Zebra Smash - Real Financial Planners | Real Conversations

It usually only takes one look around a conference ballroom to figure out that the majority of the financial planning industry consists of middle-aged white men. That's a problem, because the demographics of our society are changing. Shouldn't the financial advisory industry change, too? We're joined on this episode by Lazetta Rainey Braxton, founder and CEO of Financial Fountains, to talk about diversity (and the lack thereof) in financial services. In addition to her numerous other activities, Lazetta was part of the Diversity Advisory Group of the CFP Board Center for Financial Planning, which published Racial Diversity in Financial Planning: Where We Are and Where we Must Go at its first ever Diversity Summit in October, 2018. Our conversation touches on the many findings and suggestions put forward in the Center's report.

We revisit our soon-to-be-a-hit musical about the life and times of William Playfair, the inventor of the pie chart, line graph, and bar chart. Be warned that listeners have been known to spontaneously start tap dancing, so be sure to stretch before you press Play. If you missed it, be sure to check out Episode 52, in which we revealed the big power ballad from the same show.  

Robert Cialdini wrote the groundbreaking book Influence back in the 1980s.  Over 30 years later, he's back with what he's calling a pre-quel, Pre-Suasion. Does this one deliver better than the Star Wars prequels did?  Find out in our opinionated review.

What will it take to bring financial planning to the mass market in a truly scalable way? Roger has been pondering this idea for several months now, and is beta testing his attempt at an answer.  Listen in as we discuss the origin story of this project, the current state, and where it might go from here. Stay tuned to the end for a rant about the Lean Startup. Human Capville: https://www.humancapville.com  

What's it like to be an exhibitor at a financial planning conference?  How do vendors make the most of the experience?  And what can we as advisors and attendees do to make our interactions with vendors as valuable as possible? Paige Uher, a longtime denizen of the NAPFA exhibit hall, was kind enough to talk with us the day before Thanksgiving to share her experiences. Paige's firm, Zeo Capital Advisors, is not a sponsor of Zebra Smash.  That said, it's only fair that we drop a link to her firm in the show notes: www.zeo.com

Referrals are the most powerful and cost effective component of a successful business development strategy.  But are we thinking about referrals correctly?  Are we thinking about them at all? Stacey Brown Randall has some great common-sense tips for building that referral machinery.

Ben's recap of the 2018 fall NAPFA conference in Philadelphia.  He took notes.  Lots of notes.

Chad Smith returns after his inspiring 2017 review of the Fincon Conference.  Was 2018 just as good?  And does Roger have anything worthwhile to say about it after attending virtually?  

Join us as we read and critique the new academic journal from the CFP Board.  We combed through the details and footnotes so you don't have to.

A conversation with CPA and CFP Lane Keller on the pros and cons of doing client tax returns within a financial advisory practice.

When we talk about life planning here at Zebra Smash, we don't mess around.  LIFE planning.  Is your office prepared for a medical emergency on the premises?  What is the moral case for preparing for a medical emergency, and what options are available to us so we can be ready? We spoke with PK Carlton about what we can and should do.  If you interact with other human beings in your business or in your life, this episode is worth listening to.

If our calculations are correct, this is episode 61, which puts us one episode away from being able to claim Social Security early.  Of course, we know not to claim Social Security until episode 70, but surely you'll agree we're at an important milestone nonetheless. The big announcement in this episode is our newly revamped www.zebrasmash.com website.  At last, we've combined all of our various websites into one.  Find episodes there along with CFP CE credit quizzes.  And maybe leave a tip in the tip jar too.  

