What We’ve Been Up To

Well, the cat’s out of the bag. Yesterday, Investopedia announced its Top 100 Financial Advisors of 2021, and we were ecstatic to learn that Daniel Yerger was one of the award recipients and the only one representing Colorado. Notably, the Top 100 from Investopedia is different from many awards in the financial industry. It’s not uncommon to see lists of advisors ranked by most product sales or assets under management every year, but the Investopedia 100 focuses on a different criterion: “With more than 100,000 independent financial advisors in the U.S., the Investopedia 100 spotlights the country’s most engaged, influential, and educational advisors.” Today, we thought we’d take a brief break from the ongoing educational content to highlight some activities we’ve been involved in that help raise engagement with finance.

• MY Wealth Planners Blog: Well, no surprise here but we have a weekly educational blog and you’re reading it. With publication via newsletter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, we’ve made a point of ensuring we spread quality educational content on a regular basis.
• A Smart Financial Plan Podcast: This year we started a podcast for financial planners and practitioners. Accessible but not intended for the general public, we interview academics and researchers on their financial planning research in order to better inform and educate planners on best practices for financial planning.
• Career Mentorship: As a still-growing profession, there’s growing curiosity by many students and career changers about how they can enter the profession. Over a year ago, we began hosting free mentorship sessions with people looking to enter the profession. In the past year alone, we’ve done 1-2-1 coaching with over 40 career changers and students looking for entry into the profession. In order to expand on that, we’ve even written a book on the subject (coming soon!)
• Research: Daniel Yerger is a Ph.D. student with Kansas State University and conducted some of the first research into both how planners charge their clients and why they charge the way they do.
• Education: The past year has included some major contributions to the education of many. We’ve presented on:
  • Investment planning for the FPA Externship, teaching almost two thousand financial planning students how to perform investment planning.
  • Fee Models & Compensation Models for the Financial Planning Association.
  • Been invited to present to the XY Planning Network on compensation models.
  • Been invited to present to the Financial Planning Association at their Annual Conference on Financial Planning service models.
  • Will be teaching Investment Planning at the University of Colorado Boulder.
• Giving Back: Last but not least, we give back our time to the community in a big way (in fact, Selfless Service is one of our values). Such activities include:
  • Serving as Chair for the Longmont Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.
  • Serving on the Public Policy, Education, and Young Professionals committees for the Longmont Chamber.
  • Serving on the Editorial Board for the Next Generation Planner, a periodical for entry-level financial planners.
  • Writing a quarterly column for the Journal of Financial Planning.