Financial Planning
Asset Management
Professional management of both securities (such as stocks, bonds, limited partnerships, and mutual funds) and tangible assets like real estate to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of an investor.
Certified Financial Planner (CFP)®
A CFP® has received approved training and industry certification in the six areas of financial planning: estate planning, retirement planning, cash flow management, risk management, tax planning, and investments.
ChFC®
The Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) designation is a program to certify planners in Advanced Financial Planning. The requirements are similar to those for the CFP®, except they also include additional course work in financial planning. Planners must also pass an examination, obtain three years of work experience, sign a code of ethics, and obtain 30 hours of CE credit every two years.
Fee-based Financial Planners
Financial planners whose income is a combination of commissions on financial products they sell and fees for financial planning.
Fee-Only Financial Planners
Financial planners who receive no commissions, kickbacks or hidden fees from any source, but whose earnings come from direct fees to clients.
Financial Coach
A professional with training and certification in coaching as well as knowledge of exterior finance, who can help clients establish and work toward financial goals.
Financial Coaching
The process of working with a financial coach to define and work toward financial goals. Financial coaching focuses primarily on the future, while financial therapy explores and resolves issues from the past.
Financial Planning
Comprehensive advice and assistance to a client for the purpose of meeting the client’s financial needs and life goals. This includes, but is not limited to, these major areas: cash flow management, education planning,retirement planning, investment planning, risk management and insurance planning, tax planning, estate planning and business succession planning (for business owners).
Financial Therapist
A psychologist or family counselor trained in psychotherapy and financial planning, who can help clients work through deep and sometimes dysfunctional beliefs about money (see Money Scripts) that are causing problems in their lives.
Integrated or Integral Financial Planning
An approach to financial planning that helps clients with both the interior and exterior aspects of their relationship with money.
Money Scripts
Unconscious beliefs about money, usually formed in childhood, which we may not even realize we hold but which shape our financial decisions and behavior. An example of a money script is, “More money will make everything better.”
RIA
an RIA as a “person or firm that, for compensation, is engaged in the act of providing advice, making recommendations, issuing reports or furnishing analyses on securities, either directly or through publications.