We continue living vicariously through friends who make the Investment News 40 Under 40 list by interviewing Jessica Hovis Smith of Longview Financial Advisors.  Jessica was part of the 2018 class, and in this episode she shares with us her career path of starting as an intern to now being in line to assume the presidency of her firm, the work she and the firm founder did using a business coach, and how her firm developed it's niche in helping clients achieve their philanthropic goals.  Links to things we mention in the episode: Business coach Tracy Beckes The G2 Leadership Institute The Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designation from the American College  

We originally planned to talk with Melissa Donovan for about an hour, but it became evident pretty quickly that we would need way more time than that.  This episode is the second half of our conversation with her. While we spent a good amount of time on Medicaid and special needs trusts in the first part, we cover a lot of good stuff on ABLE accounts in this episode, along with other options like pooled trusts.  Melissa knows her stuff.  We didn't come close to stumping her on any of our questions.

It might be a client, it might be a friend, or it might even be you.  But someone you know has a special needs child, and their family is faced with some unique planning challenges as a result. Our guest today, Melissa Donovan, an attorney at the Wiewel Law Firm in Austin Texas, takes us through the topic in amazing detail.  She knows her stuff.  In fact, there was so much to cover that we quickly realized that this would need to be a 2 Part series. This episode is eligible for CFP CE credit, to receive credit, you will need to take a 10 question quiz at www.cheetahsmash.com.  

Does your estate plan handle your digital assets?  Unless you've had your documents drawn up by a forward-thinking attorney in the last few years, the answer is probably no. Your online assets are more than just your mobile banking accounts. We're talking email, social media, blogs, podcasts, frequent flyer miles...It's a complicated area, and it's only getting more complicated as more and more of our lives move online.  Pictures of your kids?  Your Facebook profile?  That Pokemon Go collection you've built over the past 2 years?  Who is supposed to clean all that up if you're dead or incapacitated? And how in the world are they supposed to do it when faced with threats about Terms of Service and privacy concerns? You need a plan. We spoke with attorney Shirley Diefenbach, who has built up a specialty in this area.  She took us through both the legal and practical considerations of preparing your digital estate.

Dave O'Brien - financial advisor, NAPFA board member, public policy junkie, and all around good guy - joins us for his second ZebraSmash appearance to provide an update on DOL, SEC and state-level approaches to fiduciary rules.  The high level summary: 1. The DOL fiduciary law is still the law. It's just not being enforced, like bedtime during the summer. 2. The SEC is taking a crack at the fiduciary concept with three proposed rules, all of which are in the public comment period. Nothing says "cool" like reading 1,000 pages of legislative prose at the beach, so here are links to the Proposed Regulation Best Interest, the Proposed Investment Adviser Interpretation, and the Proposed Form CRS Relationship Summary.  3. Some folks at the state level are trying to do the right thing. But did you know there are 50 states? It's hard to keep track of what all of them are doing. If you hear about something in your state, let Dave know. 

The AICPA planning conference is a solid event every year, but this year we had tax law changes, making it a must-attend event.  Or if you couldn't attend, it's at least a listen-to-a-podcast-about-it-afterwards event. Roger's colleagues John Bohnsack and Matt McKay were there, and have returned to Texas to give us a download of what they found. Following are some links to the things we talked about: Adam Grant’s website: http://www.adamgrant.net/ Adam Grant’s podcast: https://www.ted.com/read/ted-podcasts/worklife Kitces.com article about employees becoming independent contractors: https://www.kitces.com/blog/section-199a-business-entity-choices-qualified-business-income-qbi-deduction-strategies-financial-advisor-specified-service-business-phaseout/

The CFP® Capstone requirement.  If you're really old, normal old, or just a little bit old, you didn't go through it when you got your CFP®.  We sure didn't go through it, so we think that makes us just a little bit old. In any case, the capstone course is now required for all CFP® candidates.  What is it?  How hard is it, really?  And does it really leave candidates better prepared for jobs in the industry? In this episode we talk with Dr. Nathan Harness, who co-authored the capstone case study for Texas A&M's financial planning program.  We also talk with Karis Jochen, one of his students who just completed that very same capstone case study.  Anybody looking to add younger talent to their teams should listen in to see how they're learning about the profession.

What's this?  A NAPFA conference with no representation from Zebra Smash?  That's a first.  Fortunately for us, Will Kaplan was there to give us a full report of how everything went.