Herbers & Company Academy Announces Renowned Academic Financial Therapist Hire

AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AcademyApp—Herbers & Company, an independent, full-service business management consultancy serving independent financial advisory firms, has hired a renowned financial therapist as its new Director of Institutional Research and Education at the Herbers & Company Academy – Sonya Lutter, PhD, CFP.

In her role at Herbers & Company, Dr. Lutter will provide data-backed research and consulting work to organizations on consumer behaviors, best practice communication methods, advice-driven cultures, and digital client experiences based on financial psychology and human sciences. Through the Academy at Herbers & Company, Dr. Lutter will also develop employee training programs to deepen knowledge in client communication and financial psychology and she will help institutions expand their training programs to financial advisors.

“Herbers & Company is tremendously honored to have Dr. Lutter join our leadership team,” said Angie Herbers, Managing Partner. “She is an accomplished theory-to-practice academic on staffing and recruiting; and career tracks, among other areas. Her expertise will dramatically expand our research capabilities to benefit the financial advisory profession growth track, service-driven employee cultures, and advisor training programs.”

Dr. Lutter has experience working in diverse teams having managed over 100 full-time staff at Kansas State University (KSU), improving curriculum for 12 degree programs and nine minor/certificate programs; and writer/contributor of over 15 books/book chapters on consumer behaviors. Previously an endowed professor at KSU for a dozen years and the head of the Applied Human Sciences department, Dr. Lutter’s research has been groundbreaking. Some of the areas her research has focused on include:

• Physiological assessment of stress in the financial planning and counseling setting;
• Theoretical development of money issues within marriage;
• Predictors of money arguments and their influence on relationship satisfaction and divorce;
• Effectiveness of financial literacy efforts; and
• Assessment of money beliefs and behaviors in the financial planning and counseling setting.

Portions of this research has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger’s, among other news outlets.

In addition to previously teaching at Kansas State, Dr. Lutter also received her bachelor’s degree in personal financial planning and her master’s in marriage and family therapy from the university. Her doctorate degree in personal financial planning is from Texas Tech University, where she was also previously the assistant director of the school’s peer-to-peer financial counseling and planning program called Red to Black.

Dr. Lutter is also a past President of the Financial Therapy Association.

“Herbers & Company has been on the leading edge of transforming research to practice for nearly two decades,” Dr. Lutter said. “I’ve had the privilege of working with the members of the Herbers & Company leadership team in various capacities over the years, and I am excited to work more deeply to expand what’s possible with professional financial advice, financial advisor education, and digital technology to help consumers with money psychology.”

Herbers & Company’s Academy expanded in June to include an app that is available on iOS and Google as well as on the desktop. This subscription service has allowed budding financial advisors around the globe to receive the content they need and learn from each other as well as Herbers & Company’s industry-renowned consultants.

For more information about Herbers & Company’s Academy and Dr. Lutter, go to: www.HerbersCo.com.

About Herbers & Company

Herbers & Co. is full-service strategy, management and innovation consultancy serving independent advisory firms of all shapes and sizes. Its mission is to reformulate, modernize and expand advisory firm growth and education. Leaders turn to us to increase revenue, profit, and enterprise value through growth strategies, human capital management, advisor training programs, operational efficiency, succession planning, leadership programs, and best practice client experiences using digital innovations. We have worked with over 10% of the total multi-billion-dollar independent financial advisory firms in the US and maintain real-time trends about what is most important/impactful to the financial advisory industry.

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