Financial Planning editors, a financial advisor and one of the pioneers of the RIA movement unveil the winners of FP's Rising Stars Award.
Speaker 1 (00:13): Hi, I'm Brian Wallheimer. I'm editor in chief of Financial Planning. Our parent Company is Arizent. Welcome to Leaders. It's a forum that brings together innovators and senior executives to share their experiences and perspectives on the most pressing topics, in our case for wealth management. The subject of our discussion today is FP's annual Rising Stars Award and the future of planning. The award identifies and celebrates young RIA professionals and career changers who are advancing the profession through their accomplishments, contributions, and service to the community of advisors and clients nationwide. We announced the six winners earlier this month, so please take the time if you haven't already, to visit our website to hear their amazing stories. Winners are Madeline Bradley of Sanford Advisory Services, Whitney Figueroa of Alpine Financial Planning, Anora Guadiano of Wealthspire Advisors, Jordan Grabber of EP Wealth Advisors, Julian Turosienski of Crescent, and Jason Valencia of DVB Financial. (01:12): Today we'll be celebrating the group with speeches from two planners whose work outside of their practices is shaping the industry's future. Hannah Moore, the founder of a Dallas-area Practice called Amplified Planning, is host of the "You're a Financial Planner, Now What?" podcast, The administrator of the popular industry Facebook group FPA Activate, and the director of the FPAs virtual externship. In 2020, she won the Visionary Leader Award from FP for creating the FPAs Virtual Externship. It's an online training program enabling aspiring planners to meet and learn from some of the top minds of the profession. Financial advisor Luis Rosa is the founder of Pasadena, California based Build a Better Financial Future. He's a co-founder of the BLX Internship Program, a CFP Board ambassador, and a member of the CHIP Professionals' Advisory Board. He and other advisors launched BLX to provide career pathways into fee only practices across the country. (02:07): They were each named to financial plannings list of 22 people who will transform wealth management in 2022. After Hannah and Luis speak, we'll have time for some questions and answers before we wrap up the program. So to get started, I'll turn the program over to Luis. Hey, thank you and welcome everyone, and congratulations to all the winners. Uh, just wanted to share just a couple of things that I feel like are very important for your rising stars to know and continue to apply in their careers. Uh, so number one is to always be learning. You know, I know a lot of you may have already gotten your licenses, your series sevens and 65s and perhaps even your CFP certifications, but think of that just as the beginning. Uh, I know that, uh, you might think in like, what , I'm not done after cfp. Uh, but it's very important for you to continue to learn because that is how you're going to advance the profession one of the many ways, because part of our jobs is also to help educate your clients, right? (03:07): So the more you know, the better position that you'll be in to help those. Um, and also the people that come behind you as well, you know? So with that in mind, uh, I always, um, I'm a big believer in not only signing up for mentorship yourself, even if you've been in the industry for a while, that's super important. Uh, think about most of the major athletes in the world that are best at what they do. They still have coaches and a team around them. So you wanna make sure that you stay at learning, uh, whether it's through your continuing education. So take those seriously, you know, don't just check box. I know that can be cumbersome and get in the way sometimes of doing your actual work, but make sure you sign off for the webinars that you truly wanna learn about and take those seriously. (03:50): Also, be part of like study groups, part of the community. Like, um, it was mentioned. Join the FPA Facebook group, you know, network with your peers. There's so much to learn. If you have the ability to make it to conferences, at least one a year, be sure to do that as well. But some of the major things that I've learned in my career came actually go to a conference and meetings, you know, sometimes we'll even skip some of the sessions just because the conversations I was having on the side were just amazing. And the people that I've met, and this is a community, you know, you, you'll notice that a lot of us, we don't see each other as competition because everybody needs a financial planner. So there's 300 plus million people in the country, right? So we can learn so much from each other, and you are gonna be the ones that are gonna actually move the industry forward and advance. (04:38): It's not gonna happen from the outside. And last, remember to it back. And, and by that I mean keep the door open for those that are coming behind you. If youre able to become a mentor to somebody, do that, you know, because you don't know how much impact you're having in somebody's life. Sometimes they might not tell you, sometimes you may not even know, but the things that you're do on a daily basis, there's somebody out there looking at you, you know, and you can help shape them and help them avoid some mistake that maybe you made yourself. So those are my four points. So congratulations again, and now I'm gonna pass on to Hannah Moore. Speaker 2 (05:15): Yes. Well, thanks Luis, and thank you everyone for being here, and congratulations to the winners. It is so, so exciting and truly just inspiring to see what you guys have already done and just what you guys are gonna be doing. You know, as I was thinking about this, uh, I was thinking about, you know, what's been the places where we found success and what's really motivated that? And really, what I find the key is for me and the work that I've done outside of my practice, it's