Journal of Financial Planning: December 2016
Shannon Pike on Volunteer Leadership, the OneFPA Initiative, and Advancing the Profession
WHO: Shannon Pike, CFP®
WHAT: 2017 FPA president, vice president of Tanglewood Legacy Advisors LLC
WHAT'S ON HIS MIND: “OneFPA, to me, is not just a slogan; it’s not just a catchall, it’s not just our web address. This is the next transformational deal that we’re going to go through in the livelihood of FPA.”
VIDEO: A video interview with Shannon Pike.
For Shannon Pike, CFP®, the opportunity to serve as the 2017 FPA president is an opportunity to make his difference, to do his part in seeing FPA achieve a transformational goal for the future and financial planning one day recognized as a true profession.
His years of volunteer leadership at the chapter level helped pave the way for him to serve on the FPA national board. He was a member of the board of directors with FPA of Houston for six years, which included stints as the chapter’s membership director, president, and chair. He also served on several FPA national task forces, and as president, he’ll spend time traveling the country, visiting with individual chapters to communicate the importance of the OneFPA Initiative.
With more than 20 years of experience in financial services, Pike serves as vice president of Tanglewood Legacy Advisors in Houston, Texas, which helps entrepreneurs, executives, and private business owners navigate various tax, legal, investment, asset preservation, and philanthropic issues.
In volunteer leadership, Pike says, you have to be comfortable knowing that whatever goals you have, you are just one piece of a much larger effort. You alone may not achieve the goal, but you show up daily and make small changes that future volunteer leaders can continue to build upon. With that in mind, Pike shared this quote by John C. Maxwell: “Leadership develops daily, not in a day.”
The Journal recently sat down with Pike to learn more about his priorities as president in 2017, some new FPA initiatives, and how his early career choices and volunteerism have shaped him to be the planner he is today.
1. As the 2017 FPA president, what is your top priority for the association?
My top priority is also the organization’s top priority: to fully realize the OneFPA Initiative in an effort to nurture and integrate all of the communities we have within FPA. We have an excellent opportunity to begin a transformational shift by embracing all we have learned over the last couple of years to make FPA more effective and efficient in terms of governance, strategy, and culture.
2. The OneFPA Initiative is the commitment to the alignment, integration, and nurturing of all the communities that comprise the FPA tapestry. What do you feel is the biggest challenge to that commitment, and how can we meet that challenge?
I think the breadth and depth of our communities—for example, chapters, FPA Knowledge Circles, etc.—represent the greatest asset and the greatest strength of FPA. The OneFPA Initiative is about alignment and integration across all FPA communities so we are more cohesive and more connected. How we communicate across all communities may become even more challenging.
We have 24,000 members, more than 1,000 volunteer leaders in various roles across the organization, 91 chapters and two state councils, and dozens of communities. Our messaging on the OneFPA Initiative and how that message will be disseminated is going to be critically important moving forward.
Over the past three years, we have been gathering voices within all of our communities through summits, gatherings, and surveys. We created the OneFPA Advisory Group to coalesce all this feedback over the last few years and determine how we will meet this challenge head-on while empowering our network of leaders.
I am personally going to try to meet that challenge as president by meeting our members and being present with them. As I prepared to assume my new role on the FPA board of directors, I traveled around to listen to members, attend symposiums, and speak about the OneFPA Initiative. I plan to visit more of our communities and chapters throughout the year to communicate what this all means and why we need to embark on this journey together.
I don’t think we can just communicate it through an email. I don’t think we can just communicate it through a webinar. I think we have to be visible; we need to be transparent enough to take feedback and do this together.
OneFPA, to me, is not just a slogan; it’s not just a catchall, it’s not just our web address. This is the next transformational deal that we’re going to go through in the livelihood of FPA, both from a governing and strategic standpoint, but more importantly, from a cultural perspective, to make FPA what it needs to be in the future.
3. Prior to your volunteer leadership role on the national level, you served on the board of directors for your local chapter, FPA of Houston. What role has your local chapter played in your professional and leadership development?
It has played—and frankly, still plays—a huge role in my development, both as a leader and as a professional. I can attribute much of my professional growth over the past 15 years to FPA. It began with my chapter involvement. I joined FPA in 2002 and almost immediately got involved in committees and leadership. FPA has shaped so many aspects of my professional life, developing me as a leader, and it started with boots on the ground in my local chapter. That is why I am so passionate about chapters and chapter leadership.
I will tell you a quick story. When I passed the CFP® examination, I called one of my mentors whom I met when I moved to Houston in 1998, and I said, “Hey, I passed. What do I do now?” He said, “You need to join FPA, and you’re going to come to a FPA of Houston meeting.” I went to a meeting, he introduced me to people, and he said, “By the way, I’m on a committee. We certainly could use some more members. What do you think?” I said, “Okay.”
I did what mentees are supposed to do—I listened to my mentor and did exactly what he asked, and that put me on a course of volunteer leadership. I was fortunate enough to be asked to get into leadership at FPA, even when I probably did not have any confidence [to do so], and it forced me to learn about being a leader in a volunteer organization.
Ever since raising my hand and saying yes to getting involved way back then, and now having the honor to serve as FPA’s president, I have grown. I have had some successes, but I have also leaned on that FPA family of leaders who I have known over the last 15 years to get me through some of the challenging times.
4. How do you describe FPA’s value proposition?
To boil it down simply, FPA is the professional home for CFP® professionals.
