FPANC - The Advisor Newsletter

President's Message - Landon Tymochko, MBA, CFP®

The Primary Aim of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) is:

Elevating the Profession that Transforms Lives through the Power of Financial Planning

This statement encapsulates the reason that we exist as an organization. Every one of our members is part of this organization because they believe in the power of financial planning, and what it can do to transform people’s lives. Whether you are currently a “tenured” financial planner with decades of experience behind you, or you are new to the profession . . . or just as importantly, one of our many strategic partners and affiliated professionals who are members . . . you are a member of this organization because you believe in, or have personally experienced, what financial planning can do.

This is just my opinion…. If you are a CFP® Professional, I believe you should feel some level of obligation to be a member of the FPA. As professional financial planners, we are all standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, those that helped create the CFP® designation as the gold standard for competence and professionalism in the field of personal finance. They created a vision where personal financial planning is considered a profession equal to other longstanding professions, those we all recognize such as in the fields of tax, law, engineering, and medicine, among others.

In his seminal essay titled “To Think. . . Like a CFP” originally published in the Journal of Financial Planning in 1990, the late Richard Wagner, J.D., CFP® lays out the foundation of what it is to be a financial planning professional, a CFP® Professional. In my opinion, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) is the organization that can make Dick’s vision a reality. And in truth, we have come a long way. But we are not there yet. We ALL benefit from the bar being raised. Continue reading here

Career Development – Daryl Wong, EA®, CFP®

Greetings from Career Development!

This year will no doubt be one of the most challenging for students as they begin their distance learning curriculum. Not only will they be stuck at home trying to stay motivated to learn by themselves, they will also be deprived of great opportunities such as meeting new friends, networking, and internships to get a head start on their career paths.

We have been working closely with both the faculty at CSUS and the FPA Student Body President to raise awareness of our CFP® Profession so that the students can have a better understanding of what our jobs entail and the impact we can have on our clients’ lives.

While the technical side can be taught through textbooks and lectures, I think we can all agree much of the experience and skillsets are learned on the job and through trial and error. We are trying to find ways to increase our involvement with the students to guide them in the right direction, such as a potential Zoom webinar with CFP® Professionals, but we also need to make sure we are making every effort we can to provide opportunities to the students through internships and job opportunities upon graduation. We ask that you keep an open mind in welcoming students in your office for any opportunities both now and in the future. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin.

Congratulations to our Chapter Trivia Game Winners!

If you missed the August Virtual Social Mixer, you missed a great time! We are hopeful that we will be able to schedule another event possibly towards the end of the year so luckily you may have another chance to join the fun. Congratulations to members, Emilie Andres and Ray Harrison who were the winners! They both received $25 Amazon gift cards.

Advocacy - Claudia Kane, CFP®, CIMA, CPWA, ADPA, CDFA

Welcome to fall, and hopefully a healthy season for all of us, both professionally and personally. This is the time of year we try to reach out and set appointments with the District Offices of our local legislators. As in-person meetings are not very available right now, several FPA members are having success setting ‘virtual’ meetings. The advantage of these is their ease in scheduling! Please reach out to your local representative and let them know who we are and what we do to help their constituents. Let them know of our advocacy and our pro bono efforts. And, let them know we are available as a resource to them whenever they are considering legislation that can affect our profession and the general public. I am open to join in with any of you that would like to schedule this (one of the values of Zoom!).

I also encourage you to stay in touch with our main resource, www.financialplanningassociation.org. Here you can find updates on what legislation is out there, and what the FPA is doing on your behalf to support your business. Our Public Policy Council recently recommended to your FPA Executive Committee that we join the Financial Transaction Tax Coalition, which will oppose efforts to tax transactions for stocks, bonds and derivatives. The EC agreed, and FPA was asked to serve on the steering committee for this Coalition. We have also joined with the CFP Board, NAPFA, IAA and FSI to ask Congress to restore and expand the pre-2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax deduction for investment advisory fees and financial planner fees. This council has a practicing securities attorney, an attorney who represents CFP practitioners, a compliance attorney for CFP practitioners, and others dedicated to formulate responses to legislative/regulatory issues.

There are so many reasons to value your FPA membership, even in these times of Covid-19 when we are unable to meet and network in person. Our advocacy on your behalf is one of them!

Welcome to our New Awesome Members!

Ayorinde Akinwande

Leigh Beaman

Eric Overstreet

Isaiah Souza, Ameriprise Financial

Escape the CraZy with JA!

Recently, members of the chapter formed a team to play a trivia game with Junior Achievement. As you can see from the photos below, everyone had a blast! It's always nice to have a little fun during these times!

FPA National

Member Updates

Did you know that you can make updates to your member record yourself? You are able to update your contact information and credentials, print a membership card, manage your communication preferences and update or add a credit card for monthly and auto-renewal memberships all in the my account section of financialplanningassociation.org. Click below for actual screenshots showing the necessary steps.