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Suggested Study Group topics, articles, and resources: ​
 

December 2024: Estate Planning

1. COVER STORY: Flaum shares several approaches planners can take to ensure clients’ estate planning wishes are protected even when there is an estranged family member working against them. Have you ever had to navigate family estrangement in financial planning? What would you do differently if faced with a similar situation today?  
2. ESTATE PLANNING FEATURE: Kirchenbauer outlines some of the client misconceptions that prevent those who don’t have children or obvious heirs from beginning their estate planning. Are any of these strategies applicable for your current clients, whether they have heirs or not? How have you helped clients who resisted this type of planning?  
3. DIGITAL ASSETS COLUMN: Johnson explains differences between three of the biggest alt coins on the market and use cases. Are there other use cases you can imagine that would be helpful to clients and investors? Are there opportunities for you to provide more value to your clients related to these types of investments? 
4. NGP FEATURE ARTICLE: Mejia and Finkelman explain that some clients may view aspects of sustainable investing as important personal values while others only want to consider them as far as they affect investment risk. How do these differing viewpoints affect your approach to investment management to give clients the best chance of meeting their financial and personal objectives?  
5. SPECIAL REPORT: McQuarrie argues that a TIPS ladder combined with a life annuity is a superior option to hedge longevity risk than either tool on their own when inflation is at a moderate level. Do you agree with this assessment? What other factors should you take into consideration when determining a recommendation for a client concerned about inflation risk? 

November 2024: Serving a Diverse Community

1. COVER STORY: Hull describes seven strategies for incorporating gender lens investing into your planning strategy. Do any of these strategies align with the work you’re already doing for your clients? How might these strategies be applied to other areas to identify new opportunities for your clients? 
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Colston describes the benefits of delegation and three groups that planners can delegate tasks to. What categories of tasks in your current workload can you delegate to each of these groups? Are there drawbacks or unintended consequences that you need to be prepared for?  
3. SERVING MILITARY CLIENTS: Stueve described some of the unique challenges and benefits associated with financial planning for military clients and their families. What strategies can you use to best serve a client couple with a military and a non-military spouse? How is that planning different for a civilian client couple?  
4. LEADERSHIP: Kay explains that people are hardwired to focus on negative feedback over positive feedback and offers suggestions to overcome this inherent trait. What can you do to deliver feedback more effectively? How would your approach differ with a supervisor compared to an employee who reports to you?  
5. RESEARCH: Timmerman and Mattia found that cultural and social explanations for the scarcity of female advisers aren’t as impactful as things like autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Do male sole practitioners have a role to play in making the financial planning profession more representative of the general population? If so, what does that role look like?  
    

October 2024: Tax Planning

1. COVER STORY: Lazaroff offers several strategies for addressing risks associated with stock portfolios that are overly allocated to a specific stock. How do you approach diversifying these holdings while balancing the need to minimize tax liabilities? What strategies have you found most effective in deferring or reducing taxes? How do you navigate the potential trade-offs between tax efficiency and investment risk?
2. REGULATORY FEATURE: Parlapiano outlined potential ramifications of two recent SCOTUS rulings on the financial planning profession. Do you agree with his assessment? How do you anticipate Loper Bright and SEC v. Jarkesy will impact financial advisers, particularly in relation to the DOL fiduciary rule and noncompete contracts? Is the Supreme Court’s preference for plain-written rules appropriate and feasible in financial planning?
3. TAX PLANNING COLUMN: Thornton outlines various scenarios that impact a client’s utilization of the Section 121 exclusion. What are some creative applications of this exclusion among your own client base, especially if you have high-net-worth clients or those who may face multiple home sales over time? What other tax considerations need to be balanced with this strategy?
4. ESTATE PLANNING COLUMN: Haughton explains one of the challenges in allocating business and non-business-related assets to beneficiaries is establishing equitable shares for multiple beneficiaries when some will not be part of the business. What are some ways planners can help clients who want heirs to inherit equally?
5. FINTECH COLUMN: Weiss shares areas that are good places to start for planners who want to leverage machine learning. In which of these areas can you begin using your current tech stack more effectively? Are there other areas in your practice where you can take a technological approach to solve a problem? Where is an analog or human touch still the most effective tool? 

September 2024: Longevity and Long-Term Care Planning

1. NGP SKILL BUILDER: McManus argues the most important thing that new planners can do to build their business is to build strong relationships with clients. She shares ideas to help planners engage with clients beyond the financial planning environment. What other ideas can you implement to develop a closer connection with clients? Is there a way for you to segment different strategies for different types of clients?
2. CAREGIVING: Miura describes her experience acting as a caregiver and shares ways that planners can be of service to their clients in similar situations. How can you begin to implement these strategies in your client service? Are there other ways you can help your clients prepare for a role as a caregiver?
3. WELL-BEING: Statman describes how a client’s well-being can be viewed similarly to a portfolio, with different domains providing different returns, much like some asset classes better than others. Do you have clients whose well-being in one domain or another is not performing well? Are there actions you can take to support them in improving that well-being? Is it appropriate to do so?
4. LONGEVITY: Heye argues that ageism and cognitive decline are two major obstacles to your clients’ self-sufficiency in their later years. Have you seen situations like this play out? How might these specific challenges influence your own clients’ planning needs?
5. RESEARCH: McQuarrie conducts a net present value analysis of a Roth conversion when future tax rates are unknown. What strategies can planners adopt to help clients assess whether a Roth conversion is appropriate, especially when the payoff may not fully occur for 20 or 30 years, and future tax rates remain unpredictable?
    

August 2024: Serving Business Owners

1. VOICE: Nippani, Lubiani, and Garrett share ways that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rule regarding medical debt on credit reports could impact planning recommendations they make to their clients. If passed, how would your clients be affected? What are the unintended consequences of the rule?  
2. COVER STORY: Turner explains how the beneficial ownership reporting regulation can impact clients even if they are not business owners. How many of your clients are likely to be impacted without realizing? What steps are you taking to help them? 
3. ESOPs: Toribio del Pilar outlines how to implement a Section 1042 ESOP transaction to help a business owner client defer long-term capital gains from selling their business. DO you have clients who would benefit from this strategy? What other steps must be taken before it can be implemented? 
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Rice suggests several ways planners can condition themselves to condition themselves to help grieving clients with empathy and respect. How have you helped grieving clients in the past? What would you do differently to provide more support or have more successful interactions? 
5. RESEARCH: Given the prevalence of robo-advisers in the financial services industry, how can financial planners better educate their clients about what these tools can and cannot do for them? How can planners best integrate a robo-adviser to enhance the service level they offer their clients while maintaining trust in the planner and the advice they provide?  

July 2024: Retirement Planning

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: The Foundation for Financial Planning found pro bono work provides planners with opportunities to develop skills that benefit their careers and the firms they work for. Do you agree with these findings? What opportunities do you have in your practice to engage in pro bono work? 
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: An effective operational continuity plan needs to be updated regularly and communicated to staff, Colton writes. If you are responsible for your firm’s operations, what steps are you taking to make sure your continuity plan can mitigate the effects of disruptive events? If you do not have any responsibility for the plan, how familiar are you with your firm’s plan and your role and responsibility as a stakeholder in it? What can you do to proactively engage with firm leaders and prepare for disasters?
3. RETIREMENT PLANNING: As of 2024, 529 account owners can roll up to $35,000 of 529 funds, subject to annual limitations, to a Roth IRA to cover retirement expenses without incurring the 10 percent penalty for non-qualified withdrawals or creating additional taxable income. How has this changed your approach to helping clients prioritize their planning objectives? 
4. MARKETING: Fedusenko describes ways to hone in more closely on a niche you want to serve and how to advertise more effectively to them. How does your ideal client currently find you? Are there steps you can take to more clearly define that client niche and reach out to them more effectively?
5. LONGEVITY: Heye argues that retirement is a relatively young concept and that humans are inherently bad at long-term planning. What differences have you observed in clients from different generations when you discuss retirement planning? How are their beliefs and priorities impacted by cognitive biases like the ones outlined in the column? 

