Between Meetings with Matt Heine Ep 107: Behavioural finance, family offices & the future of advice – Prof. Lauren Cohen, Harvard Business School
Mar 10, 2026
Professor Lauren Cohen, Harvard Business School academic in behavioural finance and innovation. They discuss the surge of family offices and why they attract talent. They explore fintech’s role in reshaping advice and the supply-demand gaps in advice markets. They cover generational shifts, small UX-driven innovations that move markets, and limits of AI in wealth management.
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Make Advice Easy To Find And Trust
- Build trust by reducing information and search frictions so consumers can recognise advisor expertise.
- Package advice in preferred formats (e.g., short digital content) and counter short-run volatility that undermines trust.
Insurtech Won On UX Not Underwriting
- Insurtechs like Lemonade and Hippo won customers by offering fast, app-based UX despite worse loss performance.
- Consumers preferred quick, painless digital interactions over traditional local agents like 'Susie'.
App Adoption Reflects Habit Inertia Not Just Age
- Observed higher adoption among younger cohorts may partly reflect behavioral inertia in older cohorts who rarely change habits.
- True age effects are hard to identify because people mostly repeat past choices unless forced to change.