Given the politically toxic discourse running through the U.S. nowadays, almost any relationship is at risk — including interactions between financial advisers and their clients. You’d think that clients with extreme political views would keep such opinions to themselves. But some share these opinions with their adviser, and often that doesn’t go over well.
Before the contentious 2016 presidential election, advisers may have engaged in political arguments with clients and reached a respectful we-can-still-get-along impasse. It’s much harder now. For example, a Colorado-based adviser recently expressed frustration over clients who spout misinformation. “I’m done turning the other cheek in the name of business,” he said in a Twitter post. “There is no place for this nonsense in my life. It’s not my job to be one’s sounding board for one’s crazy theories.” Or is it? The Colorado adviser said he’s tempted to send a mass email to clients demanding that they stop talking politics with him. But his spouse and staff think he should let it go and not punch back. Sonya Dreizler, a consultant and former financial planner, cautioned the adviser not to send the mass email. Instead, she urged him to identify his end goal and …