really been a drive to make things better. Uh, it's been a drive to to, to, to make things better for people who come behind me. You know, I look at what we've done in the externship and amplified planning and you know, with our work with FPA and building out, you know, some of the communities that we built out, a lot of this was done because I didn't want it to be this difficult for anybody else, um, when I was early in my career. (06:02): So I really made a point to notice what I was going through and, and help be the solution for that, of really the, the drive or the motivation was to help give back and to, and to make it better. Um, one of our initiatives we're working on right now, you can't necessarily see this, um, but I am eight months pregnant with my third baby. And what I've realized in going through just my maternity, my motherhood and career journey, is that it was really lonely and isolating. And so, you know, we're, you know, we're really speaking out about this now, and, and it's not about me sharing my story, right? It's, it's about me having this experience and realizing that this is what I needed. You know, what we wanna create is something that I wish I would've had when I started in my career. So notice those things about what you wish you would have in your career. (06:48): Um, notice those things that you see what's wrong with, with the profession and really step into those. But here's the biggest secret of it all, right? That's my motivation for doing things is my motivation is I wanna make things better for people who come behind me. I wanna help people. I want this to be a great profession. I want this to be easier for, for financial planners behind me. And I use my story as my motivation. And oftentimes I use that as bringing people in. I use that as a way of bringing people into whatever we're doing. Uh, that can just be, that can be simply a social media post. But the true secret about this is it's not about me. It's never been about me, right? It's about bringing people in, attracting people, and then helping make them the hero of their story. You know, I think about the new planners and all the work that we do with them, and my hope isn't that they hold me up on a pedestal that's, that's, that's silly. (07:40): That's, that's not the motivation. The motivation is that they see themselves hopefully a little bit in my story, but then they get to see themselves as really the hero for their story. They get to see themselves as having a career that they can absolutely love, and that they can serve clients and well, and that they can have a significant impact in their community, in their client's lives. They can help transform their own family, uh, with, with, with what they're able to do in their career. Uh, same thing with what we're doing with, with new moms right now, uh, is helping them realize that yes, you can have a family and hopefully my story brings them in, but as soon as they're in it, the script flips. It becomes how do we empower them? How do we make this about them? And so, as you guys are doing just amazing things in this profession, you guys are doing great work with your clients. (08:28): You're doing great work outside of your day to day practice, um, and really having this impact. Remember, like these things that motivate you, like keep those core, but at the end of the day, it's not about us. It's about how do we elevate people? How do we make people coming behind us far more successful than we will be? I will be doing my job if the planners that we're training right now far outseed anything that I do. And that's the mindset that I think has really brought the most success, is what we found in financial planning. And so that's, that's kind of my hope for you guys as you guys are doing this. So you guys are early in your career, um, is that you guys have so much incredible potential and it's just gonna be so much fun watching you guys and following your career. And my hope is that you far surpass, like far surpass anything that I do for, uh, for sure. Um, and that you guys really help make this profession all that it can be. Speaker 1 (09:21): Yeah. I, I wanna ask a quick question for both of you. Um, thank you so much for your comments. Um, a wonderful motivation for, for everyone in the profession. You know, Luis, you mentioned at the beginning that, you know, you're, you, the CFP is, is such a, um, um, um, a time investment and you're working in these, I would imagine when you're early in your career that it's hard to start thinking about giving back to the profession when you have so much on your plate. Um, how do you make the time for that and, and why is it important to do that early on? (09:54): Yeah, I think that it's important to do it early on because the busier you get, the less time you may feel that you have. And, and a lot of the times you won't feel like you're ready for it because if you're working and maybe studying for the CFP certification, uh, it's gonna be hard. And obviously there's gonna be a time where all you should focus on is if you're going for the CFP certification. It's probably just that outside of any work that you're doing, because it is a huge time investment. But I find that the sooner you get into it, the better because you don't have to go at ait lone. You know, for example, the BLX internship program was an idea that came, uh, and grew out of four of us getting together. Uh, all four of us business owners, we own our own practices wearing all the hats, compliance, all. (10:41): There was no time to do that in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. There's really, there was no time. You just make the time. So it's a matter of prioritization. Um, I think one of the things that you should definitely focus on is figure out what it is that you're passionate about, like Hannah was saying. And then you should have a filter based on that. And the decisions that you're gonna make can be based on what it is that you're trying to accomplish, so