When Hannah Moore graduated from Baylor University’s financial services program, she was quickly hired by an independent financial planner in Texas.
“I was working for a woman who, in one of our interviews, said that she was looking for a succession plan and asked me if I was interested – I had no idea what that meant,” says Moore, owner of Dallas-based Guiding Wealth Management. “It was incredibly overwhelming; it was hard being a new planner and focusing on planning while also running a business.”
Moore sought help from professional organizations in her early career, but now she’s the one doing the helping. She has been producing “You’re a Financial Planner, Now What?,” a series of podcasts aimed at providing support and inspiration for newly minted advisors, for more than a year. In September, the Financial Planning Association signed on to co-produce, market and co-brand Moore’s podcast.
The podcast traces its pedigree to Moore’s early search for mentorship and guidance as a young independent advisor.
“I started going to a seminar series at my local FPA chapter, and it felt like a lifeline,” she says. “For the first time I understood what financial planning really was and I saw the possibilities for us and our clients if we fully embraced planning.”
In 2013, the advisors running the Dallas-Fort Worth-based seminar series moved on, asking Moore to take over leadership of the event. She immediately sought to broadcast the seminars to a wider audience via the internet.
The seminar series has evolved into “You’re a Financial Planner, Now What?,” though Moore says that they’re still attended live and locally as well.
“I knew that my peers needed something like this, but it’s so hard to get into an in-person meeting in the evenings,” she says. “I love my career and the process of financial planning, and I love my business. This is a way of giving back, I hope that it helps financial planning and other young people to see how great this profession really is.”
Now, the podcast becomes part of the FPA’s ”NexGen” initiatives. The organization’s efforts to reach out to younger financial planners began in 2005 with the formation of the NexGen community, a network of newly minted advisors seeking fellowship and support from peers with similar career experiences.
In addition to her podcasts, Moore has played a direct role in growing and promoting the community of younger advisors, helping to establish a Dallas-Fort Worth branch of the FPA NexGen program and working to directly mentor young planners. She also served as facilitator for the 2017 NexGen gathering held this week at the FPA’s annual conference in Nashville.