Money Therapists

America’s top wealth advisors are finding that sound investment and tax advice often takes a backseat to family therapy

- Antoine Gara, Ashlea Ebeling & Lauren Gensler

California sunlight is flooding into the Beverly Hills conference room where Amir Mossanen typically holds his family sessions over pizza and soft drinks. He opens a cabinet to show off the little rewards—a deck of cards, a miniature stagecoach figurine—that he gives to those who open up about their lives. Mossanen, 42, is not a psychologist but a Wells Fargo financial advisor with $1.8 billion under management.

Several years ago, Mossanen held what some might consider a family intervention with one of his best clients, an Iranian immigrant couple living in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. They were worried about their youngest son, who had dropped out of USC, had little interest in the family electronics business and seemed to be drifting from startup to startup.

Mossanen questioned the young heir about his business ideas, his dreams and goals, his plan B if his startup didn’t work out and what he expected in terms of family assistance. Then Mossanen had another heart-to-heart talk with the parents, encouraging them to let their son continue on his entrepreneurial quest. It ended with the creation of the Tinder dating app, the crown jewel of Match Group, a Nasdaq-listed company with a market value of $6 billion.

“I think Amir helped my parents more than me,” says Tinder founder Sean Rad, 31. “The family business never really resonated with me, and I wanted to follow my own path.” In 2016, he delivered a commencement address at USC’s undergraduate business school, as his parents watched.

Gone are the days when asset allocation, investment selection and tax planning—all essentially commodities now—proved an advisor’s worth. But $30 trillion will pass to the millennial generation in the coming decades, and according to the seminal work