that way you know what to say yes to and you know what to say no to. And I feel like that's super important. Yeah, I think I, I read a book recently, I can't remember the title, but the, the gist of one of the points was you're never going to have time for all of it. Um, but you're going to just have to do it at some point. There, there, there are certain things you're just gonna have to do. And, and giving back to me sounds like one of those investments in time that that's worth it if it helps you build connections, um, and improve your own skills and, and give back to the community. Um, Hannah, did you wanna add anything there? Speaker 2 (11:40): Yeah, you know, I think about the advice that we give to our clients as financial planners, right? Of like, you start early, if you invest early, it makes all the difference, uh, for your retirement savings. And I think the same can be set of our careers. The more you invest in giving back, the more you invest in getting involved in the community and networking. It's, it's like you have this trajectory and you're just bumping it up. Um, and that's where you make the most significant, um, adjustments is in the early stages of your career. So lean into that and really just embrace that. And if you're not seeing something that you, like, if something's not resonating with you, if you're not finding that community right now, keep looking because I promise you, there is so much out here in this space in financial planning that there is a place for you, um, a really a place for you to connect because whatever struggles you're facing, I promise there are other people there, uh, other people struggling with the same thing as well. It's just about finding, finding the right places to get back. Uh, because once you do that, it can make such a difference. Speaker 1 (12:40): Yeah. You know, I mean, even before the Covid pandemic, we, we had virtual tools and we had LinkedIn and we had ways to connect with people, uh, that weren't necessarily in our own towns. Uh, but I think that we've embraced them so much more since the pandemic, if there's, you know, a silver lining to, um, a horrible global pandemic, of course. But, um, do you think that, um, do you think that there are more opportunities now to connect in ways that maybe there wouldn't have been to connect with people maybe in the same, same niche as you or, or to connect with people, um, who are, who maybe are, you know, half of half a country away that maybe you wouldn't have before and, and how do you go about doing that? (13:24): Yeah, it, it could definitely be very lonely. And I think the pandemic put a, a big emphasis on that. And like, I myself was part of a lot of different study groups with peers because, um, we weren't able to get out there and meet during conferences anymore. And I think that the ability to just happen on Zoom, right? And, and not be on an island all by yourself, uh, Hannah was mentioning that. I mean, that really happens, especially as you progress in your career. Sometimes it might feel like you're just working and you're just out there by yourself, right? Uh, the community aspect of it is so important. So you, you wanna find, even if you meet with a group maybe like once a month, uh, over Zoom or something, it's super important for you to keep in tune with what's going on, what others are experiencing. It's a place for you to be able to vent, share ideas, uh, and you might find something that maybe you want to change about the industry, and you could be that change, um, without a doubt, you know, So super important that you do that. Speaker 2 (14:27): Yeah, I'll, I'll echo a lot of that. You know, covid changed a lot of things. Uh, it kind of fast tracked even where we are in financial planning of, of what's available, how people are, how people are navigating their careers, so there's even more and more opportunities, um, to be connecting with people. One of the biggest skill sets that I don't think we talk about enough for financial planners for really any professional is this, ability to identify what you need. And there's been, you know, every year in my career I've needed something different, but by being able to identify what is it that I need right now and being able to be really clear about that, you can go find those resources and connect with those things, and that's gonna ebb and flow throughout your career. What is it that you need? But by staying really attuned to, to where you are in your career, being very honest with yourself about your strengths and your weaknesses, maybe especially your weaknesses, um, being able to go and then find the help that you need is going to be, it's, it's never been easier to find the help that you need, uh, whether that is, you know, peer groups. (15:29): Again, I echo what Louis says with, um, some of my study group. I mean, I found my study group on Twitter eight or nine years ago. Um, they're some of my closest friends, um, professionally, you know, whether it's that, whether it's, you know, I need help with this or that. Um, but just knowing, having that skillset to be able to identify what you need when you need it, I think is one of the keys for success in this space. Especially if you're trying to do something that's not standard or normal. If you're not doing a normal pathway within financial planning, being able to identify that will make all the difference for you. It will help you just leapfrog, um, some of the steps that you, that you're having. Speaker 1 (16:12): Sure, Sure. Are there, are there particular obstacles for early career or career changing, uh, planners that, that stand out to either of you? Things that, um, maybe, um, some of our award winners or some of our other, um, listeners, um, and viewers have maybe started to stumble upon or you think they will stumble upon? Um, and any advice for how to, how to tackle any of that? Yeah, I think one of the obstacles I see sometimes that there's not a clear career path, like a, a track