When I met Vince Birley at a round table discussion that focused on best practices for financial advisors, I was intrigued for three reasons:

1. He had distinctive white hair and thick, bushy black eyebrows;

2. He identified himself as chief strategy officer of one of the largest independent fee-only financial planning firms in the country. I'd never heard of it.

3. He identified his firm, Ronald Blue & Co., as "Christian advisors."

All of these things interested me. But it was the Christian advisor part that sent up my journalist's antennae. The discussion started with how wealthy families raise kids. Birley, along with most of the other advisors, was appalled at how many wealthy Americans raise their children. "If you leave millions to the children, they often don't do well," he said.

But when he mentioned that his firm used Christians as advisors, most everyone at the table was interested. Could this be the answer to raising children with good values? We spent some time discussing what makes a "Christian planner," as opposed to being a Christian who is a planner or a Jew who is a planner or a Buddhist.

Full disclosure: I am a Christian. But after some scary encounters with fundamentalists, I feel suspicious of anyone who identifies himself as a Christian plumber, planner, banker, roofer, accountant, reporter (ordained priests and ministers excepted). So I wanted to find out just what Birley meant by this.

A lot of religious folk want to shove their values on everyone else. Or they want to dictate the rules or attract a particular audience with a religious testimonial rather than expert skills. Or they just want to use their religious outlook as a marketing tool. When I Googled "Christian planners," Ronald Blue was listed, as well as many other firms that claim to have some connection to Jesus and the Bible.

I checked some of the Christian Web sites to see what I could learn about the genre before I followed up with Birley to get details on how it was that his firm came to be identified as Christian. I found a directory of Christian planners, among other things. I learned that many of these advisors charge high management fees as well as 12b-1 fees.

Several that I examined seemed to be right-wing mixtures of prophecy and investments. They included load funds, Christian organizations that acknowledged they did nothing to vet their list of religious planners, who each paid a $195 annual fee to be on it. Worse yet, some said they receive compensation from the companies whose products they review. The Web sites of some firms claim that the founder got a message from God that starting a financial advisory firm was the right thing to do.

Christianity is not alone here. I found planners with a Jewish orientation as well as a few Islamic financial planners, who have their own designation, IFP.

By labeling themselves as Christian, though, some firms will attract customers just because they are perceived as being good people, and the religious designation will override important credentials such as CFP, CFA, CPA, J.D. Because, really, what does it mean to be a Christian? No one gives you an exam to find out if you can name the five books of Moses or a quiz on your morals or your values or your skill as a planner. I think it would be a disaster for clients to accept any religious identification as important in qualifying for any kind of professional or trade work. And with so much trouble brewing in the advisor marketplace over the fiduciary standard, commissions, fees, etc., adding a marketing ploy that could attract a particular group of people seems to me dastardly.

So I arranged to follow up with Birley to see if his firm had carved out a niche that was more than marketing flair.
What makes someone a "Christian advisor"? Birley says Christians have a different perspective, one that is eternal rather than temporal. They take the Bible as the source of wisdom and espouse "biblical financial planning."

Birley sees money as a test for people as well as a tool and observes that many people fail badly. "So we try to help people pass the test." For example, Ronald Blue doesn't start by asking clients, "What's the best tax angle?" but instead, "What do you want to do for your kids?" The firm has observed a high correlation between people who give and happiness. "With a lot of financial planners, the goal is for clients to become wealthy," he says. "Our goal is to make sure that wealth doesn't absorb them. We remind them that it's God we worship, not money. We help them to be joyful with their life."

Further, many Christian families want to impart their values to younger generations. Ronald Blue's advisors help with that by sitting in on family meetings, offering money education to children-and to adults-as well as recommending books. "We think multigenerational family meetings are critical for the patriarch to pass down what they want, including their family values and history," he says.

Birley contrasts the firm's advisors with "typical" financial planners who help a client accrue wealth, and with televangelists who promise success and prosperity if you give them your money. Ronald Blue instead helps clients plan for what they want for themselves and their children and then draws a "finish line." for them. "How much is enough?" Birley asks. "Once we determine that, we can be generous with what's left." The firm helps clients use their charitable contributions where they will do the most good. "We take so much joy in seeing our clients being generous and joyful," he says.

The firm was founded by advisor Ronald Blue as a fee-only firm in 1979. It became a registered investment advisor in 1983. Blue was convinced that Christians would better handle their personal finances if they were counseled objectively with the highest technical expertise and from a biblical perspective. He holds an MBA and a CPA license and worked in management at Peat Marwick back in the day when Mitchell & Co. was part of the firm's name. I don't see anything phony about either his financial advisory or his Christian credentials. He seems legit, a man with strong religious beliefs and a strong financial advisory background, who decided to bring the two together because he felt by doing so he could serve a market that wasn't being served.

The firm has 4,000 core clients in all 50 states, 250 employees and $6 billion under management. Its fees start at $2,500 for the creation of a financial plan. For other services, including money management, the company starts its fees at 1% and "goes down from there," Birley says. Clients range in net worth from $1.5 million to $1 billion. Ninety percent of the clients come to the firm from referrals. Are Jews welcome? Buddhists? Muslims? Of course, Birley says. "We have Jewish clients, agnostic clients, Christian clients. We practice traditional concepts that appeal to a lot of people, like getting out of debt and diversifying."

At first, I compared the Christian planning to "socially responsible investing," thinking that both were a marketing ploy. In the latter case, I don't believe any of the social screens pull all the offenders out of society. So rather than fret over which social fund to use, I think it makes sense to choose the best investment and then afterward choose the best way to spend your charitable dollars. I realize that many people don't agree with that and want to also make sure their money does no harm.

But what I learned from Birley is that Ronald Blue's Christian advisors do offer something unique. How many other "Christians" do?

Mary Rowland can be reached at [email protected]. She has been a business and personal finance journalist for 30 years and has written two books for financial advisors: Best Practices and In Search of the Perfect Model.