FPA aims to connect advisers with business help in Boston this weekend

National adviser conference features gold medal ice hockey goalie and weighty practice management agenda.

Financial advisers are gathering in Boston this weekend to learn how to unlock the value in their business, help clients with diminished mental capacity and pick up a few tricks to improve their firm operations and service.
The Financial Planning Association’s annual Business and Education Conference will begin Saturday with 1980 U.S. hockey team gold medalist goalie Jimmy Craig talking about how great teams win.
Many sessions of the conference focus on productivity and management challenges, something advisers increasingly face as compliance requirements escalate and competition for business grows.
“The conference is about connecting advisers with the practice management information they’re looking for,” said Ed Gjertsen, FPA’s current president. “It’s at events like this where advisers sit down and talk with other practitioners and we share things, like what we’re doing for compliance or a CRM, to help each of us be better practitioners to serve our clients.”
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The meeting, which lasts through Monday morning, follows a series of smaller pre-conferences.
The Association of African American Advisers, known as Quad-A, is holding its first-ever national meeting, and PridePlanners, a group of advisers focused on serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clients, is holding its second national gathering in the two days leading up to the conference.
The Quad-A meeting is something Mr. Gjertsen envisioned back in 2006 when he, Lee Baker and Trudy Turner first created the diversity committee of the FPA, which, like the industry, includes mostly white and mostly male members.
“I’m a little disappointed it took nine years to get here, but it got here,” he said Thursday in Boston.
He’s expects Quad-A will hold its second conference at next year’s FPA meeting, which will be held in Baltimore.
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Practice management highlights of the FPA meeting include “Secrets of Building a Successful Practice,” “How to Grow Your Financial Planning Business Using Social Media,” “Do NexGen Clients Actually Need a Financial Plan” and “Driving Business Performance through Efficiency.”
At the end of the meeting Monday, the FPA and AARP will release research on how Social Security fits into retirement planning strategies.
InvestmentNews editor Fred Gabriel and I will be live tweeting to #FPABE throughout the event.