces a kind of clarity that the financial world does not always demand on its own.

A client meeting can sometimes allow vague explanations to pass unnoticed. A classroom usually does not. Students ask uncomfortable questions. They challenge assumptions.

Five members of the eleven-person BISSAN Wealth Management team give finance lectures to students. At first glance, that may sound like an interesting coincidence. It is not. People who are naturally drawn to teaching often share important qualities that matter in giving financial advice: patience, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to simplify without oversimplifying.

BISSAN’s German Guevara and Juan Santos regularly teach professionals preparing for the European Financial Planner qualification and other financial certifications in Spain. Rafael Faus lectures at IESE Business School and other institutions. Jordi Huguet teaches finance students at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Jose Suarez-Lledo combines professional practice at BISSAN Weatlth Management with academic roles at IESE Business School and Universidad Pompeu Fabra.

Clients deserve honesty about uncertainty, tradeoffs, and risk. But they also deserve explanations they can genuinely understand. The best advisors can discuss sophisticated concepts without making the listener feel excluded.

The financial industry in Spain does not need more complicated explanations. It needs more people capable of making important ideas understandable to us. Peter Dougherty and the rest of the BISSAN team do just that.

BISSAN Wealth Management is authorized by The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) of Spain, the entity responsible for the supervision and inspection of Spanish securities markets and the activity of all those involved in them. Bissan has offices in Barcelona and Bilbao.

Report by ‘24/7 Valencia’ team

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

For more information:  https://www.financial-planning-in-spain.com