Decisional balance
Certified Financial Planner glossary · Certified Financial Planner
Definition
A motivational interviewing technique that surfaces the costs and benefits of both changing and not changing.
Decisional balance in plain English
A client says they "should" delay Social Security while still rehearsing every early-claim anecdote they have heard at dinner. Decisional balance, from motivational interviewing, surfaces the costs and benefits of changing and of not changing so ambivalence is visible instead of adversarial. You help map both ledgers with the client rather than delivering a lecture. On behavioral CFP stems, treat this as a counseling move, not a product pitch or a Monte Carlo printout.
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