On a personal level, Garday found himself wrestling many serious financial planning issues after the death of his wife several years ago. "Nothing I did or learned as a CPA [or my family attorney learned] prepared me for all of the planning and life decisions I had to make," he says.
Garday believes a growing number of financial professionals like him are going to want the CFP license. "Do I think we can double in size? Yes. Triple? Yes. Quadruple? Maybe."
The CFP license came a long way under the leadership of Bob Goss, but if Garday is going to put it on the same playing field as the CPA and bar association licenses, he has his work cut out for him. He hopes to reach out to the American Bar Association and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to work together in this area, although they initially may not be receptive. "Wouldn‚t it be nice [for] the big three providers of financial services got together and reached an accord?" he asks.
Garday clearly sees his role as raising the stature of the financial planning profession within the financial services business. "In terms of examination, professional review and other requirements, the CFP license is already there," he notes.
Meanwhile, he has to get his own CFP license. "I can‚t just pass it, I have to do very well. So I‚m going to take some courses while working a 60-hour week," Garday says.
While interviewing for the job, Garday studied e-mails on various Web sites and saw the contentious level of some debates. In his new job, he will have to balance the CFP Board‚s mission of protecting the public while promoting the license. "I think much of the shouting is over," he predicts.
Forget About Estate Tax Repeal, Advisors Say
The new death-tax law has estate planners scrambling to weigh the impact on their clients. But it‚s not just the intricacies of the law that are under scrutiny. It‚s also the question of whether the new law will last.
As it stands, rate reduction will be phased in until there is no death tax in 2010. But estate taxes will snap back in 2011 to 2001 levels, barring any further action by Congress.
Some feel it‚s likely things could change much earlier than that. "There‚s a lot of reasons motivated by a lot of issues that will have that law revisited long before 2010," says Herbert K. Daroff of Baystate Financial Services in Boston, who believes the reductions could be scaled back as early as next year. "I think the primary motivator will be the state legislatures when the state death-tax credits start eroding in just a year or so."
Tom McFarland, president of The Darrow Co., a fee-only financial planning firm in Concord, Mass., is telling clients to make adjustments only for the increase to the $1 million maximum exemption in 2002. Beyond that, he says, all bets are off.