June 2024: Trends in Investing

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: Kothakota describes how to value of a particular professional designation might change over time as planners’ experience and needs evolve. What factors are most important to you in determining the value of a particular designation? What do you think is most important to your clients and prospects? 
2. COVER STORY: Paglia argues that individual investors and their financial planners should consider incorporating private investments into their portfolio by increasing their allocation to 10% or more. What factors should be considered in determining the optimal allocation to private investments, and how can diversification benefits be maximized while managing associated risks?
3. ESG INVESTING: Lazaroff argues that an investment-led ESG strategy, as opposed to a client-led strategy that prioritizes individual values and desired social outcomes, allows investment professionals to design ESG portfolios that appeal to a broader audience without needing to be customized for each individual client. How would you start designing such a strategy? What factors would take priority and how would you assess them? How would your own values direct your decision making?
4. REAL ESTATE: Adams noted one direct impact of climate change on clients’ retirement relates to decisions about where they will live. In your discussions with clients about their futures, have you taken into consideration things like location and weather? Do you have clients who are more likely to be impacted by climate than others?
5. TAX PLANNING COLUMN: Thornton describes the differences between simple and complex trusts and how they impact the way beneficiaries’ income is determined and taxed. What processes can you implement to ensure you’re collaborating effectively with tax preparers and attorneys to ensure proper management and taxation of irrevocable trusts? How does your role as the planner evolve when you’re collaborating with those partners? 

May 2024: Financial Wellness and Well-being

1. COVER STORY: VanderPal and Brazie describe ways to create a calming environment conducive to clients’ well-being. Consider your office space from your clients’ perspective: how might internal or external features affect their state of being when they visit you? Are there ways to adopt the tenets of polyvagal theory and neuroception in virtual meetings?  
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Peller, Colston, and Opitz encourage planners to focus on tried-and-true practices that have already helped them grow in their careers. What are the fundamental business activities that got you where you are today? How can you improve on those activities?  
3. PSYCHOLOGY OF FINANCIAL PLANNING: Cherry writes that some segments of planners feel that focusing on psychological aspects of financial planning is beyond their scope as financial planners. Do you have clients who share that feeling? Given that the CFP® Board includes psychology of financial planning as one of its principal knowledge topics, how should financial planners balance a quantitative approach with one that takes into account nonfinancial aspects of a client’s well-being?  
4. LONGEVITY: Heye notes that physical and behavioral wellness can be more difficult to attain as clients get older. How have you seen this play out among your clients? What can you do to help your clients reassess what “well” means for them over time?  
5. RESEARCH: Smith tested generative AI platforms’ ability to respond cogently to financial planning questions and found several problems with the way the models interpreted prompts and with the answers they provided. What are your concerns regarding consumer use of AI for financial questions? What is the planner’s role in minimizing harm to consumers and clients? What other stakeholders should be part of the conversation?   

April 2024: Ethics and the Profession

1. COVER STORY: Presler describes scenarios where a client’s family members might not be the right people to call on if the client begins to show signs of diminished capacity. What strategies can you employ to protect clients with cognitive decline if they don’t have reliable family support? How might you approach these conversations with the client?  
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Colston lays out ideas for planners to engage their children. What strategies are you employing to bring in younger clients? How successful are those strategies?  
3. LEADERSHIP: Kay describes how constant negative self-critique can have a limiting effect on individuals. How often do you engage in self-doubt? Do you have a process for breaking out of that negative cycle?  
4. FINTECH: Fava argues that human oversight alone may not be sufficient to ensure AI is used ethically, noting that human oversight contributed to the biased data sets that led to racist output. How do you think AI can be adopted ethically? What can we learn from earlier technologies?  
5. RESEARCH: Collier, Anderson, Carroll, and McCoy found that planners are more likely than clients to believe virtual financial planning meetings are more productive than in-person meetings. How can financial planners strategically address this potential mismatch? How would you go about determining your clients’ true preferences and meeting them if they are misaligned with your own?  

March 2024: College Planning

1. COVER STORY: Gardner, Welch, and Vincent describe tax deductions and fringe benefits that may be available to help clients offset or cover the cost of education related to their work. Can you employ this strategy with any of your clients? Do you have business-owner clients who might benefit from extending these offerings to their employees?  
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Breitenbach shared a detailed example of an onboarding workflow for new clients. How does this compare to your own onboarding process? Are there steps you could add or remove to make it more suitable to your firm?  
3. CLIENT COMMUNICATION: Mejia shared conversation starters to help planners talk to clients’ children about college aspirations. If you’ve engaged your clients’ college-bound children, how successful was the conversation? How did you measure your success? What did you learn about working with this next generation of client?  
4. WORKING WITH WIDOWS: Armstrong cautions planners not to view widows as a homogenous group who share all the same reactions and feelings about losing a spouse. How can you tailor your approach to ensure a widowed client’s needs are being met? How would your process differ for a client you have an established relationship with compared to a prospective or new client?  
5. RESEARCH: Eckert and McCoy introduce customized default savings rates as a way to nudge retirement plan participants into better savings behaviors. How might this work in practice? Does this avoid being overly paternalistic to participants? 

February 2024: Fintech

1. COVER STORY: Orange describes how planners of the future need well-rounded skill sets of technical and interpersonal skills. How do you see advanced technology affecting the highly individualized and personal nature of financial planning relationships?
2. FEATURE: Baxley describes a client who was victimized by the “phantom hacker” scam. As the tools available to hackers get more sophisticated, are you developing detailed standards and practices to address these types of attacks? Have you had clients who have been victimized by cyber fraud? What warning signs were there, and how did you help them recover?
3. COLUMN: Heye describes how technological advances in fields outside of financial planning, such as healthcare and transportation, could impact clients’ lives in a way that planners need to be prepared for. What other examples can you think of where consumer technologies impact financial strategies?
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Smith and Smith argue that most people won't live long enough past their life expectancy to justify delaying claiming Social Security benefits and suggest the most relevant criteria for when to begin claims is the starting age that maximizes the present value of lifetime Social Security benefits. Do you agree with this assessment? How does this change the way you assess Social Security claiming strategies for your clients?
5. RESEARCH: MIT researchers found that expectations for a particular person to be part of a client’s long-term care team do not necessarily mean the client had communicated their care expectations to that person. Have you seen this reluctance to communicate among your own clients? How can you support your clients in having these conversations so that their long-term care expectations are appropriate?

January 2024: Behavioral Finance

1. COVER STORY: Kothakota and Wery outline how to design a single-case intervention to help a client increase their savings rate. Do you have a client who would benefit from and be interested in this type of intervention? How would you design an intervention for them?  
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Opitz describes how planners need to be intentional and serve clients partners and family members as part of their client segmentation strategy. Are there other segments where you could be doing more outreach? Which of the big six segments that he outlines are contributing the most to your firm’s success or your satisfaction? 
3. COMMENTARY: Lynn argues that blockchain may be as disruptive to the economy and culture as the internet. Do you agree?  
4. COLUMN: Fava explained how for some clients, certain stocks or investments are important because of their feelings surrounding them, not necessarily their potential to help meet their financial goals. Have you had clients who resisted a good investment recommendation because of their feelings about the company? How did you handle their reluctance? What worked about your approach? 
5. SPECIAL REPORT: The authors illustrate several types of intentional and accidental self-disclosure. Can you think of times when you’ve made these types of disclosures? What signs do you have that the disclosure was helpful or harmful?  

December 2023: Insurance Planning

1. NGP SKILL BUILDER: McManus encourages planners to view their clients as more than just one person, but as part of a family. What processes do you have in place to identify the people who will be impacted by a client’s decisions and to make sure those impacts are in line with what the client wants?
2. COVER STORY: In speaking with financial planners who have advised clients on LTCI policies with rate increases, the authors learned that planners tend to recommend their clients maintain their current policy and pay a higher rate, acknowledging that there’s no blanket recommendation a planner can offer. How would you approach the decision-making process to help your clients if they were to receive a rate increase notice? What steps would you take to make sure you and the client have the right information needed to decide the best path forward?
3. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Harrington shared a list of questions for planners to consider as they reflect on their development this year. Are there any questions on the list that you don’t have a satisfying answer for? What can you do differently to feel more confident about your progress next year?
4. COLUMN: Armstrong described six types of loss that a client might face. Each of these types of loss might require a different approach to make sure the clients gets what they need. What can you do to help clients prepare for change or face unexpected change?
5. RESEARCH: McQuarrie argues that the widow tax hit is an unfounded fear for clients, whose concerns can be soothed by focusing on income planning instead of obsessing over tax rates. Have you had to coach clients through this particular fear? What strategies worked to redirect their focus to more productive conversations and actions?

November 2023: Serving a Diverse Community

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: Tucker cautions planners not to make assumptions about clients’ physical abilities based on age, and offers suggestions for easing communication for people with hearing loss that also make it easier for anyone to communicate. Are there things you can change in your office or your processes that would make it easier for people with disabilities to feel welcome and comfortable working with you? How do those changes help your wider client base?  
2. COVER STORY: Nadworny and Nadworny note that planning with clients whose children have disabilities that severely impact their independence is planning for two generations. They illustrate how to use various accounts to provide financially for these children. What other factors would you integrate into a plan to ensure the clients’ children were cared for after their parents’ passing?  
3. COLUMN: Fortin and Martin describe five awareness-based practices advisers can adopt to be more mindful in their communication efforts. How might you adopt any of these practices? Do you have other habits that help you check-in on your well-being? Do you have clients who would benefit from these practices? 
4. COLUMN: David DeVoe describes four dimensions across which planners need to prepare their successors to take over their firms. If you are a firm owner, what work do you still need to do to get your successors ready? If you are being considered for a leadership role, what can you do to proactively improve your skills in these areas?  
5. RESEARCH: Christopher Duquette retests William Bengen’s pivotal 4 Percent Rule using data from the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, noting that it’s more suitable for a retirement portfolio analysis than Treasury bond yield data because those yields are for newly purchased bonds. How do his findings affect the way you conduct portfolio analysis for your retired and retiring clients?  

October 2023: Tax Planning

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: Kothakota and Lutter note that auditory communication, more than visual or written, is key to seeming capable to clients and building connections. How does that impact the frequency or style of communication you use with clients?   
2. COVER STORY: Kirk details tax planning considerations for clients who are U.S. citizens living in other countries. What other factors do these types of clients need to consider when deciding whether to move abroad?  
3. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Opitz describes several sources where firm leaders can get inspiration for business ideas to use in their practice. Where have you found ideas that you’ve implemented successfully in your practice? Where else can you look for new strategies and tools?  
4. COLUMN: Fedusenko describes five types of drip campaigns planners can use to connect with prospects. Have you implemented any of these strategies in your marketing campaign? What have you learned from these campaigns about what works and what doesn’t?  
5. COLUMN: Herzberg and Schwartz explain why young people shouldn’t put off estate planning as a task for when they’re older. How do you help clients get comfortable talking about difficult subjects?  
    

September 2023: Regulatory/Fiduciary Update

1. NGP LEAD: Demers warned planners against measuring their success against other advisers. What are your personal metrics for success? What goals have you set, and how are you tracking your progress? 
2. NGP SKILL BUILDER: McManus described a method for improving sales skills that incorporates a point system for specific tasks. What activities can you start tracking in your current workflows? What activities do you need to add to develop your skills?   
3. COVER STORY: Coughlin and Turiano describe how cryptocurrencies sometimes function as commodities or securities, potentially making them the purview of different regulators depending on how specific investment products are designed. How would classification affect your use of cryptocurrency products in client portfolios?  
4. COLUMN: How would an instant payment service like FedNow impact your clients? How will it impact banking and the broader financial services industry? 
5. RESEARCH: Reiter, Qing, and Nations found that social media users were far more likely to view investing as a source of entertainment or excitement. Have you seen this effect among your own clients? How does it impact the way you discuss investments?  
    

August 2023: Marketing

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: Hollers described 3 client profiles who would benefit from a subscription model. Do you have existing clients in these profiles who would benefit from a change in your fee structure? Are there other client profiles that would be a good fit for regular automatic payments for advisory services? 
2. COVER STORY: Among the attributes Phillips lists as key to organic growth for firm owners is the understanding that they can't do everything in their firms. If you're a firm leader, what tasks are you currently responsible for that could be delegated to someone else? Would doing so require you to hire a new position or train a current member of staff?  
3. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Peller offers ways to cultivate a personal brand as part of your professional persona. How would you describe your personal brand today? Is that how others see you? If not, how would you go about changing that? 
4. COLUMN: DeVoe offered 5 practices firm leaders should undertake to ensure there are candidates for a successor within their firm. How would you rate your readiness in each of these practices? Are there steps you can take today to improve your performance in any of these categories? 
5. RESEARCH: Anderson and Lawson found that high achievers were more likely to accept greater risk in their investments. Have you seen this play out among your current clients? How does this finding affect the way you have discussions about risk with your clients? 

July 2023: Retirement

1. COVER STORY: Haas and Mahaney pointed out the difficulty that many clients have transitioning from saving to spending when they retire. Haas suggested helping clients do a “test drive” before they stop working. What would a test drive look for your current clientele? What are some other things you can do to help clients prepare emotionally for transitioning from a saving to a spending mindset?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Breitenbach suggests planners who are uncomfortable asking for referrals come up with a new internal language that redefines what they do as personal connection. What is your internal language when describing what you do?
3. FEATURE: Martin and Fortin explain that a register is the collection of norms, values, systems, and language used by a society. How do you view the register of the United States? Where does financial planning sit in that register? Are there other communities you’re a part of that have their own unique register?
4. COLUMN: Kay explains how forecasting error and comfort drive prevent clients from acting in their best interests, and offers tips for helping overly anxious or overly indulgent clients rebalance their perspectives. Have you used any of these strategies with clients? How did they respond? How might you adjust these strategies to work with your current clientele?
5. SPECIAL REPORT: The authors argue that planners have a fiduciary responsibility to advise their clients on disability insurance but acknowledge that it might not be appropriate for some clients. How have you broached the subject with your clients? Are there other strategies that can help protect against loss of income during disability that may be more affordable or easier to implement?
6. RESEARCH: Although more complex, Estrada argues that considering the distribution of successful coverage ratios for optimal withdrawal strategies is more beneficial than trying to maximize or minimize one target variable. How would you implement coverage ratios in as defined by Estrada and your assessment of clients’ retirement withdrawal strategies?

June 2023: Trends in Investing

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: Jorden told a story of how to use narrative to explain financial concepts or guide client behavior. How have you used storytelling to illustrate ideas for your clients? Are there other areas of financial planning where you can use narrative effectively?  
2. COVER STORY: Hodari contested private debt’s categorization as an “alternative” investment. Do you agree with his assessment? Are there other asset classes that are collectively seen as being more traditional or alternative that you feel are misclassed?  
3. FEATURE: Martin challenged financial planners to envision how climate change will potentially impact client portfolios or financial well-being. StateFarm announced in May that it will no longer accept homeowners insurance applications for California properties. Are there other examples of climate change having a near-term impact on clients’ financial well-being? How are you preparing your firm or your clients to address potential future impacts?  
4. FEATURE: Ludwig and Bennetts outlined some of the benefits and limitations of using ChatGPT for first drafts on some client communications. Have you adopted this technology in your practice? How is it different from or similar to using templates?  
5. RESEARCH: Young illustrated how a client’s heirs’ financial situations can complicate equitable divisions of bequests. How have you addressed the topic of fairness with your clients? How do their perspectives differ from each other’s or your own? 

May 2023: Serving Business Owners

1. NGP LEAD ARTICLE: Haughton reminds planners that they can educate their clients as much as they can but ultimately their clients’ priorities and goals are what matters. If you had a client who didn't want to take advice that made financial sense because it competed with an emotional goal, how would you handle it?
2. COVER STORY: Gardner and Welch outlined many of the changes that the SECURE 2.0 Act made that impact small businesses’ tax strategies and retirement planning. Which of these changes have the biggest impact on your clients? How are you educating them about changes they should consider in the financial plans?
3. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Rose suggests job shadowing and role play as a way for planners to develop client relationship skills. What are some ways you could incorporate these strategies into your practice? If you're a new planner, how would you approach a more experienced adviser with these requests?
4. FEATURE ARTICLE: Rule changes around how amateur athletes are compensated when their name, image, and likeness are used for profit represent an opportunity for planners who serve clients with student athletes in their families. How many of your clients are parents of college-bound athletes? How do these changes impact clients’ children's financial situation? Can you expand service to the parents or begin serving the children more directly?
5. RESEARCH: McQuarrie and DiLellio refute the conventional wisdom that future tax rates must be higher for a Roth conversion to pay off. How do the equations in the paper affect the way you approach conversions with requirements?

April 2023: Ethics

1. Q&A: Kemp argues that a lot of conversations about professional ethics focus on the minimum acceptable standards without imagining how individuals can do more than the minimum. Do you have your own personal code of ethics? How do you communicate it to clients and peers?
2. NGP FEATURED ARTICLE: Terpstra gave seven ideas for new planners to develop skills and communicate their desire for a leadership role with lead advisers. Is there anything you
3. COVER STORY: Bearden illustrated examples of conflicts of interests that financial planners might face in their careers. What conflicts have you had to deal with as a planner, and how did you handle them? Looking back, is there something you would you have done differently?
4. COLUMN: Experience contributes to ethical decision making, according to Kay. How can lead advisers model ethical behavior for others in their firms?
5. SPECIAL REPORT: Planners bring their own biases to client relationships, which can lead to stereotypes about a particular client’s facility with money, according to Gillo, Varani, Pearson, and McCoy. What steps can you take to adjust your expectations when helping a client with negative self-perception?
6. RESEARCH: Cheng, Guo, Gibson, and Sam found that frequent social media communication during the 2020 COVID-19 market crisis helped RIA's keep their clients invested. How does your client communication plan accommodate different client segments’ preferred methods of communicating?

March 2023: College Planning

Journal of Financial Planning and Next Generation Planner (NGP)

1. Q&A: Adam Minsky encourages financial planners to be careful about weighing the tradeoffs between refinancing student loans for a better interest rate and losing access to debt forgiveness programs and initiatives associated with federal student loans. What factors would you consider when evaluating that tradeoff? 
2. NGP FEATURED ARTICLE: Networking is about community and mutually shared benefits, according to Gretchen Halpin. What communities are you a part of where you can give and receive referrals that provide value for your peers? How might that value look different in different communities you're a part of? 
3. COVER STORY: Clients who value higher education could accumulate significant assets in five to nine plans. David Oh describes how these types of plans can be leveraged into wealth transfer tools. Do you have clients who would benefit from these strategies? Would this change your recommendation of how to fund these accounts for qualified educational expenses? 
4. FEATURE: Randy Gardner and Julie Welch break down the SECURE 2.0 Act’s changes into a bulleted list. How are you prioritizing these changes and how they impact each of your clients?  
5. RESEARCH: David Hulse found a tradeoff between a higher expected value and lower uncertainty of after-tax accumulation of a Roth account. How does this affect your discussions with clients about contribution decisions? How would you mitigate the higher uncertainty or lower expected accumulation of the decision?  

February 2023: Divorce Planning

Journal of Financial Planning 

1. COVER STORY: Locus notes that divorce is “often a series of least-worst decisions.” What tools can you use to help divorcing clients stay focused when they may be inclined to act emotionally? Are there other ways you can support clients who are trying to decide between undesirable options? 
2. FEATURE: Fortin and Martin describe how to do a “sound check” to check in with yourself. What practices do you have to assess your well-being and address problems? Is there a way to integrate those practices into your operations to benefit employees and clients?  
3. COLUMN: Heye outlines a model to help design a response plan for when clients suffer a health event. How many of these elements have you already discussed with your clients? Are there other aspects of a client’s well-being that should be addressed as part of this plan?  
4. COLUMN: Lim and Sommer offer suggestions for financial planners to evaluate their need for errors and omissions insurance. Have you conducted a risk assessment of your own practice to determine your needs? How might an incident impact the various stakeholders in your practice, including employees and clients?  
5. RESEARCH: Ludwig, Heckman, and McCoy found that Black respondents were more likely than White respondents to use nonprofessional sources for financial information. How might this impact the way you communicate with prospective clients? Are there opportunities to reach out to new communities for your practice?  

Next Generation Planner 

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Sloan explains how planners need to combine rational and emotional aspects of planning to best serve clients. With that in mind, what functions does your technology need to offer to provide a level of service that meets your ideal client’s specific needs?  
2. MY CAREER PATH: Miura changed her ideal client profile when she became a caregiver and realized it was a niche that was underserved. How are you defining your target client? What relationships do you have to connect with that community?   

January 2023: Behavioral Finance

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Klontz states that behavioral finance research is often undertaken by economists and academics rather than practitioners. How have you seen behavioral finance principles at work in your interactions with clients?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Herbison notes that the most effective leaders focus on results as well as employee engagement. Among your team members, what do your most productive and your most engaged employees or coworkers have in common? How can you encourage those traits or practices in other groups?
3. COLUMN: Emotional contagion is when negative emotions trigger equally negative responses, Kay writes. What steps do you take to mitigate emotional contagion?
4. COLUMN: Fedusenko suggests ways to use content marketing to address specific concerns for different client segments. What practices are you using to determine those client segments? How would you design campaign to meet those segments’ needs?
5. RESEARCH: Pfau and Parrish found that although it’s possible that claiming Social Security benefits early might lead to a better outcome, it’s not likely. If you have clients dead set on filing for benefits early, what tools can you use to understand their motivation? How would you address those motivations to help the client understand the implications of their decision?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Rosa notes that tax preparation is an opportunity to offer additional value to clients but that planners need to be realistic about the relative value to their practice. What new services (tax prep or otherwise) could you offer to increase your perceived value to clients? What impact would it have on your work-life balance?
2. CASE STUDY: Staples and Rollins-Coons laid out a case study of a young client couple and suggested a NOISE analysis as a way to breakdown the clients’ planning needs. What strategies would you use begin analyzing this couple’s situation? How would you advise this couple?
3. MY CAREER PATH: Gaudiano notes that for career changers, the job-hunting process can make new planners feel vulnerable because they may feel like they’re starting over and mistakes will be made. How have you handled mistakes in the past? What actions did your boss/mentor take to help you learn from those mistakes?
    

December 2022: Charitable Giving

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Cummings shared examples of when a donor-advised fund is a suitable planning tool for charitably inclined clients. Do you have clients who would benefit from these funds? How do you incorporate that with other types of giving?
2. FEATURE: Branning and Grubbs cited Daniel Kahneman's suggestion that envisioning regret before making a decision can help reduce potential for regret afterward. How can you help clients calculate the potential for regret and guide them toward optimal decisions for their situation?
3. COLUMN: Armstrong cites research that shows women give more to charity than men. How are you engaging with your clients about their charitable giving intentions? Is there a way for you to engage more effectively with female clients and prospects on this subject?
4. RESEARCH: McCoy, Machiz, Harris, Lynn, Lawson, and Rollins-Koons found that being a skilled planner isn’t by itself enough to build trust with clients and earn their commitment. Based on the research, what steps can you take to strengthen trust and commitment from your clients? Which of your current behaviors or practices help or hinder you in strengthening trust and commitment?

Next Generation Planner

1. ARTICLE: Yerger says that financial planning has a “pine tree problem” caused by planners joining the profession laterally instead of starting as an entry-level planner. How can the financial planning profession support new planners in the industry?  
2. ARTICLE: Home bias leads to financial planning firms hiring people who share demographic characteristics with themselves. What are some strategies for overcoming this bias? Are there ways for non-hiring employees to build their networks outside of the firm they work in to overcome this bias?

November 2022: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Cultural competence should not be confused with expertise, according to Helms. What stereotypes are you aware of that affect your initial assumptions about an individual?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Employee resource groups are a way for firm leaders to build psychological safety, develop talent, and gather feedback about employee needs. Does your practice have formal or informal ways for workers to congregate around shared affinities or identities? What benefits or unintended consequences have seen arise from groups like these?
3. COLUMN: Lim and Gray shared examples of how cultural backgrounds and religion affect clients’ willingness to engage in risk management discussions. In situations like these, how would you begin a conversation respectfully? How does your own cultural background affect the way you evaluate the client’s resistance?
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Gardner and Gardner offer four strategies to use substantially equal periodic payments to avoid penalties for early distribution from retirement plans. What factors would you use to determine a suitable strategy for a client who needed to take an early distribution and utilize SEPPs? 
5. RESEARCH: Chen, Duffy, and Hiebert found that African American business owners were more likely than other business owners to have poor credit and lack access to capital that increase their risk of business failure. What steps can you take to help business owners address these challenges?

Next Generation Planner

1. MY CAREER PATH: Alexandria Dunn shared that growing up with a family member with special needs wasn’t enough to fully understand what they would need from a financial planner. What resources would you turn to in order to more fully understand a client’s experiences?
2. YAFPNW: Pam Capalad likens financial planning at her firm to performing triage to help clients navigate the financial system. Do you agree with this analogy?

October 2022: Tax Planning

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: For clients with equity-based compensation from states other than the one they live in, Coffill described two common approaches for determining how much of the compensation is subject to taxation by the nonresident state. If you have clients in this situation, how do these approaches align with the rules in their state?
2. COLUMN: Glasgow, Meyers, Walsh, and Pearson suggested a cognitive behavioral approach to help planners address clients’ resistance to investment diversification recommendations. How would you begin to utilize this approach in your client meetings?
3. COLUMN: Herzberg outlined how higher interest rates can impact which estate planning techniques are most suitable to meeting client gifting objectives. Are any of these techniques suitable for your clients’ current estate planning goals?
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Malik explained how gifts are taxed differently based on the residence status of the donor or the recipient. How many of your clients are impacted by these rules? If you have clients making or receiving cross-border gifts, how are you making sure you have a comprehensive view of all their objectives?
5. RESEARCH: Fink and Fink found that commodities’ high correlation with unexpected inflation makes it an attractive way to hedge against inflation. What are some drawbacks to using the asset class this way?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Wood-Wentz offered recommendations for building your tax expertise, including volunteer and networking groups. What resources have you discovered that were the most valuable? What are the most important factors to you to effectively build tax planning skills?
2. YAFPNW: Jarvis shared how tax preparers can be a partner year-round to financial planners. How can you facilitate these relationships to help clients manage a universal but stressful responsibility? Do you have preparers in your referral network?

September 2022: Regulatory/Fiduciary Update

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Joseph and Povinelli state that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new marketing rule requires disclosures regarding compensation for testimonials and endorsements, including direct or indirect cash or non-cash compensation. If you plan to use testimonials and endorsements in your marketing, do you have a strategy for collecting them?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Breitenbach describes some warning signs to look for in employees who might be feeling demotivated. Is there anyone in your practice who might need coaching through a professional plateau? Do any of those symptoms apply to you? What are some actions you can take to encourage an employee or yourself?
3. COLUMN: Spiller outlines three approaches to implementing financial plans. Which of these models do you employ in your practice? Do you have different approaches for different client segments? Is there an approach that is better suited to where you want your practice to grow compared to where it is today?
4. COLUMN: Under SECURE Act 2.0, some retirees may not be required to make withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts in some years, according to Reichenstein, but he warns that doing so might still be practical to minimize tax liabilities. How will you adjust your tax planning approach for retirees if SECURE Act 2.0 is enacted?
5. RESEARCH: Pearson warns that if planners ignore the impact of motivational relevance and informational load, they risk overwhelming clients’ limited attentional resources, but efforts to increase saliency should be targeted and specific to each clients’ needs. How would you integrate Pearson’s suggestions into your practice to provide each client with this kind of attention?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: In times of increased uncertainty, some clients may push for changes to carefully thought out plans. McManus suggests surveys as one way to take the pulse of clients who might be on the verge of making a drastic change to their financial plan. What are some other tools or strategies you could use to identify clients who are overwhelmed with anxiety?  
2. YAFPNW: Bruce describes how planner teams at his firm focus on serving client archetypes rather than account sizes. What are the benefits to planners and firms of identifying target clients that way? What are the challenges?

August 2022: Estate Planning

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Mark Prendergast explains that during divorce proceedings, nearly all financial dealings will be under the purview of the court. Many states do this with automatic temporary restraining orders. What estate planning activities are affected by ATROs? Does your state treat these activities differently?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Greg Opitz argues that planners need to be just as critical of their successes as they are of their failures. Think of a time when you were successful: what did learn in the experience? Can you replicate it in your business?
3. COLUMN: Chris Heye estimates that about 29 percent of Americans 65 and older have some form of dementia, but notes that the prevalence likely increases among older age groups. How do you adjust your communication process as your clients age to identify changing risk factors?
4. COLUMN: Bob Veres writes that the T3/Inside Information Software Survey revealed just 22 percent of financial advisers are using a cybersecurity provider. How is your business protected from data breaches? Where are the weak points in your systems?
5. RESEARCH: Blended families have unique family dynamics that add a layer of emotional complexity to estate planning decisions, according to Mikel Van Cleve and Bradley Klontz. How are these dynamics different from those you’ve seen in other family structures? 

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Christopher Woods describes three factors that impact planners’ choice of fee model. What are the most important considerations to you in determining how to charge for your services? What do you think is most important to your clients?
2. FEATURE ARTICLE: Christopher Woods argues that adopting fee models other than the AUM fee could allow planners to serve a broader segment of the population and potentially attract more planners to the industry. Are there other benefits to alternative fee models? What are some drawbacks to not charging for assets under management? 
3. MY CAREER PATH: Tiffany Soricelli’s background as a professional singer led her to forming a financial planning firm that serves performing arts professionals. What skills, affiliations, or networks can you tap to connect with clients on a deeper level?

July 2022: Retirement Planning

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Duke gives seven reasons clients may wish to take elective distributions from qualified plans in spite of the potential increase in taxation or Medicare premiums. Do you have clients who could take advantage of any of these strategies?
2. COLUMN: Fava described how embedded finance can connect underserved consumers with financial tools and education, including retirement planning. What opportunities are there for financial planners to connect with this audience?
3. COLUMN: Viggiani shared a tool to help planners address clients’ ambivalence without influencing their decisions. What tools have you used to effectively explore clients’ internal motivations? Are there approaches that haven’t worked as well?
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Reichenstein described tax-efficient withdrawal strategies for five retiree demographics. What share of your clients fit these different profiles? Might some clients move between groups as you serve them through their retirements?
5. RESEARCH: Grable, Kwak, and Chen found that marital status is not uniformly associated with financial risk tolerance. How have you seen differences in risk tolerance between your married, single, or separated clients? Have you seen risk tolerance evolve in individual clients as their marital status changed?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Pastor notes that advocating for financial planning as a profession is important because most legislators lack an intimate understanding of personal finance. What role should associations like FPA and others play in advocating for financial planners? What role should individual planners play?
2. ARTICLE: A recent study found financial planning professionals and current students agree that university programs could do more to help build communication skills before beginning careers. What are the most effective tools you use to communicate with clients or peers?
3. YAFPNW: Sharer notes that participating in pro bono planning can make planners more empathetic. What are some other skills or attributes that planners can improve by doing pro bono work? Are there other benefits to doing more of this work?

June 2022: Trends in Investing

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Inflation and volatility are top client concerns, according to the 2022 Trends in Investing survey. Nuveen’s Amy O’Brien noted that many of the events driving uncertainty are key ESG trends. Do discussions about ESG investing help contextualize
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Nathan Gehring calls for planners to lean into uncertainty and help clients build resiliency instead of trying to present plans that can withstand any shock. How do you feel about this approach? Are there components of Gehring’s “slow financial planning” that you would incorporate into your practice?
3. FSR SPOTLIGHT: Wookjae Heo, Jae Min Lee, and Narang Park found that people with higher levels of financial satisfaction are less likely to own certain kinds of life insurance. Since financial satisfaction is a common planning objective, how would you address this psychological characteristic to make sure clients are properly insured?
4. COLUMN: Alexandra Armstrong recommends that when meeting with female clients, alone or as part of a couple, planners should tactfully probe into their level of investment knowledge. What strategies have helped you determine how comfortable female clients are with investing? Have you met with resistance from female clients who don't want to be involved and financial decisions, and how did you overcome that?
5. COLUMN: Charesse Spiller suggests ways that planners can define their service model based on different levels of service. How do you define your service offering for different types of clients? Are there ways you could narrow or broaden your focus to get more of what you want from your practice?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Sponsorship has some level of inherent risk to the person speaking on behalf of their protégé, according to Rosalind Chow. Have you ever experienced this effect? What could you do to address those concerns?
2. MY CAREER PATH: Mark Tibergien notes that the boss–subordinate relationship doesn’t promote the level of candor needed for a truly effective mentoring relationship. Do you think bosses or supervisors can be good mentors? How are these relationships different from one where a mentor doesn’t have authority over the mentee?
3. YAFPNW: CJ Miller defines “engineered serendipity” as actions that create opportunities for chance meetings or special moments in life. Have you ever experienced a moment of engineered serendipity? How did it impact your life?
    

May 2022: Financial Literacy and Wellness

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Children’s financial biases are established around age 10. What are you doing to help your clients identify their own poor financial behaviors and prevent them from passing them on to their children?
2. FEATURE: Angie Stephenson outlined the unique challenges of divorce later in life. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered one when advising divorcing clients?
3. COLUMN: Ryann Marotta found TIPS and equity-based natural resources are reliably sensitive to inflation and may be helpful in managing inflation risk in client portfolios. Are you utilizing these investments with your clients? What other strategies have you employed for managing inflation risk?
4. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Jessica Harrington outlines steps for creating documented processes in a firm. Do you have important processes that are not written down and would be difficult to continue effectively if the process owner weren't there?
5. SPECIAL REPORT: Some clients who use short term rentals to generate income may be expanding the services they offer renters to offset the self-employment tax with the qualified business income deduction, according to Randy and Creyton Gardner. How are you helping clients determine the appropriate level of service to offer for their situation?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Jason Anderson and Ashlyn Rollins-Koons suggest building a niche around your passion by developing relationships with nonprofits or charities that you care about. How would you balance authenticity and a desire to give back with the potential for new client relationships? If you already do this kind of work, do you have concrete rules or best practices for managing these relationships?
2. ARTICLE: Rodney Brooks notes that life insurance is an underutilized tool for building generational wealth. What are some common objections you hear about implementing life insurance in a financial plan? How have you overcome them?

April 2022: Succession Planning

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Amelia Kurtz and James Macleod describe two distinct phases of their succession plan, the first of which requires continuous evaluation of the firm’s current preparedness for transition. Would this strategy work in your practice? What triggers would you look for to re-evaluate your succession preparedness?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Michael Rose notes that firm valuation isn’t the only factor to consider in a succession plan, especially if the seller is transferring a practice to a colleague or family members? What are the most valuable selling points of your firm today? Do you have clear targets to develop selling points for a transfer further in the future?
3. COLUMN: Dani Fava describes actions that some corporations outside of the financial services industry are taking to provide finance-related services to their customers. Do you see these offerings as disruptive to the current financial services landscape? How should the financial planning profession respond?
4. COLUMN: Barbara Kay suggests that planners who are having trouble letting go of their old role redefine succession planning as an opportunity for an even better role. How would you define your post-advisory career role?
5. RESEARCH: Michael Finke, Aron Szapiro, and David Blanchett found that independent RIAs are more likely to value salient fund characteristics like expense ratios than other types of advisers. If you make investment recommendations, what are the most important criteria you look for? Are these criteria in line with what research has found are predictors of fund performance?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Brooklyn Brock notes that there are three key components of an effective succession plan: open communication, mutual trust and respect, and agreement on the succession timeline. How can you make meaningful contributions to a succession plan in each of these areas?
2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Successors need to be able to bring in new clients as well as provide service to existing ones, according to Brooklyn Brock. What can you do to help grow the business where you work?
3. MY CAREER PATH: Alex Hopkin describes paraplanning as a role best suited for people who are more interested in the financial planning process than managing relationships with clients. Do you agree or disagree? What skills do you think are most important for a successful financial planner?

March 2022: Fintech

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Fintech makes it easier for planners to create customized portfolios for their clients. Do you have clients who would benefit from this level of customization? How do you measure that?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Gerry Herbison argues that hiring employees based on skill sets rather than personality or cultural fit can waste time and money if they leave soon after being hired. What questions would you ask a candidate to determine whether they are a good fit for your firm?
3. COLUMN: William Reichenstein explains four strategies to help clients who have already filed for Social Security benefits maximize their payments. If you have clients who started taking Social Security benefits earlier than they had planned due to the pandemic, do any of these strategies help offset prior claiming decisions?
4. COLUMN: Alexandra Armstrong describes ways that longevity impacts female clients beyond outliving their retirement savings. How are you helping your clients prepare for the non financial aspects of longer life expectancies?
5. RESEARCH: Waggle, Moon, and Lee found that heavier allocations to stock early in retirement had lower failure rates across multiple interest rate scenarios, even if we never see a return to historical interest rates. What does this mean for how you plan for clients’ retirement income needs? Does this change how you talk to clients about retirement allocations?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Benjamin Brandt describes how he limited his availability for client meetings to just a few months of the year. Would this strategy work in your firm? What other changes would you have to make to go to this kind of schedule?
2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Brandt describes how he uses podcasting and enewsletters as part of a content marketing strategy. If you're considering a content marketing strategy, what avenue makes the most sense for you? If you're already using content marketing, is there an avenue that you don’t enjoy or takes up too much of your time that you could drop? Is there a new platform you should consider experimenting with?
3. YAFPNW: Jeremy Walter, CFP^®, CKA, describes how his version of success for his firm wasn’t measured by size. What does success look like to you? What metrics are you using to track success and how often do you analyze your progress?

February 2022: Health and Caregiving

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Barbara Kay describes five ways planners can use the cognitive biases people are prone to in order to nudge them into more productive behaviors. Are there ways you can use these steps in your own practice to help your clients? How would you use these suggestions differently with your employees instead of your clients?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Matthew Jarvis points out that to grow their firms, business owners need to give up control and delegate. What are some tasks that you could hand off so that you can focus on big-picture issues? Is there someone who can take on these tasks now, or do you need to begin training someone to follow you?
3. COLUMN: Dennis Hammond describes some of the environmental, social, and governance issues that some clients will raise as they evaluate their investment holdings. If you work with clients on ESG investing, what strategies and tools have been most helpful to show them how their investments will impact their portfolio and their conscience? Are there other areas where your clients’ closely held beliefs affect their financial decision making?
4. COLUMN: Chris Heye lists four factors that have historically impacted growth in different industries. Which of these factors do you see playing the biggest role in the future of wealth management? What can you do as a planner to prepare your practice for these changes?
5. RESEARCH: The authors found that reduced net worth was associated with lower expectations for a bequest. Do you revisit clients’ objectives for wealth transfer during periods of economic shock? How do you approach the conversation to avoid overreactions to negative events?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Kerri Feazell provides three principles for effective video marketing. If you were creating a video for your firm today, what story would you tell that satisfies these three principles?
2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Are there different platforms or client segments where you think video would be more effective? How would you change your messaging to reach these different audiences?
3. YAFPNW: Thomas Kopelman describes how his biggest obstacle to a content marketing strategy was creating the content, and shares the steps he took to get in “content-producing” shape. If you’re considering a content marketing plan, what is your biggest obstacle or fear? What steps are you taking to overcome that?
   
    

JANUARY 2022: Risk Management

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Planners, experts, and regulators disagree about an ideal process for assessing clients’ willingness to tolerate risk. How do you approach the risk tolerance issue? How often do you reevaluate it, and what triggers that reassessment?
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Larry Buland and Blain Pearson state that framing bias can be used to planners’ advantage to overcome other kinds of biases that prevent clients from taking positive financial actions. Can you think of a time when you’ve used framing to gently nudge a client? What are some drawbacks to framing?
3. COLUMN: Estate planning conversations with clients who have children and spouses from multiple marriages can be fraught with legal and emotional challenges. If you serve clients in blended families, what strategies and planning tools have been most useful to you?
4. COLUMN: When faced with an uncomfortable or threatening situation, clients and team members may react with a flight, fight, freeze, or fold response. How would you act to overcome each of these responses?
5. RESEARCH: Larson found that the size of a client’s required minimum distribution can be volatile from year to year. How are you helping clients manage income volatility in retirement?  

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Pat Spencer suggests that planners who are transitioning to a subscription fee model retain their current compensation model and integrate subscription pricing as part of a menu of options. Would this strategy help you retain or attract new clients? What challenges would you face introducing a new fee offering?   
2. YAFPNW: Determining an appropriate subscription fee can be challenging for planners whose work is often front-loaded in the early part of a new relationship with a client, according to Hannah Moore. How might a client base or service offering be segmented best utilize subscription pricing?
3. YAFPNW: One of the challenges to planners of offering subscription pricing is the feeling that they are always on call for clients’ issues. How would you set expectations or enforce boundaries so that clients get what they’re paying for and don’t overload your capacity?

