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Last month, I met with a client who manages over $500 million for high-net-worth families. Despite his impressive investment performance and technical expertise, he confessed that he was struggling with an unexpected challenge: “My clients are drowning in information,” he explained. “They’re bombarded with market commentary, financial news, and conflicting opinions. They come to me overwhelmed, anxious, and often ready to make decisions based on the last headline they read.”
This advisor isn’t alone. In our hyper-connected world, we’re witnessing a fundamental shift from an economy of information scarcity to one of information abundance—and attention scarcity. For financial advisors, this shift creates both a challenge and an opportunity: those who can help clients cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters will create immense value in an increasingly chaotic information landscape.
Herbert Simon, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, predicted this situation decades ago when he observed that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Today, we’re living in the reality he foresaw, and nowhere is this more evident than in financial decision-making.
The Cognitive Cost of Information Overload
Some years ago, I was working with a client—a successful surgeon with an impressive portfolio. Despite his financial success, he constantly second-guessed his investment decisions, chasing the latest market trends and reacting to every piece of financial news. His portfolio performance suffered not from lack of knowledge but from too much of it.
During one of our meetings, I asked him how he approached complex decisions in the operating room. His response was illuminating: “I filter out all irrelevant information and focus only on what directly impacts the procedure at hand.” Yet when it came to his investments, he did the exact opposite—consuming every piece of market commentary, economic forecast, and investment tip he encountered.
This surgeon’s situation highlights a widespread cognitive challenge: our brains are not designed to handle the overwhelming amount of information we encounter daily. According to a 2009 report from the University of California, San Diego, the average American consumes about five times more information each day than they did in the mid-1980s, equivalent to roughly 174 newspapers’ worth of data. This amounts to approximately 34 gigabytes or 100,000 words per person daily, spanning various media such as television, internet, radio, and print (Bohn & Short, 2009). Neuroscience research suggests that this flood of information can lead to analysis paralysis, emotional decision-making, and poorer outcomes overall.
For financial advisors, this cognitive overload creates a clear mandate: our value increasingly lies not just in what we know, but in helping clients filter out what they need to know from what they don’t.
How Top Advisors Create Mental Space
Through my research and work with successful advisory practices, I’ve identified three strategies that top advisors use to help clients navigate the attention economy:
1. Implement Information Boundaries
The most effective advisors proactively establish “information boundaries” with their clients. These aren’t about restricting information, but rather creating intentional frameworks for what types of information warrant attention and action.
One advisor I work with creates a personalized “information diet” for each client based on their financial situation, goals, and psychological temperament. For clients prone to emotional investing, this might mean quarterly portfolio reviews rather than daily access to performance data. For others, it might involve curated reading lists that provide context rather than just market movements.
The key insight is that more information doesn’t lead to better decisions—better-filtered information does. By establishing boundaries around what information clients consume and when, advisors help preserve the cognitive bandwidth needed for sound financial decision-making.
2. Transform Data into Contextual Insights
Raw data is plentiful but overwhelming. Contextual insights—information presented with relevant meaning and implications—are rare and valuable.
Elite advisors excel at transforming the firehose of financial data into contextual insights tailored to each client’s situation. When markets dropped sharply in early 2020, one advisor I know sent clients not a generic market update, but a personalized analysis showing how the volatility affected their specific plan and what adjustments, if any, were warranted.
This approach required more upfront work than a general market commentary, but it transformed anxiety-inducing information into actionable insight. By providing context—not just content—advisors help clients understand what market events actually mean for their personal situation.
3. Create Decision-Making Frameworks
Perhaps the most valuable service advisors provide in the attention economy is helping clients establish robust decision-making frameworks that reduce cognitive load.
One wealth management team I advise uses what they call the “3-2-1 Method” with clients: before making any significant financial decision, they work with them to identify three potential alternatives, two potential risks for each option, and one core value that the decision supports. This simple framework helps clients cut through information overload and focus on what truly matters.
Similarly, another advisor implements investment policy statements not just for portfolio management but for all major financial decisions. These statements, reviewed annually, establish clear criteria for when clients should—and shouldn’t—take action, reducing the mental energy expended on routine financial choices.
The Psychological Value of Mental Clarity
Beyond improving financial outcomes, advisors who effectively manage information overload provide something perhaps even more valuable: psychological well-being and mental clarity.
Research from the 2024 YCharts Advisor-Client Communication Survey found that clients who feel more in control of their financial information, largely through frequent and personalized communication with their advisors, report significantly higher satisfaction levels. Specifically, 85% of high-value clients indicated that such communication greatly boosts their confidence in their advisor, and 88% said it influences their decision to continue the relationship. This enhanced sense of control also helps clients remain steadier during market volatility, reducing impulsive portfolio changes.
This psychological dimension highlights an often-overlooked truth: in an age of information abundance, peace of mind may be the most valuable service advisors provide. By helping clients focus on what matters and ignore what doesn’t, advisors create the mental space needed for confident decision-making.
Practical Steps for Creating Mental Space
For advisors looking to differentiate themselves in the attention economy, here are three actionable approaches:
1. Audit Your Communication Strategy
Review all client communications through the lens of attention management. Ask: Does this communication help clients focus on what matters, or does it contribute to information overload? The highest-performing advisory firms I’ve studied typically send fewer, more meaningful communications rather than frequent updates that add to cognitive burden.
2. Develop Information Filtering Systems
Create systems that help clients distinguish between information that requires attention and information that doesn’t. This might include categorized reading lists, custom information dashboards, or even regular “information detox” conversations where you help clients identify and eliminate unhelpful financial media from their consumption habits.
3. Create Decision Triggers and Defaults
Help clients establish clear decision triggers that automatically filter out noise. For example, one advisor I work with establishes with each client specific market conditions that would warrant portfolio adjustments—and explicitly agrees that other market movements require no action. These predetermined triggers save substantial mental energy and prevent reactive decision-making.
The Future of Advice in the Attention Economy
As we look ahead, the ability to help clients manage attention will only become more valuable. With advances in artificial intelligence and an ever-expanding universe of financial information, the cognitive burden on clients will continue to grow.
The most successful advisors will be those who position themselves not just as financial experts, but as guides helping clients navigate the overwhelming landscape of financial information. By creating the mental space needed for thoughtful decision-making, these advisors will deliver value that transcends portfolio performance or technical expertise.
The wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. — Herbert Simon
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