Next Generation Planner: December 2020
“There are three things that we need to do to elevate our profession in the future:
(1) As investment management becomes more commoditized, we need to make values-based, financial life planning central to our work. Empowering clients in their relationship with money should be our aim through every step of the process.
(2) We need to ramp up diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to bring more voices into conversations like this. We literally cannot elevate our profession without them.
(3) Our profession has to figure out how to serve those who cannot afford our advice. This is an enormous swath of our population that can’t be relegated to a pro bono or a post-career focus. We must find a way to better serve our communities—all of them.”
Brenna R. Baucum, CFP®
Lead Adviser, The H Group
www.linkedin.com/in/brennabaucum/
“When I envision the future of this profession, I see young, innovative minds pushing us further than we could have ever imagined. With the profession being relatively new and able to adapt, I see many things changing. I see people who would have gone to other professions finding a home as a planner. I see [artificial intelligence] being a huge factor in allowing for automation and allowing planners to do what they do best and spend time with clients. I truly feel that we will get to a point where we will be able to anticipate the changes in our clients’ lives and be able to better serve them. I see our profession being made up more closely of the population we serve and giving access to people who before felt they never had a chance to work with an adviser. In my vison of the future, I see trust from the population. I believe that we will have a standard that puts the client first and allows them to feel that they are truly taken care of.”
Jorrell Bland
Client Services Manager, Mitlin Financial Inc.
www.linkedin.com/in/jorrellbland/
“We continue to hear about the wave of baby boomers retiring and selling their businesses and the retirement and exit planning in demand from this. I think the future of financial planning that is often overlooked is how we help the acquirers of these businesses. Especially with the job losses from COVID, I suspect the momentum of entrepreneurship will only increase. There will be a much larger emphasis on advising small business owners opposed to the traditional corporate climber.
This means investment services will transition from mostly advising on stocks, bonds and MF/ETFs to include real estate and small business investing. Planning will expand beyond just the personal balance sheet to also include advisory services for small businesses, with a particular emphasis on tax planning.
In order to successfully make this transition, we need to continue to improve our expertise in business acumen, alternative investing and taxes.”
Richard Vazza, CFA, CFP®
President, Financial Adviser, Driven Wealth Management
www.linkedin.com/in/richard-vazza-cfa/
“The financial planning profession will look a lot more like the medical industry in 10 to 15 years. That is, if we get our way. I believe that CFP® [professionals] will be the general practitioners and provide basic everyday advice. I believe insurance licenses, securities licenses and other designations will allow for specialties, just like dentists and surgeons. I think the main problem we face right now is the industry’s lack of transparency and how we each operate. I think that commission only and fee only should be outdated. I believe that we should strive for a uniform process, all started with financial planning.”
Michael C. Whitman, MBA, CFP®
Managing Partner, Millennium Planning Group
www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwhitmanmba/