For about the last three years, she has had psychologist Dr. William Marty Martin on staff, and they tell clients he will be part of the initial planning process. "This is the way we do it: We normalize it. People don't react one way or another," Maton says. "When people are referred to us, it's almost always through someone who's been through the process. So it's an enthusiastic referral. People self-select."

Maton says Aequus tries to identify clients' financial priorities-which may mean redoing the estate plan rather than selling the house-and she tries not to push clients faster than they're ready to go. Some clients can take three to four years to get comfortable with the planning process. One came religiously every quarter to go over her plan until one day she finally looked at Maton and said, "Oh, my God, I get it!"

Now she comes in every other year. "We really try to make no judgments and have no expectations," which she concedes is a hard thing to do. "It's their money and their life. If they can relax a little, it gives them comfort."

While Maton recognizes big transitions cause stress, she believes that everyone in America is now living through times of major ongoing stress-whether it's globalization, turmoil in the job or stock markets, or the Middle East and oil-and it's cumulative. Maton spoke at the first conference of the FTA last September, and she and Martin are writing a book to give a sense of their planning process to a wider audience-including those who don't have access to a planner.

Dr. Sonya Britt is president of the FTA and an assistant professor of financial planning at Kansas State University, one of the few universities with a financial planning degree program. Britt acknowledges that it is more socially acceptable to see a financial planner than a therapist, but planners should be interested in this emerging field, even if they're not ready to fully integrate their practices just yet.

They need to be aware of how to deal with the emotional side of money, she says. "People are trying to find someone to help them with their problems," Britt explains. "It could be a gambling addiction issue or other personal issue that affects their financial goals."

The FTA, which is still developing its standards of practice, qualifications and policy points, doesn't take a stand on fee-only versus commission planners. That's the same policy Kansas State has for its financial planning students. "We don't have a preference," Britt says.

The Kansas State program has a clinic to do research projects-the results of which should end up in the FTA journal-and it does see lower income families who get free services. Ironically, poorer clients tend to be more open to seeing a therapist in the course of their financial planning because of social services they've been exposed to, she says. As for the financial side, most Americans "weren't normally trained in money management in high school or college, and dealing with money issues is a mind-set thing that is not necessarily related to income."

While the organization has a lot of work to do-she notes how long it has taken the financial planning world to set standards and best practices-nevertheless, its short-term goals are to educate the public of its existence, both through the planning and the psychotherapy communities. The association, with a membership fee of just $65, passed its first anniversary in January. It had 110 attendees at its first conference and hopes to double that this coming September. Currently, the FTA has about 200 paid members and another 100 non-paid members. And 70% of the total are planners, not psychologists. There may be hope yet.

Help For Planners
Where can planners go who want to explore these psychological issues further? One obvious place is the FTA and its psychologist members. Judith Gruber is a former corporate banker from New York who became a therapist. Her clients have ranged from the presidents of corporations to the unemployed. "We all have problems with money around relationships and spouses-we all carry that, voices from our past," she says. Additionally, people have a lot of pride around money, so they're afraid to ask questions about it or don't really want to know what their money situation is. Planners have to understand how overwhelming money can be for some people, she says.