DECEMBER 2021: Future of the Profession

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Cody Garrett shares why he developed an advice-only model and how it works. Would a model like this work for your practice? How have you developed a business model that meets your specific objectives? 
2. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: Researchers at MIT AgeLab found that while planners and clients agree that their relationship should encompass more than just money management, advisers see themselves taking on a broader set of roles than clients expect. What roles do you play in your clients’ lives? Does your perspective align with your clients’?
3. COLUMN: Chris Heye provides guidelines for starting conversations with clients about future memory loss or diminished capacity. Have you had clients who were affected by these challenges? How did you communicate with them about their needs?
4. SPECIAL REPORT: Scaffolding learning theory describes a process of educators providing support for their students while learning new subject matter. How might you adopt the principles of SLT to better educate your clients during the financial planning process?
5. RESEARCH: The authors propose that encouraging retired clients to skip taking a distribution from a securities account in a year following negative returns can mitigate the risk of exhausting the account too early. They suggest using home equity to fund retirement in the years clients skip portfolio distributions. What methods are you using to manage volatility in retired clients’ portfolios?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURE ARTICLE: Research has found that younger people tend to be highly collaborative. What are some ways that planners in multigenerational firms can balance working styles to be more effective?
2. YAFPNW: Mike Harris explains how as the financial industry has gotten more complex over the years, it’s harder for today’s planners to be a jack of all trades and build expertise in multiple areas of planning. How do you approach developing your skills or suite of offerings for clients?
3. YAFPNW: Harris says that planners need four things to be successful: time, talent, training, and temperament. How important are these factors to a successful career in financial planning? What else would you add to the list?

NOVEMBER 2021: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Brent Kessel and Kamila Elliott describe the challenges for advisors working with clients who have different cultural backgrounds from their own. If you’re working with diverse clients, how have you addressed differences so that you better understand clients’ motivations and fears?
2. COVER STORY: Kessel and Elliott note that many Black families have historically been excluded from financial planning due to having lower net worth. How can financial planners do more to reach and educate individuals who can’t easily access financial planning?
3. SPECIAL REPORT: Meghaan Lurtz and Andrew Komarow write that neurodiverse clients are seeking financial empowerment but may face undeserved doubts about their capabilities. How do you evaluate clients’ financial literacy and comfort with financial responsibility?
4. SPECIAL REPORT: The Inclusive Financial Well-being Empowerment Model identifies three barriers to financial inclusion: access, action, and affect. How can financial planning professionals address these issues to empower neurodiverse clients?
5. RESEARCH: Javier Estrada introduced two tools to test the sustainability of a particular withdrawal rate for a client, and recommends that they be used throughout retirement to test whether the withdrawal needs to be changed. How are you currently testing clients’ withdrawal strategies to evaluate how long savings will last?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Passion is a key quality for planners looking for a successor, according to Christine Sjölin. What are you passionate about at your firm? What are you doing to show leaders your passion?
2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Sjölin describes the need for balance between knowing when you need help and being resourceful enough to find answers on your own. Is there a time when you’ve taken on more than you can handle? How did you manage it? What did you learn from the experience?
3. YAFPNW: Kevin Cassidy told Hannah Moore about how his firm outlined a timeline to succession with hard and soft deadlines to ease the transition for peers and clients. How would you develop a timeline to manage change when transitioning to a new role? Which stakeholders would be impacted by such a change?

OCTOBER 2021: TAX PLANNING

SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

Journal of Financial Planning

1. COVER STORY: Regardless of residency, a state may tax a nonresident on income that has a “source” in that state, according to Eric Coffill. What processes do you have in place to account for all the jurisdictions where a client may owe taxes?
2. FEATURE: Mass affluent clients may not need the sophisticated tax-efficient asset liquidation strategies that high-net-worth. Phil Lubinski, CFP^®, recommends Roth IRA conversions as a leading tool for tax-efficient retirement income.
3. COLUMN: Some investment managers are taking stock of clients’ allocations to emerging markets as underwhelming performance over the last decade makes the overlapping risks associated with these markets less appealing, according to Ryann Marotta, CFP^®, CFA. Are emerging markets part of your clients’ diversification strategies?
4. RESEARCH: Exley, Doyle, Snell and Campbell found that extraversion is positively correlated with financial risk-taking, while conscientiousness is positively correlated with financial literacy. How could you use clients’ personality characteristics to understand their behavior?
5. RESEARCH: Exley, Doyle, Snell and Campbell warn that personality traits such as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, don’t exist in isolation. How have you seen clients’ overlapping or competing traits impact financial outcomes?

Next Generation Planner

1. FEATURED ARTICLE: Trudy Turner, CPA/PFS, CFP^®, CPWA, and Emma Cramm, CFP^®, suggest consistency is an important part of networking. How are you making networking a part of your routine? How does your remote networking differ from in-person?
2. FEATURED ARTICLE: Networking is a purposeful practice of building connections that help you provide value for your practice and your clients. Where do you look for these connections? In what ways do you reciprocate value for others in your network?
3. YAFPNW: Chelsea Ransom-Cooper, CFP^®, shared how her mother’s financial behaviors impacted her own. How did your upbringing impact your own money behaviors and how you talk to clients about their feelings about money? 

Continue the Conversation: Discuss topics with fellow FPA members through our Knowledge Circles on FPA C​​onnect​. 

 

SEPTEMBER 2021: REGULATORY UPDATE/ FIDUCIARY ISSUES

JFP Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)

Cover Story: ​Retirement Account Rollovers: How to Comply with the DOL’s New Fiduciary “Rule”

Practice Management: How to Make the Most of Your CRM Investment

Longevity Column: The Importance of Managing Life-Stage Risks for an Aging Population

Special Report: How to Avoid Paying Higher Medicare Premiums the First Two Years After Retiring

Research: Housing Bubbles and Near-Zero Interest Rate Environments That Inflate Property Taxes: An Unexpected Expense for Retirees?

Next Generation Planner: I Earned My CFP^®, What Comes Next?
Next Generation Planner: Featuring Andrew Komarow, CFP^®, AEP, AIF, BFA, CAP, CASL, ChFC, ChSNC, CLU, CNP, FSCP, REBC, RHU, RICP, WMCP
Next Generation Planner: You’re a Financial Planner…Now What? Helping Millennial Couples Align Their Money with Their Values

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AUGUST 2021: BEHAVIORAL FINANCE

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​How Life Changes Affect Client Behavior

Special Report: To Pay or Not to Pay: Student Loans and the CARES Act

Research: The Role of Personal Financial Salience

Research: How to Estimate “The End” of Retirement

Next Generation Planner: Pro Bono Work Alleviates More Than Financial Poverty
Next Generation Planner: My Career Path - Featuring Katrina Soelter, CFP^®
Next Generation Planner: You’re a Financial Planner…Now What? Calling All Hands on Deck, No Matter What Your Role

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JULY 2021: HEALTHCARE AND AGING PLANNING

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​The Convergence of Healthcare and Financial Planning

Your Practice: The Intersection of Health and Wealth: An Opportunity for Advisers to Deepen Relationships and Extend Their Services

Special Report: Data-Based Approach to Engaging Clients in a Discussion of Long-Term Care

Research: The RISK that Households Take: A Behavioral Variable Worth Watching

Next Generation Planner: The Essential Starting Point for a Financial Adviser’s Marketing Efforts
Next Generation Planner: Consider Your Past to Determine Your Niche

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JUNE 2021: TRENDS IN INVESTING

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​Learn, Listen, and Lead on Cryptoassets

Investment Planning: The Time for ESG Investing is Now

Next Generation Planner: The Role of your Professional Organization in Advocacy
Next Generation Planner: What Advocacy Issues are Most Important to You and Why?

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Become an Advocate—Not Just an Ally—for the LGBTQ Community All Year Long

Special Report: Future Investment Returns on Housing are Stark

Research: Financial Self-Efficacy and Retirement Preparation

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MAY 2021: NEXT GENERATION OF PLANNERS AND CLIENTS

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​Paths into Planning

Leadership: Use Leadership Skills That Apply to Behavioral Economics to Avoid the Sunk Cost Fallacy

Next Generation Planner: 3 Guidelines for a Successful Social Media Strategy

Special Report: Social Security Claiming Strategies for Singles and Their Implications for Couples

Research: Understanding the Intersection Between Style Exposure, Sector Rotation, and the Business Cycle

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APRIL 2021: ESTATE PLANNING

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)
Next Generation Planner Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)

Cover Story: ​Estate Planning Insights in the Age of COVID-1

Financial Literacy: Financial Literacy Education Is About Choices

Tax Planning: The American Rescue Plan Act Is Loaded with Tax Planning Opportunities for 2020 and 2021

Research: Facilitating Virtual Client Meetings for Money Conversations: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Skills and Strategies for Financial Planners

NGP Featured Article: A Glimpse into the Flat-Fee Model

NGP Article: How to Have the ESG Conversation

NGP Tips: What are some misconceptions about fee models and how would you debunk them?

