Rossell put a bright sheen on the increased savings rates of consumers. She said that while many think these increased savings rates could dampen a turnaround, she herself thinks that the new frugality (after several years of zero savings when people were indulging their penchant not for hoarding but for buying shoes) could help the economy rather than hurt it in the long run.

"Rising savings is sort of a painful adjustment process," she said, "but I'd rather take that adjustment process for more resiliency and less sort of boom and bust over the next decade."

She also said that out-of-control housing prices (so bad in the recent past that she mentioned even she preferred renting) have probably bottomed in the U.S., putting median home values in line with median income for the first time in a long time. She believes that the U.S. deflation will not be of the sort seen in Japan, but rather a short-term phenomenon due mainly to the recession. And she believes surprising export strength will help lead the U.S. into recovery.

Another keynote speaker was David M. Walker, the former U.S. comptroller general and one of the forces behind the documentary I.O.U.S.A., a cautionary film about the national debt. Walker took his turn at the lectern to decry the out-of-control spending taking place in Washington, D.C. under both the current and last administrations. He said the big crisis he sees is not the current recession but the fact foreign lenders might lose confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to put its own financial house in order, which Walker said could drive up interest rates, crush the dollar and eventually harm the economy and American families.

"It's important that we recognize," he said, "that the most serious challenge facing the United States-and in a collateral effect, others around the world-is not terrorism, is not nuclear proliferation, is not climate change. In the United States, it's our own fiscal irresponsibility. It is one that threatens the future of our country and the future of our families. We have a ticking time bomb."

Getting Younger Planners Involved

Younger planners also had a higher profile at the conference. Tuttle said that as a disproportionate number of older planners retire, the role of younger planners coming up through the pipeline becomes more important. And yet many younger planners have grown anxious about the austerity cuts in travel and education budgets this year, as many of them rely on conferences such as the FPA's to seek connections and mentors.

"Like anybody, younger planners are worried about whether firms will have or retain positions for them," said Michael Branham, a financial planner at Cornerstone Wealth Advisors in the Minneapolis area, and the chair of NexGen, a professional group for young advisors. "It's a particular issue economically for younger planners because a lot rely on their firms' education budget to attend conventions like this one."

For practical reasons having to do with the current economic circumstances, Branham said NexGen hitched its annual meeting this year to the FPA Anaheim conference (it usually holds a separate confab in July), and gathered for a "pre-conference" in the days before the FPA's meeting started in earnest last week.

During the conference itself, the FPA also tried to keep its members up to date on social and technology trends with a presentation called "Twitter Live!" in which industry stars twittered their key thoughts about advising for 2010.