FPA as Your Partner in Planning™ is more than a catchy tagline. It’s about clarifying our focus on serving the unique needs of our members who are operating businesses, striving to increase planning competencies, serving their clients, and connecting more meaningfully within their local communities. It is a dynamic shift in how we operate as an Association and focuses our efforts on intentionally positioning FPA as an indispensable part of your life as a financial planner, where you live and work.
As we have shared, FPA is focused on serving the needs of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals and those engaged in the financial planning process. We are Your Partner in Planning™ so you can realize your vision of success through practice support, learning, advocacy, and networking. By concentrating our efforts on this purpose, we can be more deliberate in exploring opportunities where FPA can augment the value you receive from your membership investment.
FPA President Dennis Moore, MBA, CFP®, and I co-authored an op-ed for Financial Planning last month. We highlighted that a strong membership association is at the heart of all recognized professions, one that works to provide critical support to its practitioner community. While FPA has always strived to be that membership association for financial planning, we believe this renewed commitment will lead to a stronger Association delivering value for members like you.
So, what have we been doing during these early months of 2022 to be Your Partner in Planning™? Let’s explore some recent Practice Support, Learning, Advocacy, and Networking developments:
Practice Support
- Carson Coaching Named FPA’s Official Coaching Partner: With an eye on helping members serve their clients, grow their firms, and leave a lasting impact, FPA announced this month that Carson Coaching is the Association’s official coaching partner. Through this value-add partnership designed exclusively for our members, Carson Coaching provides several exciting opportunities for you to positively impact yourself and your business. You can now access Carson’s online coaching center, monthly group coaching, discounts to attend many Carson programs, and much more.
- Premium Discount on Individual Disability Insurance: As part of the suite of insurance solutions available through Ryan Insurance Strategy Consultants, you can access a 10% premium discount on premiere individual disability policies through Principal — a disability income insurance leader. This terrific offering includes a non-cancelable policy with fixed premiums, the best definition of disability available for financial advisers, the ability to increase benefits in the future without medical screening, and three separate cost-of-living adjustment riders.
Learning
- New Research: To understand how financial planner/client communication and trust have evolved, researchers from the MQ Research Consortium and the Kansas State University Personal Financial Planning Program, with the support of FPA and Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life), updated a 15-year-old study that examined communication best practices and how they impact the trust and commitment clients have in their planners. You can access the findings from this new research, which is exclusive to you as an FPA member.
- Certificate Program on College Funding: FPA staff is working on the final details for an exciting new certificate program that will help you address the college funding maze for your clients. Being developed in partnership with our friends at College Aid Pro, the program will be accessible by FPA members and include valuable continuing education credit. We will announce the availability of the program in early May. In the meantime, check out the other certificate programs offered by FPA, including Cybersecurity for Financial Planners and Philanthropic Solutions in Financial Planning in partnership with the American Heart Association.
Advocacy
- Advocating for Members: The State of Kentucky is currently considering legislation (House Bill 8) that will repeal its state income tax and replace it with a tax on services, including the undefined terms “personal financial planning services” and “personal investment management services.” Our goal is to ensure this legislation does not adversely impact our Kentucky members. More broadly, if passed, similar moves could be seen at statehouses across the country. FPA and the FPA Political Action Committee (FPA PAC) hired a lobbyist to provide our Kentucky members with an influential voice on this issue in their state. The Kentucky legislative session ends April 14, and we will share an update as we progress in this critical work.
- Celebrating FPA’s Pro Bono Impact: Despite the prolonged challenges posed by the pandemic, FPA members and chapters continued to provide one-on-one pro bono financial planning services to underserved and at-risk individuals through 2021. In 2021, more than 5,700 individuals received pro bono services from 960 volunteer financial planners who volunteered 17,407 hours of guidance. The hours volunteered represented an increase of 18% from the previous year. Read the op-ed in ThinkAdvisor!
- FPA MediaSource: One of the gems of FPA membership is the opportunity to participate in FPA MediaSource. This automated media query system connects journalists working on deadlines with CFP® professional members of FPA. Hundreds of journalists use this system, and as of March 11, it has distributed 6,000 media queries to FPA members since inception.
Networking
- FPA Retreat 2022: We are finalizing preparation for our first post-pandemic national event with FPA Retreat 2022 set to take place April 25-28 at the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa outside of Austin, TX. We are excited to host an event focused on reconnecting members while providing opportunities to relax, reinvigorate, and be challenged – all in a beautiful venue. We look forward to seeing you! (If you haven’t registered yet, you can do so here.)
- Chapter Events: There is renewed excitement brewing across the country as our network of 80 FPA chapters begins to hold in-person events once again. Many chapters are preparing to hold a variety of in-person and hybrid networking and educational events, which have been missed throughout the pandemic. These events provide you a meaningful opportunity to reconnect with members in your local community where you can share best practices and learn what your peers are doing to build their businesses and serve the needs of clients. Many chapters are beginning to share their upcoming events through the FPA website, which you can search to see what is taking place in your area.
I also want to acknowledge the outstanding work of the FPA Board of Directors, who are responsible for setting the Association’s strategic direction. They recognize that simply knowing who and how we serve is not enough. Our core member definition and membership value proposition serve as our True North. FPA’s progress, though, is contingent on having a long-term strategic plan that propels us to become that strong membership association we outlined in our Financial Planning op-ed. Your Board is developing that plan, and we look forward to sharing its progress with you this summer during our “State of FPA” event in July.
As always, if you have questions or want to share your ideas on how FPA can truly be Your Partner in Planning™, please share them.
Thank you for the privilege of your membership.
Sincerely,