within certain firms where maybe at the beginning you get hired, you're super excited, you may be an associate planner, then eventually become a lead planner. Uh, but some companies have not figured out a way to continue to grow individuals within their career at that firm. And, and I think sometimes unfortunately, people end up either feeling like they need to switch firms or maybe even start their own as a result because they don't see a career path. (17:12): Uh, so one of the things that I recommend is to kind of do that soul searching early on and figure out what it really is that you want, like Hannah was saying, and then what do you need right now? Because then you may have to create your own path. You know, unfortunately when you look at other professionals like doctors and lawyers, it's pretty clear cut what you need to do as far as like the steps, how to get into the industry, and then what you need to do once you're in it, right? But our profession is still developing in that sense. I feel like so many people have so many different stories of how they actually found out about financial planning in general, and then the path that they took once they were in it, right? A lot of people may not wanna sell, for example. And then some firms require that you do some sort of business development in, in addition to being a planner, right? And that may not be for everybody, right? So kind of like do a little soul search and figure out exactly where you want to be in this space, Uh, because if it's not there, then you can start thinking of ways to create it for yourself, even if that means eventually launching your own practice because it is doable. Speaker 2 (18:14): Yeah, sure. So I'll certainly echo what Luis is saying is about there's not a clear pathway. I mean, that's one of the biggest obstacles that we have right now in our profession. I think another big one is there's just so much confusion about what is the fee model? What is financial planning? What is, you know, what are the different pathways? Like, you know, can, are you, can you do financial planning in a bank? Can you do it in an insurance company? Can you do it in all these different places? And there's, there's, there's not this uniformity and so there's tons of confusion. I've often said for new planners, they get into one space and it's, they get very isolated and they realize that maybe this isn't the place for them. And they think that there's not a place for them in financial planning. So a lot of what I try to do with new planners is really break them out of that isolation of recognizing there's so much opportunity. (19:01): So with this confusion kind of hand in hand with that, right? Because for every negative, there's usually a really big positive. Um, so the, you know, the negative is this confusion and it's hard to navigate and it's hard to know, you know, what's what, where to go. But the positive is that there is a huge room for innovation. There is a huge room for saying that there is a better way to do this. There is a better way to be providing services to clients, to to be meeting, to be, to be, to meet the needs of different client segments of, of, to just innovate what we have today. And that to me is what's so exciting. And gosh, I think it's like the perfect time to be coming into financial planning right now because there is so much opportunity, um, in that space. The other struggle, especially for people on this call, I mean, my goodness, your're a rising star is we have so many incredibly talented people coming into this field from career changers to people graduating straight from college. And when you have just the talent that we have coming in, I mean, we have careers that are just rocket ship trajectories right now. It's how do, how do firms manage that? Exactly to what least was Luis was saying, how do, how do they navigate that? How do we, how do we help empower those people who have these skill sets and who have this just massive trajectory instead of, you know, holding them back. How can we support them? Because the more that we can support them, the better it is for everybody. Speaker 1 (20:26): Great. Any take home motivational message that either of you want to, to end on here? We, I, we started with Luis before, so, uh, maybe we'll, we'll go there again and then finish up with Hannah. Certainly. Yeah. I would say what you do matters, and this profession is, is one of the, the ones that has, can have lifelong impact. Uh, especially as you develop relationships with your clients that you stay with for a very long time and you see their trajectory, um, you, you're gonna end up needing, you know, some, some tissue sometimes at meetings because some clients really just cry happy tears just looking back at the progress that they've made. And you may not feel like you were having that impact because yes, they do all the hard work, but with your guidance, uh, it could be a life changing moment for them, decisions that you help them make throughout the years and help them accomplish their goals. So what you do really, really matters. And um, yeah, I just hope that, you know, you continue to do this because sometimes it does feel lonely. So, which is bringing it back again to making sure that you stay within, uh, your peer groups and mentors so that you kind of recharge that battery and continue to do the good work that you're doing. Speaker 2 (21:42): Yeah. Oh, I love that. Um, you know, one of the things I often say, especially to new planners is your, you matter. You matter a lot to this profession. There's a whole community of people who are cheering you on and wanna see you be successful. Uh, your career matters, just like Louis was saying, it matters to your clients, it matters certainly to your family, to your community. It matters to, to our profession. Like we, we want to see you be successful. You know, as you were asking that question, uh, a piece of advice, uh, I got from a longtime friend and mentor and coach and, you