If I were to speak with a colleague about joining FPA, I would start by saying, “We’re the professional home for financial planning and the CFP® professional, and we can be your one connection and resource throughout the complete lifecycle of your career.”
This is realized through our four services lines—professional development, business success, advocacy, and community.
I believe we can provide value to members in a variety of ways. I can share with a potential member where and how I get my value, but I also can have a conversation and learn their story—tell me where your firm is; tell me what your practice looks like; tell me what you want to do in your career; tell me about the challenges you’re facing. I can then point to the value propositions within FPA that tailors to their “story” and meet them where they are in their career and find their home within FPA.
I learned early on, and it’s just as evident today, that FPA is also the home of those who are the most dedicated and passionate to the financial planning community and profession. Belonging to this community has been what has kept me involved and serving in FPA. To borrow a saying from another leader: “Don’t join until you know what you’re joining, but don’t walk away until you know what you’re walking away from.”
5. What impact do you hope to have on the association by the time your term as president is over?
I believe my responsibility is to inspire leaders, members, and other stakeholders about FPA. As president, I think about the impact I can have—both internally and externally. FPA is a very broad and deep organization. Not only in respect to what is available to members in terms of value but also in the volunteer and leadership opportunities. Integrating all of what FPA is is the cornerstone of realizing OneFPA.
Internally, the impact I hope to have is to communicate and connect more with members and all communities of FPA—to listen, to learn from and build together what FPA can be for the future. Externally, I want to continue raising the awareness of FPA, the financial planning profession, and how FPA can be the home for the CFP® professional and a valuable resource to the media and elected officials.
6. FPA recently formed the Member Advocacy Council (MAC), which will be a conduit between FPA members and the regulatory and certifying bodies that have a direct impact on FPA members. What is your expectation for this new group?
We can think of advocacy from the lens of the legislative and public policy arena; like when we go to Washington D.C., or when our chapters go to their respective capitols and advocate for certain legislation. We can also think of advocacy as having the backs of our members. We are the home of the financial planning community, and being that advocate for our members can provide true value.
As the voice for practitioners and all CFP® professionals, FPA established the MAC to hear our members’ voices and provide guidance to the FPA board of directors on issues stemming from those bodies that have a direct impact on financial planners and the profession. The MAC will seek input from FPA members and leaders on regulatory and certifying body activities, processes, and initiatives in an effort to formulate recommended positions and action items for the board of directors. I fully expect the MAC to help shape our priorities, positions, and our communications with the regulatory and certifying bodies.
7. What is the best way for FPA members to get involved in the MAC?
This is a member-driven agenda and we want to hear from as many voices across FPA as possible. We’ve set up focus groups, and by early 2017, we should have some feel for the initial areas the council may address.
We will always have a need to be proactive in soliciting input from our members and leaders. We have set up a dedicated email address (click HERE), which is available to members to send their concerns, their ideas, and their thoughts on what is concerning them regarding the regulatory and certifying bodies that govern them on a day-to-day basis.
8. What can members expect from FPA’s advocacy efforts in 2017, specifically as they relate to the DOL fiduciary rule?
Certainly, the work FPA and the Financial Planning Coalition have done over the last year has been dominated by the DOL Conflict of Interest Rule and we have provided a lot of content and resources for members this year around that. However, there is still a lot left to be done as the DOL recently came out with their first round of FAQs and we are getting closer to the first-phase implementation in April 2017.
As we get closer to April, you will see FPA continue to push, from an advocacy and leadership standpoint, for more information about practical guidelines to assist our members and their firms in being compliant.
9. You began your career in financial services in 1991 as a bank officer, and you transitioned to financial planning in 1998. How has that early experience influenced you as a planner?
It had a tremendous influence on me. I actually started working for a bank prior to 1991; I started two months after I graduated from high school. Two years later, I was promoted and became an officer of the bank. So at a very young age I was thrust into dealing with money and experiencing how clients saw money. I was able to see both the physical part of money and the behavioral side of money. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was planting a seed for me later in life.
I stayed with that bank for 10 years and thought I was going to be a banker the rest of my life. While I was working there, I was attending the University of Illinois and took many courses in financial planning. At the bank, I saw so many aspects of money—how people were spending it, saving it, cashing checks, depositing money, getting loans, etc. I learned through that collision of work, taking these courses in college, and being introduced to the CFP® designation, that I wanted to pursue a career as a financial planner and have a much broader relationship around money and clients.
My early bank experience dealing with the physicality and the behavioral aspects of money really influenced my perspective today. It rooted in me a belief in the importance of financial life-planning that I still embrace today. I learned the perspective that money is embedded in all of our lives in so many different ways, and I got to see that at a very young age.
10. As a leader in the financial planning profession, what is your hope for the future of the profession?
I firmly believe that FPA has and must continue to play a critical role in advancing the profession of financial planning. It is a core element of our primary aim. Advancing to me has two components: (1) spreading the message of what financial planning truly is to the world; and (2) becoming a regulated and recognized profession.
I believe there have been strides made on both fronts, however there is a lot we can still do. We collectively need to be zealots for what financial planning is as a distinct, holistic, process-driven field. As the largest membership organization of financial planners and CFP® professionals, we carry a strong and loud voice with our elected officials in advocating for the right regulation for the profession of financial planning.
My hope, therefore, is that FPA will remain vigilant in this endeavor, continue to strengthen relationships with partners who share this vision, and make even greater strides over this critical time. As a leader in FPA and the profession, I take great pride and responsibility to be one of the leading ambassadors in this advancement.
Carly Schulaka is editor of the Journal. Contact her HERE.