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Morningstar research on the value financial advisers add to clients found that behavioural coaching is the “single most impactful service” they offer. Planning and advising set out plans and recommend products, but a plan is only as good as the actions taken to follow it. Coaching can help clients follow the plan, so is it a service you should offer? We spoke to Certified Integral Coach, CFP, author and trainer, Hendrik Crafford to find out.
Financial coaching is not planning or advising
Financial planning and advising are well-defined activities. Financial coaching may not be as familiar. Crafford says the distinction between planning and coaching is:- Financial planning builds the plan
- Financial coaching helps the person live that plan
Crafford says that financial planning is technically oriented and answers the client question: what should I do? Financial coaching asks a different question: what is getting in the way of you doing what you already know?
Why financial coaching will benefit your clients
The financial advice and planning advisers offer are invaluable and should help clients achieve their goals. But many clients do not. Crafford says that if financial advice alone were enough, most people would already be financially secure. But, on a consistent basis, “the gap between knowing and doing remains one of the most consistent findings in the field.”
“Financial planning is essential, but it assumes that once a client has the right strategy they will follow it. This is where the traditional model falls short,” he says.
Even clients who commit to the most detailed financial plans do not always follow through.
The reason?
Crafford says it is not a lack of information. “Most people struggle because of habits, emotional patterns, competing priorities and beliefs about money that were often formed long before they ever sat down with an adviser.”
“Financial coaching recognises that money decisions are rarely just financial; they are deeply personal.”
He says that a goal like "retire at 60" sounds financial. “But underneath it almost always sits something deeper: what kind of life do I actually want? What does security mean to me? What am I working towards, and why? Who will I become in retirement? What about my legacy?” Financial coaching brings those questions into the room and takes them seriously.
“Financial coaching offers something advice cannot: it helps clients understand themselves in relation to money. Over time, clients develop clarity about what truly matters to them, recognise their own patterns and, crucially, start building consistency in their financial behaviours because they understand why it matters to them personally.”
Three areas where coaching adds value
Crafford identifies three areas where financial coaching adds meaningful value:
Clarity: Helping clients align their money with their life
This is practical and helps clients ask and answer questions such as: what does a good life actually look like for me, and is the way I am using my money moving me towards it or away from it?
Life is full of moments where the financial and the personal collide: retirement, divorce, or the weighty decision of whether to immigrate. These are not purely financial decisions and they cannot be handled with a spreadsheet alone. Financial coaching creates the space to think them through with honesty and intention.
Addressing limiting behavioursThis is perhaps the most overlooked area, and yet often the most consequential. A deeply held narrative around debt, a pattern of gambling, or financial infidelity between partners are not simply financial problems. They carry emotional weight and relational consequences. Often a history needs to be understood before it can be changed. Financial coaching does not replace therapy, but it creates a constructive space to surface these patterns and begin working through them.
An additional benefit is that financial coaching can reduce anxiety and increase confidence. Crafford says this is not because the numbers look better, but rather because the person’s relationship with money has shifted.
Remuneration models
Coaching does require an input of time from an adviser, raising the question of remuneration: should advisers charge a fee for coaching?
“Coaching asks the practitioner to do something quite demanding: remain genuinely neutral, curious, and in service of the client's thinking, not of a particular product or outcome,” Crafford says.
This can create a conflict with commission-only remuneration models.
“Models in which advisers charge an explicit fee for coaching, or incorporate it into a broader advice fee, tend to make the coaching stance easier to maintain with integrity. Ongoing fee structures linked to assets under management, where the adviser's income is tied to long-term client outcomes, also tend to create more natural alignment.”
Crafford says that clients need to know clearly how their adviser is compensated. For their part, “advisers need to stay conscious of the subtle ways that remuneration can influence the questions they ask, and those they do not.”
How to become a financial coach
Crafford says the field of financial coaching in South Africa is growing with real intention. “The professional benchmark for coach training is generally aligned with either COMENSA (Coaches and Mentors of South Africa) or the International Coaching Federation globally. These bodies provide credentialing frameworks that bring both rigour and ethical standards to the practice.”
Advisers can complete a formal programme such as the Financial Coaching Short Learning Programme or Advanced Financial Coaching Programme at UFS. These are designed specifically for financial professionals, allowing them to integrate coaching into real financial planning conversations.
Certain product providers may also offer coaching and mentoring programmes.
A life coaching certification may also be an option, although Crafford says life coaching tends to explore broader questions: purpose, identity, relationships and direction.
Internationally, advisers can also consider options such as the Financial Therapy Association, Association for Financial Counselling and Planning Education, financial wellness programmes in financial well-being and education hubs such as the Sudden Money Institute. If you are considering an international qualification, always check that you can gain the credential and use it.
Crafford says that a strong coaching journey is experiential. “It develops self-awareness. It stretches how you listen, how you ask questions, and how you sit with uncertainty, particularly the uncertainty of not having the answer right away. It includes practice, structured reflection and ideally some form of supervision.”
An opportunity to consider
A recent poll on FANews.com asked what one thing advisers would like clients to focus on during market volatility. At the time of writing (end April 2026), two thirds responded “stay invested”. This is the realm of financial coaching as it will help clients stick to the plan. Financial coaching may be a diversification opportunity to grow your business, or it may be a strategy to consider to maintain client relationships and help them follow their plans and improve their financial confidence and future security. With the industry’s and regulator’s focus on outcomes and financial well-being, financial coaching could be your value-add and give you a competitive edge in the market.