Maybe it is just me, but for the last couple of years, it has felt like the financial planning profession has been in a bit of a lull. I feel better about things today, and I will explain why shortly, but recent times haven’t been so hot, at least from my view.

I think one reason I’ve been in a bit of a funk is the influence of the four organizations with which I interact most often: FPA, NAPFA, SFSP and CFP Board. 

My first exposure to a financial planning related association was in the mid-1990s at a local chapter meeting of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners, one of the forerunners of the Financial Planning Association. I learned quickly that there is always someone who is not happy with the association about something.

Like today, there were, shall we say, diverse opinions among CFP licensees with respect to CFP Board activities. A few years later, when I joined NAPFA and the SFSP, it was also easy to find people unhappy with those organizations, CFP Board or some other goings on within the profession.

At that first chapter meeting, I asked a particularly grumpy man at my table “If the ICFP is that much of a mess, why are you a member?”

He replied, “Financial planning will never get where it needs to be if we don’t get together and push for it. I put up with the flaws, so I can get planning to where it belongs.”  

That answer has stuck with me. When it seems we are taking a step back or making no progress, the flaws of these groups annoy me more, but I stay. The fees are a small price to pay for the advocacy work alone. The other benefits are a fantastic bonus.

In recent years, the volunteer board members have been solid citizens, and I have had nothing but good experiences with staff, but it has felt like the profession has stalled a bit. 

Of all the groups, CFP Board has moved forward the most recently. The ad campaign has been successful at boosting awareness of the marks, for instance. 

Unfortunately, CFP Board has also suffered the most significant setbacks such as all the mess related to fee-only and the Camarda matter—nothing like a lawsuit to affect your mojo.

As well publicized as those setbacks have been, I am not inclined to rehash them here. This column isn’t a review of what has been awry in the past. It is about renewed optimism for the future.

So why do I feel good today? I sense a shift in momentum. The year 2015 has been a good one for the financial planning profession. 

CFP Board prevailed in the Camarda matter. Actually, the matter was tossed out quite decisively. Read it yourself here, but the bottom line is if this were a sporting event, CFP Board shut out its opponent. 

CFP Board’s right to enforce its rules were affirmed when Judge Leon ruled there was “no procedural defect in defendant’s (CFP Board) enforcement of its own rules” and as importantly, the Camarda’s “adduced no evidence from which a trier of fact could conclude that defendant violated its duty of good faith and fair dealing.” No evidence.   

A few articles about the case prominently featured the plaintiffs lamenting that the decision means no CFP licensees would get “their day in court.” I thought that odd considering they literally went to court on the matter.

The whole affair and the related fee-only debacle is concerning, but I believe it is far better that the Camardas' claims of bad rules, shoddy enforcement and unfair process be firmly put down by a court of law than not.  

But the result of that suit is just one turn of events. The year 2015 started to feel different when I attended FPA Retreat.

The 2014 Retreat was a dud. It felt flat, uninspired and strikes me as symbolic of the lull.

That symbolism hit me recently as I reflected on the 2015 Retreat. Wow, what a difference. I knew it would be good the moment FPA announced Marty Kurtz and Elizabeth Jetton would be organizing it. I was not disappointed.

Others were hopeful too as the event, held at Chateau Elan outside Atlanta was sold out. The place was fully and solely occupied by retreat attendees. There were no distractions from other groups, and I think that added to the experience.

What I saw was a portion of that professional core fully engaged on the journey to being the best practitioners they could be through a program that beautifully married the art and science of financial planning. There was little talk of robos. The value of planning was so abundantly clear.

There was no town hall meeting with association brass and no one seemed to notice, or care. There is a place for those, but they also often turn into griping sessions about CFP Board and/or FPA. No, this retreat was a retreat focused solely on doing the best for clients.

The old guard, despite its success, was still pushing themselves. They were joined by a terrific group of young and first time retreat attendees who worked just as hard and were just as enthusiastic for financial planning as a profession as the veterans. A similar vibe was pervasive at the NAPFA Spring Conference.

For most of my career, planners have lamented that they couldn’t get the ear of government. FPA had to actually sue the SEC to get them to do the right thing and stop a further erosion of the enforcement of the Advisor Act. But in 2015, we saw signs someone was listening.

Look at all the talk about fiduciary. The DOL actually has a proposal out. Like it or not, it is a conversation that needs to happen. Who pushed that? It sure wasn’t the brokerage or insurance industry. It was the organizations representing the community of financial planner professionals, many of such professionals who work, ironically, in brokerage or insurance environments.

The President of the United States called on a financial advisor at a press conference, and she actually was a real financial planner, not one in title only. When I saw Sheryl Garrett stand and be recognized, I thought “Dang. We have made some progress!” Twenty-five years ago, that kind of thing probably would have been dubbed as pure fantasy by the investment industry.

I understand if you do not view a CFP Board court win, the DOL proposal debate or the President’s recognition with much enthusiasm. Mine is tempered too. There is still a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction.

From time to time, I have been fortunate enough to be in leadership roles for the profession and have learned a few things from the experience. Although I have confidence in the leaders, I am certain that the people who will get financial planning to the professional recognition it deserves are not the leaders of these organizations. The leaders can help (or hinder), but the driving force of change is the behavior of financial planning practitioners.

If those holding themselves out as professional financial planners act like professional financial planners, the public will respond by seeking to work with professional financial planners. It is a shame that doing what you say is a differentiator in the marketplace, but that’s where we are as a society these days in many fields, not just personal finance.

Even as I sensed the organizations I belong to stalling, I could see my peers around the country were not letting that slow them down. They continued to only make promises they could keep and act like bona fide fiduciaries even if they were not going to be held to that standard by regulators.

It is a decent first cut when trying to figure out if someone you don’t know is really a professional financial planner. Do they act like true fiduciaries even if not required to do so?

I don’t care how you are licensed. I care about how you conduct yourself. There are many bad apples out there, of course. But make no mistake, the core of the profession is strong and relentless in its efforts to do right by clients, even if the core is small in number relative to the financial services industry at large.

I’ve been to 14 retreats, but I’ve never written about one. This one really was one to remember. I know it may just be wishful thinking on my part, and I am probably making a statement about this too early, but who knows. It feels like it reflects a shift in momentum the profession needed.

Dan Moisand, CFP, has been featured as one of America’s top independent financial advisors by Financial Planning, Financial Advisor, Investment Advisor, Investment News, Journal of Financial Planning, Accounting Today, Research, Wealth Manager and Worth magazines. He practices in Melbourne, Fla. You can reach him at [email protected].