I was recently out of the St. Louis area for a bit while I attended The Garrett Planning Network 16th Annual Retreat which was held in Denver, Colorado. I am a member of the Garrett Planning Network which is an international  group of financial planners that offer planning and investment advice on an hourly basis.  Each member owns their own firm. I have written about the Garrett Planning Network before.  This was the eighth year I have gone.

I attended the conference and earned continuing education credits by going to various educational programs, which I need so that I can keep my designations and licenses such as:

• CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™
• NAPFA Registered Financial Advisor
• CHARTERED RETIREMENT PLANNING COUNSELOR℠

During the four day conference I attended various educational programs such as:

• Behavioral Finance: Psychology and Economics in Investing
• Reverse Mortgages in Retirement Income Planning
• Planning Costs Related to Caregiving
• Fiduciary Best Practices for Registered Investment Advisor Owners
• And others

Noted author William Bernstein, a bit of a rock star in our industry, gave one of the Keynote addresses titled “What the Liberal Arts Have to Teach Us about Finance.”  He talked about the difficulty of forecasting, and characteristics of good forecasters.  He discussed economic history; not the usual economic history going back to the market crash of the 20s, or even the tulip bulb bubble.  But economic history going back to biblical times and what conclusions can be drawn from such “longitudinal studies.”

Allan Roth, another well known author and fellow financial advisor delivered the Keynote address “Behavioral Finance: Psychology and Economics in Investing”, wonderfully telling it like it is in his typical style.  He shared financial decision making biases that negatively impact consumers and advisors alike based on academic research and personal observation.

You can see some of the live tweeting that I did at the conference under my Twitter handle @HourlyPlanner.  You do not need a Twitter account.

The Garrett Planning Network, has dozens of conference calls throughout the year, and the members interact on an internal forum to help each other with more complex planning cases on a daily basis.  One of the most beneficial outcomes of my annual trip to this retreat, is getting together with this group, sharing ideas, and getting updates from these amazing colleagues in person.  I am already looking forward to next year!