know, all the things for me is when I first started, I had all of these dreams and all of these aspirations and it felt like nothing was moving. And, and, and so I walked up to somebody and I was asking them, I was at a conference and I was just like, I, I wanna do all these things, but like, I'm just stuck in all these, just the frustrations that can come, um, from, from having these big ideas, from seeing the problems that need to be solved. (22:42): And one of the things that she told me was, you know, it's okay. Seeds often need to be planted and they don't grow right away. And so whatever it is that you might be thinking about, it's okay if you're not taking action on it right now, if it's not the right time. I can't tell you how many times I would get so frustrated, but I knew, I knew that it wasn't the right time for me to do these things. And now we're in a position where it is the right time for us to do things, and it's just a night and day difference. It's okay for your ideas, it's okay for your vision to, to marinate some of the best ideas they need. They need this time to just incubate for you to just be thinking through it, to be processing it for things just to be happening. (23:23): And it can be incredibly frustrating. It can go against the grain of a lot of what the advice is out there of just like, just jump in, just go for it. And there are times for that. Uh, but there are other times where, you know, we just launched a podcast. It's been sitting and marinating for six plus years for us. Um, you know, we have ideas still today that we're not ready to execute. We're just mar like, we're just sitting on them. We're just letting them flush out we're it's not the right time and that's okay. Um, in fact, I would say that that's a really good thing. Um, and so I know that's a little bit kind of counter, but when I talk to, you know, the visionaries, these rising stars, which you guys are, I just wanna remind you of that, that there is a time for things. (24:04): Um, there's natural kind of rhythms to things and it's okay if your big dreams aren't happening right now, um, hold onto it, keep developing it because they're very well is likely a time when it will be time for that, and then you'll be ready. Um, I've often found that those times that I've waited, I've developed the skills that I actually needed to make that idea become successful. So just kind of, you know, knowing the audience that I'm talking to here as the people with likely the big ideas, just wanted to, to remind you of that because that was really, really helpful for me. Um, several years ago Speaker 1 (24:41): We had a, we had an audience question pop in here a minute ago too. I wanted to make sure we got to it quickly, um, before we run out of time. But, um, so I'm gonna ask where can career changers go to do research about whether to start their own ria go hybrid fee only, fee based, et cetera? I, I, I'll let the either of you jump in on that, um, briefly, but I will point out that financial-planning.com is a wonderful place to start some of that as well. We write about those things all the time. Where else would you, would you point someone to if they're trying to figure out those questions early on? Yeah, I would say one of the, aside from just doing research with say places like x y planning network, which I'm a member of, um, I would say you wanna actually speak to people who have done it. (25:24): That's where you're gonna get the most truest honest feedback. And so join the, the FPA group, right? There's people there that have started thier own RIA. Some are fee based, some are Ffeeonly, and so on and, and pick their brain. A lot of people are very open to just hopping on a call with you for 30 minutes and letting you know exactly what they went through, what they would've done differently. Uh, so I would say aside from doing online research, also actually reach out to some folks that have done it and they can tell you exactly what their experience was. It might help you avoid some mistakes that they made along the way. Speaker 2 (25:57): Mm-hmm. completely agree with that. You know, just, I remember when I started my career, I just, I couldn't consume enough information. There was so much out there. So financial planning magazine's a good, good place. Exactly what Luis is saying is like, go connect with people, um, you know, in the externship. That's really what we're targeting. You know, we bring in over 60 different experts to just show you the, like, the landscape of what's possible. Um, read the journals, Read, read, yeah. Get, get, get perspectives. It's, it can often get, once you go down one pathway, it can seem like this is the only way to do that. And so remember that there's lots of pros for lots of different models, there's lots of pros for doing things a lot of different ways. Uh, and if you're not understanding kind of all that, go find somebody in that, in that lane and ask them why, why are they doing it? And get that perspective because that's really where, where you'll get that insight. And then not only that, hopefully they're having a conversation with you of helping you understand if that's where you fit as well, um, would this be a good fit for you, um, or not because you know, what might be the best fit for me may not be the best for fit for you. And I think that's something that we should be celebrating, um, versus just trying to make everybody be like, whoever we want that to be. Speaker 1 (27:10): Yeah. Awesome. Well, I think that's a great note to end on. Um, everyone, please give another virtual round of applause to our guests, Hannah Moore of Amplified Planning in Luis Rosa of Build a Better Financial Future. And if you haven't already, don't forget to check financial-planning.com for the Rising Stars feature and all of FP 'sWealth Management news. Uh, go ahead and subscribe while you're there, uh, for financial planning. I'm Brian Wallheimer. Thanks again to our panelists and everyone, have a great afternoon.
