U.S. adults correctly answer just 49% of basic financial literacy questions — the same score as in 2017, despite years of increased financial education awareness².

Most traditional financial plans look solid on paper. They account for savings rates, withdrawal sequences, tax brackets, and investment allocations. What they often miss is the person who has to actually follow them — especially in moments of fear, uncertainty, or change.

Behavioral finance is the study of why that gap exists, and how to close it.

At Genesis Wealth Advisor Group in Marlton, New Jersey, behavioral finance is not a separate service or an add-on feature. It is the lens through which every planning conversation takes place. As a Behavioral Financial Advisor (BFA™) — a formal professional designation — our founder, Scott Jones brings the science of financial decision-making directly into the work he does with individuals and families across Marlton, Cherry Hill, Mount Laurel, Moorestown, Haddonfield, Voorhees, and the greater Philadelphia region.

Most financial advisors understand that emotions affect financial decisions. Fewer have pursued formal certification in behavioral finance. The BFA™ designation represents that additional step — and it's one of only two behavioral finance designations formally recognized by FINRA.¹

"Our job isn't to predict what markets will do — it's to help you make sound decisions when markets are doing something that feels alarming. That's where behavioral finance makes the real difference."

— Scott Jones, BFA^™ CPFA^® CRPC^® RFC^®, Founder, Genesis Wealth Advisor Group

Behavioral finance research has identified a consistent set of cognitive biases and emotional tendencies that appear across investor populations, regardless of education or experience. A few of the most common:

Loss aversion is the tendency to feel losses more acutely than equivalent gains — often by a factor of two to one or more. This is why watching a portfolio drop 15 percent can feel far more distressing than the relief felt when it recovers those same 15 points. Left unchecked, it can push investors toward overly conservative decisions at precisely the wrong moment.

Recency bias leads people to assign more weight to recent events than long-term patterns. After a strong run in markets, it can create overconfidence. After a sharp decline, it can make a recovery feel impossible. Either version distorts judgment.

Overconfidence is the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our own predictions and the reliability of our own instincts. It shows up most visibly during periods of sustained market strength, and can lead to concentrated risk-taking that feels justified in the moment.

Panic selling — moving out of markets during downturns — is one of the most costly patterns in long-term investing. It converts paper losses into real ones, and often leaves investors sitting in cash when markets begin to recover.

Performance chasing — moving money toward whatever has performed well recently — is the flip side of the same coin. It tends to send investors into asset classes near their peaks and out of them near their troughs.

These are not character flaws. They are well-documented, neurologically grounded responses to uncertainty. The goal of behavioral finance is not to eliminate them — that would be neither realistic nor useful — but to create awareness, structure, and a process that gives you a better chance of staying on course when they arise.

These behavioral patterns don't just affect investment decisions — they show up in retirement sequencing, business transitions, and planning decisions too. Our free guide covers seven of the most common examples: 7 Common Planning Mistakes.

Behavioral finance at Genesis Wealth Advisor Group is not a separate module or a one-time assessment. It is integrated into every stage of the planning process.

In early conversations, it shapes the questions asked — not only about goals and timelines, but about past experiences with money, the emotions that arise when markets move, and how you tend to make decisions under pressure. These conversations help establish a clearer picture of not just where you want to go financially, but how you're likely to respond on the road there.

During the planning and investment stages, it informs how portfolios are structured and how trade-offs are explained. Rather than presenting a strategy and expecting it to feel comfortable on its own, the goal is to help you understand it deeply enough that it holds when circumstances get harder.

In ongoing client reviews, it creates a consistent check-in around behavior — not just performance. Are there decisions you've been tempted to make? Have recent headlines triggered any anxiety about your plan? Do you still feel confident in the approach? These conversations build a track record of self-awareness that can be one of the most valuable things a long-term planning relationship produces.

This is what makes the relationship different. Many advisors manage portfolios and provide financial plans. Fewer focus deliberately on how the decisions around those plans get made — and what happens when emotions and market noise start to pull in the same direction.

Who Else Can Benefit From This Approach?

Pre-retirees and those in the early years of retirement — The transition from accumulation to distribution is one of the most psychologically complex financial moments most people face. Questions about "enough," concerns about sequence-of-returns risk, and the identity shifts that come with leaving work can all carry significant emotional weight. Having a behavioral finance framework built into your retirement planning can make this transition steadier.

Those who have made emotional money decisions before — Whether it was selling during the 2020 COVID drop, moving to cash in 2008, or chasing a specific sector that looked unstoppable at the time — those experiences are meaningful data. They're worth understanding, not judging, so that the next cycle doesn't replay the same pattern.

Clients who want to understand their plan, not just follow it — Some people want to be deeply involved in their financial decisions and feel confident in the reasoning behind them. The behavioral finance approach is especially well-suited for that kind of relationship, because it treats financial education and self-awareness as core parts of the work, not optional extras.

For clients managing complex, multi-domain decisions — retirement, taxes, estate, and protection planning — we offer a structured, coordinated approach through the Genesis Premier Virtual Family Office™.

In practice, the early meetings with clients from Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Shamong, Voorhees, and throughout South Jersey tend to move more slowly and go deeper than a typical first financial planning session might.

Rather than moving immediately to account statements and investment recommendations, the initial conversations are structured around you — your relationship with money, the experiences that have shaped how you think about financial risk, the decisions you've found difficult in the past, and the outcomes that matter most to you.

From there, the financial planning process proceeds — retirement income modeling, tax-efficiency strategies, Social Security timing, account structures, and investment allocation — but with that behavioral foundation running underneath it. You know why the plan is structured the way it is. You've talked through what might tempt you to abandon it. And you have a framework for revisiting it thoughtfully when life or markets create pressure to act.

Reviews and ongoing conversations continue that thread. Market commentary is provided in context. Behavioral check-ins are part of the routine. The relationship is built to hold over the long term, not just during the easy stretches.

Genesis Wealth Advisor Group is located at Five Greentree Centre, 525 Route 73 North, Suite 104, in Marlton, New Jersey. We regularly meet with clients from Marlton, Cherry Hill, Mount Laurel, Moorestown, Haddonfield, Collingswood, Voorhees, and throughout South Jersey, and we work virtually with individuals and families in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Florida, Texas, California, Virginia, and other states where we are appropriately registered.

¹ Source: FINRA Professional Designations Database (finra.org/investors/professional-designations). FINRA does not approve or endorse any professional designation.
² TIAA Institute–GFLEC Personal Finance Index, June 2025

Date Updated: April 29, 2026