Conference Highlights & Photos: FPA Retreat May 2019, San Diego
I was honored to speak at the 2019 FPA Retreat. I’ve heard such good reviews of this conference that helps financial planners build community and dig deep on interesting issues, so I decided I should attend as much of it as my schedule allowed.
The conference, held this year in La Jolla, CA opens with a unique tradition of live music followed by unscripted introductions from any attendee who wanted to share why they were attending. Many repeat attendees focused on the friendships and community at Retreat.
Some of my favorite moments:
How to create and run small groups to help process business challenges using action learning, by Elizabeth Jetton. Highlights here.
A beautiful and moving talk by public artist and mental health advocate Candy Chung. She talked about her Before I Die project, in a manner that was calm, authentic, and vulnerable. It’s one of the best keynote presentations I’ve seen.
A look at technology trends, how they’ll affect the client of the future, and how advisors can prepare, by Danielle Fava of TD Ameritrade.
I was pleased to present and interactive session on how financial planners can bring values-based investing into their practice and deepen relationships with clients. In the interactive portion of the session I had attendees think about their own values, and pair up to take turns as “clients” and “planners” having the values conversation. Attendees remarked at how quickly they got to know not just what was important to someone but also why- which led to a deeper understanding of the person’s background.
ESG & Impact Investing
I’m always happy to see that my session is not the only ESG or Impact session on the agenda at a (non- SRI/ Impact / ESG) conference, and that was the case at Retreat. There was a session on Impact Investing and Opportunity Zones that I was disappointed to miss. If you went to the session and want to fill me in, please send me an email!
Connections
It was such a pleasure to move online connections (from Twitter, LinkedIn, and podcasts) into face to face meetings.
I organized a gym meetup and got to strengthen some of those connections further. Pun intended!
What I Missed
I wasn’t able to attend the entire event and am sad to have missed discussions about increasing cultural competency, and James Clear’s presentation on the power of good habits and systems.
Want more details? You can see highlights under the #FPARetreat19 hashtag on Twitter.