Expert Forums

Stephanie Bogan is the founder and president of Quantuvis, a national management and marketing consulting firm. She partners with both large and small firms, often acting as interim COO, in order to implement well-imagined management and marketing systems. Stephanie spends the majority of her time working with successful planning firms across the country.

Linda Lubitz Boone, CFP®, has been regularly recognized as one of the nation’s best financial planners in numerous financial publications and by her peers. Linda has been consistently cited as one of “America’s Best Financial Advisors” by Worth magazine since the inception of the list in 1994, and as one of the “Best Financial Advisors for Doctors” by Medical Economics. She served on the National Board of Directors of the Financial Planning Association from 2000 through 2002

Cara Brook is a professional organizer, public speaker, and small business owner. Since February, 2004, her company, Strategize.Organize.Simplify. LLC (S.O.S.), has successfully worked with clients to tackle the seemingly endless piles of paper, create filing systems, organize photos and memorabilia and ultimately create order amid the chaos surrounding them. Cara’s mission as a Professional Organizer is to work with individuals who want to be better organized in their businesses or at home, and remain that way.

Rob Brown, founder of Encore Partners, is committed to helping advisors profit more, make a difference and have fun. During his 21-year career, Rob has always been a successful financial advisor. His experience includes executive management with a full-service financial services firm, helping advisors through coaching, training, fee-based initiatives, and wealth management. Rob has worked with advisors from dozens of broker-dealers. His corporate relationships have included speaking and training engagements with Sterne Agee, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, John Hancock, MFS, Century Securities and Securities America.

Bob Burg shares information on a topic vital to success of today’s financial advisor, and that is “How to Cultivate a Network of Endless Referrals.” His client list includes numerous financial services companies and associations. On the national circuit, Bob has shared the platform with notables such as Zig Ziglar, Dr. Denis Waitley, Debbie Fields, Brian Tracy, CNN’s Larry King, T. Harv Eker, Radio legend Paul Harvey, