Journal of Financial Planning: January 2019
Evelyn Zohlen on the OneFPA Network, Career-Changers, and Niche Practices
WHO: Evelyn Zohlen, CFP®
WHAT: Founder and president of Inspired Financial; 2019 FPA president
WHAT'S ON HER MIND: “We [as planners] are working on strategies that may be years in the making, and that doesn’t mean they’re any less important or any less satisfying.”
1.In November, FPA unveiled a new vision for its future called the OneFPA Network. How do you describe this transformational goal?
The Financial Planning Association operates in an incredibly competitive landscape, and as an organization that’s entering its 20th year of existence, we must continue to evolve if we’re going to remain vibrant and valuable to our members.
What we do as a membership association is too important to be satisfied with a 20th century association model. Our primary aim is to elevate the profession that transforms lives—the lives of our members, the lives of their clients, and lives in our communities at large. With the OneFPA Network, we’re moving toward a 21st century association model that better leverages the collective wisdom of our volunteers and the operational efficiency of our integrated systems.
For the first time ever, our chapter leaders will have a direct say in the strategic direction and decision-making of our organization. At the same time, they will be empowered to focus more fully than ever before on creating an exceptional member experience within their chapters through improved data and less administrative work. By better integrating our organization and aligning our programs, events, and communications, we will multiply the efforts of our chapter leaders and volunteers.
2.What do you see as the biggest challenge to the OneFPA Network, and how will FPA meet that challenge?
I’ve been on the chapter listening tour and the media tour, and what I am hearing is, “This seems like it’s got potential, but the details matter,” and, “I’ve been hopeful about change in the past and I was disappointed.”
The challenge is to define those details and deliver on the promise and the potential of the OneFPA Network fast enough to satisfy our volunteer leaders and members who see the value of the change but are skeptical about its possibility.
We’re meeting the challenge of making sure that the details are shaped by volunteers across the organization by spending three months on a listening tour. From mid-November through the end of February, we will have a conversation with every chapter and community to ask, “What do you think?” This isn’t window-dressing! We’ll collect, assess, and adjust the details of the OneFPA Network based on the feedback we receive from this listening tour.
To meet the second challenge of delivering on the promise and the potential on a timely basis, once we have the listening tour feedback, dozens of chapter leaders and executives will be working to update and implement the strategy, so our volunteer leaders and members can see progress. We have an ambitious timeline but also want to be sure folks are informed along the way so they’re comfortable with how things are progressing and have a say in refining the details as we move along.
3.What is the biggest opportunity created by the OneFPA Network? How will FPA realize that opportunity?
The biggest opportunity is to further empower our volunteers, enhance the membership experience of our members, and elevate the profession. When all those things happen, we—as a membership association—will be stronger, more relevant, and more vibrant than ever before.
The way we realize the opportunity of empowering our volunteers and enhancing our member experience is through the two pillars of the OneFPA Network. Participatory governance fully empowers our volunteers to guide the strategic direction of FPA. Centralized functionality is going to allow those volunteers to spend more time focused on those things that bring greatest value to our members and less on operational issues.
4.What impact do you hope to have on FPA during your term as president?
I’m one person. I’m a link in the chain of a long succession of FPA presidents who all gave their very best to continue to move our profession forward and elevate our members. And I want to be a strong link in that chain.
I believe so strongly in the evolution of our organization and that the OneFPA Network is the direction that is going to allow us to remain vibrant and invaluable, that I hope my impact is to inspire that same excitement, enthusiasm, and commitment among all our volunteer leaders, members, and staff.
I also hope to raise our diversity and inclusivity efforts to a whole new level. I want to build on the excellent work that Frank Paré has done in raising awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusivity in our profession and provide our volunteers and members fresh ways to create a more diverse financial planning workforce and serve a more diverse group of clients.
5.Prior to entering the financial planning profession, you served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force. Have you applied any skills you learned in that role to your work as a financial planner?
Actually, I have. When I was in the Air Force as an intelligence officer, my role was to take raw information from a variety of sources, analyze it to create a picture of the current situation, and then craft solutions and strategies for decision-makers to select to accomplish a goal. That is not so different than being a financial planner. I was surprised that there is a fair amount of overlap.
There were two specific skills I learned in that role that I’ve applied to financial planning. One was on the analytical side. As an intel officer, information could come from a wide variety of sources and sometimes from places you would not expect. I learned to not discount any tidbit of information—regardless of the source—when trying to create or analyze the whole picture. That is a lesson that transfers well to financial planning.
