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Taming Your Emotions in Financial Planning for Equity Comp

"[1] Seeking a 'Scenario of Least Regret' To manage emotions In financial planning ... [2] Dealing with FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) ... [3] Reframing overconfidence by considering what you have to lose ... [4] Overcoming inertia ... [5] Using a 'legacy anchor position' to provide psychological safety."

Financial Planning Coalition Urges Improvement to Investment Adviser Oversight

"There is widespread agreement on the need to provide greater protection to American investors from financial fraud. The adoption of a fiduciary standard that includes broker-dealers when providing personalized investment advice would help restore and strengthen public trust in financial advisers -- both investment advisers and broker-dealers. Any legislation that creates additional obstacles to SEC rulemaking could needlessly delay or weaken critical investor protection measures such as the fiduciary standard, however unintentionally."

2007 Ameriprise Workplace Financial Planning Benefit Decisions Study (PDF)

10 pages. Excerpt: Ameriprise found the employees surveyed would like their employer to provide financial planning assistance. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said a financial plan that directly addressed their workplace benefit costs and contingent financial decisions would be helpful, and 70% would be moderately or very interested in one-on-one financial planning if offered through their employer.

Healthcare, Wellness, and Financial Planning

"[U]nexpected medical expenses and long-term healthcare costs are two of the most common threats to a solid financial plan.... Consider an HDHP over a PPO to stash additional savings ... Max out your HSA ... It's okay to touch an emergency fund for healthcare costs ... Get to know your benefits package and be aware of wellness programs."

Financial Planning as an Advisory Firm Employee Benefit

"[I]ssues to consider for advisory firms that want to ... [offer] financial planning as an employee benefit to the employees of their own firm [include] ... [1] whether to provide such services internally or externally, [2] whether to let employees choose their own advisor, [3] the tax consequences to consider, and [4] why providing financial planning to employees can actually provide an Return On Investment as employees gain better perspective on how to improve the firm's client experience (by actually experiencing financial planning themselves!)."

Comparing the Economic and Conventional Approaches to Financial Planning

"The conventional approach to retirement and life insurance planning, which is used throughout the financial planning industry, differs markedly from the economic approach. The conventional approach asks households to specify how much they want to spend before retirement, after retirement, and in the event of an untimely death of the head or spouse. It then determines the amounts of saving and life insurance needed to achieve these targets. The economic approach is based on the life-cycle model of saving. Its goal is to smooth households' living standards over their life cycles and to ensure comparable living standards for potential survivors. In the economic approach, spending targets are endogenous. They are derived by calculating the most the household can afford to consume in the present given that it wants to preserve that living standard in the future. Although spending targets under the conventional approach can be adjusted in an iterative process to approximate those derived under the economic approach, there are practical limits to doing so. This is particularly the case for households experiencing changing demographics or facing borrowing constraints. This paper illustrates the different saving and insurance recommendations provided by economic financial planning software and the practical application of traditional financial planning software."

Financial Planning is Key to Maintaining Long-Term Balance for Retirement Planning

"[W]hile investors with an established plan report a higher level of confidence (87%) and overall positive outlook for their financial security (75%), only 55% of investors have a plan in place ... In this article, we explore what is a financial plan, how we construct a financial plan with clients, and how we utilize that plan to advise clients."

Financial Planning Coalition Comment Letter to SEC on Investor as Purchaser Subcommittee Recommendation on Broker-Dealer Fiduciary Duty (PDF)

"We support the SEC staff's recommendation to adopt an over-arching fiduciary duty for investment advisers and broker-dealers if, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, it is no less stringent than the existing standard under the Advisers Act. To achieve this, it is important that a uniform fiduciary duty standard, when promulgated, contain both the rules and practical guidance to clarify how the standard would apply to the broker-dealer business model."

How the 2025 and 2018 Tax Laws Affect Your Stock Comp and Financial Planning

"[1] Rates and brackets of individual income tax ... [2] The calculation of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) ... [3] Trigger point for the 20% tax rate on long-term capital gains ... [4] Estate planning and charitable contributions ... [5] Qualified small business stock (QSBS) ... [6] Section 83(i) tax-qualified stock grants for private companies ... [7] Performance-based exception to section 162(m) limit on deductible comp."

Designing the Financial Planning Software of the Future -- Calculator, Collaboration Tool, and Client Personal Financial Management

"[T]he evolution of planning software is creating distinct new challenges from a software design perspective, as the tools are increasingly used in three distinct contexts: an interactive collaborative planning tool between advisors and clients in meetings, an ongoing monitoring and personal financial management (PFM) tool for clients, and an advisor support tool for everything from complex analyses to tracking and alerting which clients need assistance. Not to mention the increasing amount of 'meta data' available about the advisory business and its clients as well. In fact, going forward financial planning software designers may need to increasingly view the use of the software through each of these distinct lenses -- advisor, client, and advisor-client interaction, as well as business meta-data -- to advance the efficacy of planning software."