Living, Dying and Dollars…

There’s a movement afoot in the financial planning business called “life planning” or “holistic planning.” The basic premise of this approach is that the planner  focuses on issues that encompass your money issues instead of just paying attention to investments and -  peripherally – risk management questions.

Planners who adopt this approach ask questions about your financial and investment goals and risk tolerance, as do all investment advisors. An holistic planner also asks how you feel about your future, your family and the other facets of your life that embrace your money issues but are not mumeric; questions of living and dying.

Although this approach is touted as “new”, it is actually a return to the practices that were prevelant for over a century prior to the 1980’s. Beginning in this decade the investment community moved – perhaps unconsciously – to eradicate ”holistic” planning. The dawn of computers as tools to model and manipulate one’s perception of the future created an environment dominated by projections and hypothetical performance. The Behemoths developed pre-packaged programs that let the planner plug in numbers and generate 50 page reports that promised the incredible, but guaranteed nothing. This model replaced concerns about living and dying with discussions of rates of return, long term market performance, and all star fund managers. In other words, the focus changed from what’s important to you to what’s important to the planner and the Behemoth s/he represents.

One Behemoth has an adveriting campaign that mocks this approach with cartoon-like characters that complain about the insensitivity of their current advisors. Another suggests that you don’t need to pay someone to just run the numbers for you since you can personally use online resources to solve the invesment equation. Neither of these companies is concerned with your living and dying – they have simply disguised their focus on acquiring your assets.

A planner that focuses on you, your family, your feelings and your future is invaluable. Many planners today are re-learning the practices that prevailed from the days of our Founding Fathers through most of the 20th century. The Certified Finacial Planning (CFP), the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) programs pay a lot of attention to teaching them. These designations do not, however, guarantee that the planner who puts them on her/his business card uses an holistic approach. Planners that work for the Behemoths are still bound to sink their hooks into your assets. They concern themselves with other issues only peripherally and only if it serves their main goal of getting your money into the Behomoth’s account. They have the designations for the sake of the designation. They do not truly follow those practices.

If you would like to learn how these practices are put to work for typical Americans, read Money for Life…in good times and bad –> www.TheMoneyForLifeBook.com

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