Sometimes our left brains kick in, and we’re all about the numbers, the tax strategies, the financial projections. Those are important parts of analyzing a client’s situation, but sitting with them over a cup of coffee and talking about what’s important to them, who’s important to them, and how they’re feeling also provides invaluable “raw data” critical for creating a full picture. The lesson is do not discount any source of information.
The second is that intelligence operations are often a long game. You’re recommending a strategy that may take years to come to fruition, and you need to be okay with that. That takes a level of vision for the future that can be frustrating in the now because we want action; we want to see results immediately. Warren Buffett once said: “Somebody is sitting under a tree today because somebody planted a seed a long time ago.”
This same patience for the end goal is important as a financial planner. We are working on strategies that may be years in the making, and that doesn’t mean they’re any less important or any less satisfying.
6.What advice do you have for career-changers who are just starting out in financial planning?
I have two pieces of advice. The first is to do what I did: immediately join your professional membership association, FPA, so you are surrounded by a community of like-minded people to support you and cheer you on.
The second is a more personal bit of advice, and something that I had to do, too. As you’re coming into the profession, you may encounter some resistance—perhaps in your own mind, and perhaps among other planners—because you have no financial planning experience. You may have to help other planners see the benefit that you bring to the table.
Only you, as the career-changer, know what those specific skills or experiences are that you have that directly apply in a financial planning environment. You will have to help translate those for your potential employer because they may not be able to see how incredibly valuable your unique skills would be to them.
7.You are founder and president of Inspired Financial, a wealth management firm that specializes in serving women in transition. What led you to focus your practice in this way?
There’s a professional and personal component to this. Professionally, I bought another financial planning practice in 2005 and merged it into my own. A wide variety of clients came as part of that acquisition. After a couple of years of transitioning that business and getting to know the clients, I looked around and had a soul-searching moment: “Is this what we want it to look like going forward?”
We retained a coach/consultant to help us reflect on: is this who we want to serve, and is this what we want to be doing for them? From that, we made the decision to narrow our focus to serving women in transition, predominantly widows and divorcees, with the focus on deep-dive, truly holistic financial planning. We’re going to divorce attorney meetings with our clients. We’re attending funerals with our clients. We’re doing all kinds of things that normally don’t fall under “financial planning” but are valuable for our clients, nonetheless.
On the personal side, I experienced my own transition. Even as a woman in the financial planning profession, I found myself in a position where I was unable to think through all the decisions and options available to me. As a result, I made choices that left me worse off than I needed to be. If this was happening to me and I’m in the business, what about all those women who have much less familiarity and experience with financial decision-making? I decided it shouldn’t happen to anyone else.
8.You have a deep résumé of volunteer and advocacy work in the financial planning profession (and beyond). What words of encouragement can you offer your peers who want to get involved, but don’t know where to start or are afraid to commit?
My recommendation is to check with FPA for inspiration and answers. If you don’t know where to start, there is a world of engagement opportunities through FPA.
What brings you joy? What makes your heart sing? Where do you find the greatest satisfaction? Would you like to do pro bono planning for women at a battered women’s shelter? Would you like to teach the financial literacy badge for the local Boy Scouts? Would you like to organize a career event for new planners? Do an internal check on what you love, then use that as your starting point.
That can lead to: “I know what I’d like to do, but I don’t have that much bandwidth, and I’m afraid of over-committing.” Good news! There are volunteer opportunities for as little or as much time as you’d like, and your local FPA chapter would love to plug you in for whatever you’d like to do, for however long you’d like to do it.
9. Is financial planning adequately recognized as a true profession, or do you feel there is work that still needs to be done?
Unfortunately, financial planning still is not adequately recognized as a true profession and there’s significant work that still needs to be done. It’s discouraging, and it can be helpful to remember this is not a sprint; this is a marathon.
There are mile posts along the way that we still need to achieve to be recognized as a true profession. Some of those mile posts are precision around what financial planning is, and what it is not; clarity around the standard of care that a client can expect to receive (kudos to CFP Board for their bold step here); and agreement regarding what the requirements are to be a financial planner. Another mile post is legislative and regulatory structure to provide guardrails for the profession. There’s progress, but we’re not there yet, which is why it is so important for the Financial Planning Association and like-minded organizations to continue this quest.
10.Speaking of marathons, I hear you are a marathoner. What’s your favorite race?
It’s a little difficult to pick a favorite, but I can narrow it down to two. The first is running the Marine Corps Marathon with all three of my children and my husband. All five of us ran the race and finished it together; it was an exceptional experience!
Then there was the time that Mark [Prendergast] and I ran a marathon in Bordeaux, France, in costume and had 23 grand cru wine tastings along the race route. That was pretty good, too, #understatementofthecentury.