NGP Podcast: You’re a Financial Planner, Now What? Charge What's Fair

Online Discussion:     JOURNAL IN THE ROUND: The Planning Implications of the American Rescue Plan Act | April 28, 2021  |  12:00PM (MDT) | 60 minutes

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MARCH 2021: CLIENT TRUST AND COMMUNICATION

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​Mediation Techniques for Financial Planners

Client Trust and Communication: Build on Success: 4 Steps to More Client Loyalty and Increased Trust

Research Roundup: Research-Based Approaches: Thinking Beyond the Financial Facts and Examining the Gender Pay Gap

Special Report: The Minuses of PLUS Loans: Advising Parents on College Borrowing Decisions

Research: A Comparison of the Tax Efficiency of Decumulation Strategies

Online Discussion:     JOURNAL IN THE ROUND

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Next Generation Planner: March 2021 Digital Edition
Next Generation Planner: Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)
 

FEBRUARY 2021: FINTECH

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​The Pandemic’s Impact on FinTech

Q&A: Dani Fava on the Involuntary Tech Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Asking Questions 

Practice Management: Succession Planning Is About More Than Retirement

Operations: How to Systematize Process Audits Annually

Marketing: Why Marketing and Communications Is Vital to Your Practice’s Sustainability and Growth During the Pandemic

Research: Education, Career Choice, and Financial Planning: Implications for Financial Planners

Online Discussions: DRINKS AND DISCUSSION       "ASK THE AUTHORS" DISCUSSION

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Next Generation Planner: February 2021 Digital Edition
Next Generation Planner: Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)

JANUARY 2021: COLLEGE PLANNING

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​How to Think…About College Planning in a Pandemic

Practice Management: Creating Transparency for Families in the College Funding Process 

Special Report: 2020 Personal Finance Year in Review

Research: No Debt is an Island: Exploring Strategies with Reverse Mortgages

Online Discussions: DRINKS AND DISCUSSION       "ASK THE AUTHORS" DISCUSSION

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Next Generation Planner: January 2021 Digital Edition
Next Generation Planner: Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)

DECEMBER 2020: THE FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​FUTURE TENSE:  Post-COVID-19 Future of Financial Planning

Cover Story: The Financial Planning Career Path of the Future

Column: Optimizing Client Options for Peace of Mind

Research: The Roth/Pretax Decision in Late Career Years: The Increasing Importance of Accumulated Assets in Light of the SECURE Act

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: The Future of the Profession

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Next Generation Planner: December 2020 Digital Edition
Next Generation Planner: Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)

NOVEMBER 2020: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

JFP Suggested Discussion Question (PDF)

Cover Story: ​Why Aren’t We Making More Progress On Diversity and Inclusion?

Observer: Strategies for Your Firm's Diversity and Inclusion Program

Q&A: Rachel J. Robasciotti on Building a Diverse Firm, Wealth Redistribution, and Adasina Social Capital

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Diversity and Inclusion

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Next Generation Planner: November 2020 Digital Edition
Next Generation Planner: Suggested Discussion Questions (PDF)

OCTOBER 2020: TAX PLANNING

Cover Story: ​How to Add Tax Alpha in Today’s Environment

Research​: Self-Empowerment Among Widows: A Financial Planning Perspective

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Roth IRA Conversions for 2020 and Beyond

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SEPTEMBER 2020: REGULATORY UPDATE

Cover Story: ​2020 Regulatory and Advocacy Update

Research​: Utilizing What We Know About Tele-Mental Health in Tele-Financial Planning: A Systematic Literature Review

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Regulation – An opportunity, not a burden

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AUGUST 2020: BEHAVIORAL FINANCE

Cover Story: ​22 Behavioral Nudges to Optimize Client Outcomes

Research​: Women, Wealth, and Demand for Financial Planning Services

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Behavioral Finance

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JULY 2020: HEALTH AND AGING PLANNING

Cover Story: ​Making the Transition from Financial Planning to Longevity Planning

Research​: Identifying What Investors Value in a Financial Adviser: Uncovering Opportunities and Pitfalls​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Becoming a Quarterback for Clients’ Longevity Planning Teams

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JUNE 2020: TRENDS IN INVESTING

Cover Story: ​Surviving a Bear Attack​

Research​: Exploring the Financial Planning Decisions Related to Greater Access to Retirement Funds Via the CARES Act

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Trends in Investing

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MAY 2020: NEXT GENERATION OF PLANNERS AND CLIENTS

Cover Story: ​Real People, Real Career Paths

Research​: Integrating Interpersonal Neurobiology into Financial Planning: Practical Applications to Facilitate Well-Being

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Next Generation of Planners and Clients

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APRIL 2020: ESTATE PLANNING

Cover Story: ​Estate Planning Update: From a Basic Planning Framework to Advanced Planning Guidance

Research​: The Financial Impact of Not Using 529 Plans, and Behavioral Interventions to Increase Usage​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Estate Planning

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MARCH 2020: CLIENT TRUST AND COMMUNICATION

Cover Story: ​Anatomy of an Exquisite Meeting​

Column​: Building Trust in an Increasingly Skeptical World

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: Client Trust and ​Communication​

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FEBRUARY 2020: FINTECH

Cover Story: ​Fintech: What to Expect in 2020 and Beyond​

Practice Management: 3 Steps for Building a Tech Stack to Deliver Financial Wellness

WEBINAR: Journal in the Roun​d: FinTech​

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JANUARY 2020: COLLEGE PLANNING

Cover Story: ​Expand Your Expertise to Student Loan Planning: The Gateway to Attracting Your Next Generation of Clients​

Practice Management:  Are You Doing All You Can to Help Clients with College Savings?​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: College Planning

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DECEMBER 2019: FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION

Cover Story: Future Firm, Future Planner

Special Report: From Theory to Practice​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: What Does the Financial Planning Future Hold? 

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NOVEMBER 2019: TAX PLANNING

Cover Story: ​Start 2019 Year-End Tax Planning with the 2018 Form 1040​

Contribution: College Savers: What Is the Expected Tax Alpha of 529 Plans?

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: Planning for Tax Planning​

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OCTOBER 2019: NEXT GENERATION OF PLANNERS AND CLIENTS

Cover Story: ​Blaze Your Own Trail - NexGen Planners: You Can Create the Business You Want

Diversity and Inclusion: Pursuing a Career in Financial Planning: Your Questions Answered​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: 12 Career Paths in Financial Planning

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​

SEPTEMBER 2019: REGULATORY UPDATE

Cover Story: ​CFP Board Code and Standards: Your Questions Answered

Cover Story: Take a Deep Dive into the SEC’s Investment Advice Rule Package​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: Deconstructing the SEC's New Rule Package​

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AUGUST 2019: BEHAVIORAL FINANCE

Cover Story: Overcome Behavioral Biases with the “As-If Retirement”​

Contribution: Financial Planning with Ambiguous Loss from Alzheimer's Disease: Implications, Applications, and Interventions​​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: Guiding Clients through Ambiguous Loss​​

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​JULY 2019: MARKETING

Cover Story: Blog, Video, and Podcast Your Way to More Clients: Success Stories from Planners Who Are Doing It Right​

10 Questions: Matt Ledoux on Daring to Sound Different and Why You Need to Get on Instagram​

Column: ​This LinkedIn Marketing Tactic Can Backfire​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: Doing Online Content Right to Gain More Clients​

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​

JUNE 2019: TRENDS IN INVESTING​

Cover Story: Should Cryptoassets Be a Part of a Client’s Portfolio?​​

Special Report: 2019 Trends in Investing Survey Results ​​​

Full Report: ​2019 Trends in Investing​​​

WEBINAR: Journal in the Round: Exploring Cryptoassets for Clients​​​

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