Some advisors read books to help understand their clients' approaches to money, while others are looking for perspective on today’s economic and geopolitical climate.Grandfailure/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
Julia Chung sees reading as a way to understand people and how her advice might land with different clients.
“I give advice, but is that advice useful for the person I’m interacting with?” asks Ms. Chung, chief executive of Spring Planning Inc. in Vancouver. “What’s their background? What do they want to consider? And how can I deliver my advice in a way that resonates with them?”
She says she reads books that follow demographic and societal changes, shed light on how different backgrounds shape people’s views on money and life and explain how to get a message across.
Globe Advisor asked top economists, advisors and behavioural finance experts about the books advisors should be reading this summer to understand their clients and this moment in time.
Julia Chung, CEO, financial planner and family enterprise advisor at Spring Plans in Vancouver
The Myth of the Silver Spoon, by Kristin Keffeler (2022)
The author breaks down the pressures faced by individuals in wealthy families, particularly in the generations that follow the original wealth creators, and offers strategies for managing those pressures.
Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (2016)
I recommend this book so frequently the authors should probably pay me a commission. It uses the concept of design thinking and helps reshape the reader’s ideas of what a good life looks like for each individual. Advisors have many opportunities to design their businesses to suit them, but many don’t know how to get started.
The Wealthy Barber 2025, by David Chilton (2025)
Most Canadians interested in personal finance are aware of the original The Wealthy Barber, which taught so many people to pay themselves first. The updated version speaks to the current generation and the many changes that have occurred since the original’s release [in 1989].
David also has a popular podcast, which is shutting down at the end of the year, as he’s finally decided to retire. Might be worth reading and getting questions out to him before he goes.
Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets Inc.
The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future, by Mustafa Suleyman, with Michael Bhaskar (2023)
AI will be the most important factor impacting the composition and trajectory of the global economy. Understanding its power and limitations is essential to understanding the directions the global economy and [where] markets are heading.
David Chilton, author of The Wealthy Barber
How to Get Rich in American History, by Joseph Moore (2026)
This book looks back at the last 300 years of financial advice. The common themes among advice that’s worked are to make a bet on free enterprise, to make a bet on innovation, and to stick with it.
I’m way oversimplifying, but it’s really interesting to look back at some of the ideas that were popular, why they worked or didn’t, and the consistencies they have with today’s advice.
[The book has] picked up so much momentum among the big names in this industry that no doubt your clients are going to be reading it, and you want to keep informed as to what your clients are reading.
Aravind Sithamparapillai, financial planner at Ironwood Wealth Management Group
The Menopause Manifesto, by Jen Gunter (2021)
I got The Menopause Manifesto after noticing a confusing fall-off in the expected career timelines of my midwife clients. Younger midwives would always tell me they wanted to work until they were 65, but older midwives were asking, ‘If I wanted to retire by 55, could you make that happen?’ Few of us men understand [perimenopause and menopause]. As an advisor, this book has been a bridge to understanding my clients and what they’re going through. It gives context to things such as career aspiration changes over time and creates a more open dialogue between client and advisor.
Money Together by Douglas A. Boneparth and Heather Boneparth (2025)
This is not a technical finance book; all of the chapters are about different interpersonal dynamics between couples that can influence their views on money. The authors interviewed real couples. (My wife and I were interviewed about intercultural and interracial dynamics.)
The book is a call to recognize that people are different and both of you need a voice at the table around your money. If you’re not thinking about this as an advisor, you might be missing an opportunity to bridge a gap between two people.
1929, by Andrew Ross Sorkin (2025)
The author takes the reader through what was happening in the markets leading up to the Wall Street crash. They were coming out with a lot of financial innovation and engineering, such as pooling stocks together, then adding leverage to pooled stocks to enhance returns and then stripping out the income specifically so investors can collect some income.
It’s a picture of what the old, non-regulated world looked like, but really, at the heart of it, it’s all the same cycles of greed and financial innovation as today.
David Lewis, behavioural finance expert
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011)
Daniel Kahneman’s key message is we have two modes of thinking, a fast mode and a slow mode, and we tend to default to fast mode: it’s effortless, it’s based on intuition, and it saves us a lot of metabolic energy. Slow mode is the deliberate, complex, analytical mode of thinking and we only engage that at certain times.
Advisors may assume people are listening carefully and will be analytical and follow the details, but oftentimes they don’t because they’re in fast mode.
Understanding those modes of thinking is a huge advantage in starting to think about how you present information and convince clients of your advice when it’s in their interest, even if they’re feeling emotional or risk-averse.
Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely (2008)
Financial advisors spend all day looking at facts and figures and assume they’re rational, but they can also be affected by heuristics, biases and non-rational decision-making.
This book has a lot of really interesting experiments that demonstrate how we make bad choices – there are hidden psychological forces, social norms and other things that get in the way of making a perfect decision.
It’s a really fun, engaging and approachable read that can help advisors improve their decision-making.