More than 1,000 advisors visited the 9th Annual Chicago Financial Advisor Symposium (FAS), which wrapped up last week with a keynote address from the legendary John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group and president of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center.
   The three-day event, held September 25-27 at the Chicago Hotel & Towers, featured more than 100 exhibitors, nationally known speakers and panels on a wide range of topics pertaining to financial planning, investments and practice management. The FAS is coproduced twice a year by Financial Advisor magazine and Intershow Productions. The next FAS will be held April 19-21, 2007, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
   A highlight of the last week's event was the presentation of the Skip Viragh Award by Rydex Investments to Harold Evensky and the late Lynn Hopewell, two advisors who jointly received the honor because of their contributions to the financial planning profession.
   The keynote speaker at the opening session was advisor Dave Polstra, a founder of Brightworth, a leading wealth management firm based in Atlanta. Polstra's presentation focused on why most wealth transfers from one generation to the next fail.
   Among the panelists was Don Phillips, managing director of Morningstar Inc., who moderated an All-Star Panel of active fund managers. The participants included Charles de Vaulx, chief investment officer and portfolio manager of First Eagle Funds; Louis Holland, president of Holland Capital Management LLC; Alex Motola, portfolio manager and managing director of Thornburg Investment Management; and Bill Nygren, portfolio manager of The Oakmark Fund.
   Gold sponsors of the Chicago FAS were Behringer Harvard Real Estate Investments and the Closed-End Fund Association. Silver sponsors included AIP Alternative Strategies Funds, CardioVascular BioTherapeutics Inc., Driehaus Capital Management, Eckard Natural Resource Group, Fidelity Investments, First Allied Securities, GE Asset Management, Profunds, Ralph Parks Investment Group, Rydex Investments, Select Sector SPDRs, Spectrus Real Estate Group, Tocqueville Asset Management, Trust Company of America and Wellesley Investment Advisors.