FA-IQ reached out to advisors to ask: Is there a book that has shaped how you work with clients or think about finance?

Mark Mathers is partner and managing director of Beacon Pointe Advisors. Mathers, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, has been in the industry 27 years. His teams client assets total $570 million.

An amazing book that has had a great impact on my life and how I interact with clients is called Tattoos on the Heart by Greg Boyle. The book is a series of short stories about Father Gregs interaction with gang members in LA. Greg speaks about seeing each person at the level of the heart. Its a story about kinship and compassion. At Beacon Pointe we are laser focused on our clients needs regarding their life & legacy planning and their investments. A critical component of our client relationship involves taking the time to see each of our clients at the level of the heart. What are the challenges they are facing in life? What are they struggling with? How can we help them engage their capital in doing good while also doing well financially?

The ability for our team to engage with our clients this way is totally dependent upon how each of our team sees themselves and how we also connect with one another as colleagues. We practice servant leadership at Beacon Pointe. Which means showing up each day with enough humility to realize that we are here to serve other human beings our clients, our colleagues and our community and all of these matter. The fact that one of our specialties is Values Based Investing fits perfectly with our firm culture of servant leadership that clearly involves seeing the other person at the level of the heart, he added.

Karen McClintock is principal and managing director at Robertson Stephens Wealth Management. McClintock, based in Pasadena, California, has been in the industry more than 30 years and has about $174 million in client assets.

She selected Whats It All About, Alpha?: & Other Investment Essays from an Incredible Decade Paperback, by Jason DeSena Trennert.

While an older book, Trennerts comments are timeless. As wealth managers, we engage in research, statistics, trends, economics, analysis, forecasting, and massive amounts of data. Trennert regularly reminds us we are managing other peoples money and it is a sacred trust. We must never neglect history, the social sciences, and human behavior. We must remain ever diligent in suppressing the noise and searching for the big picture, the truth. We must safeguard and develop the finest personal code of ethics possible, McClintock said.

While Trennert is at the helm of an award winning macro-economic research company, he brings a tone of sensibility to our industry, for which we are grateful. This book gives you insights into the foundations of that work, she added.

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FAs Weigh In: What Are You Reading? - Financial Advisor IQ