Some of these NGT!s have been complex. They require experts to grasp and implement them, meaning new skills and aptitudes. Sometimes, this diverts would-be "experts" from generalist's wisdom. This, in turn, spawns tension between comprehensive planning and profitable product mastery, wisdom v. craft.
It has been ever thus.
Authentic financial planning has always been a profession of and for idealists. Yet, others regard us cynically. They note those tempted by the merely profitable, i.e., those content to pitch NGT! while avoiding process integrity. Not without reason, they surmise a collective tendency to succumb to the siren song of easy money.
Accordingly, we had tremendous diversions into the gloom. There was our early seduction by aggressive tax planning and multiple write-off partnerships. We hopped on insurance industry bandwagons of various sorts. The securities industry gave us some truly terrible products. Some software has been blatantly self-serving. Even our forays into "I'm on your side" financial planning led to the temptation to trade our fundamental purpose for the expediencies of asset gathering.
Observers note perceptively that practitioners who thrive over time are typically those who stick with their financial planning knitting and have the process integrity to ride out the inevitable crisis. They note the continuous, predictable departures of those who took the financial planning cream and forgot the basics, yielding to remunerative temptations at the expense of vision and profession.
Looking back, it seems our profession has grown and matured within a curious, dynamic tension between idealism and cynicism. We have alternated between selfless altruism and our own needs for financial well being. Nothing dishonest, just very human. All these NGT!s reflect our own profession's strains; tensions grounded in the money forces and our own need to live and work within them. Even as we attempt to advise others and practice within the frames of our highest ideals, we, too, must make our livings. This is a new, authentic profession. What else would we expect?
But we cannot stay here. The world moves quickly; nowhere more quickly than in the world of money. Our world. The one that promises a host of NGT!s.
The future beckons ... NGT! ...'Til next time ...
Richard B. Wagner, JD, CFP, is the principal of WorthLiving LLC, based in Denver.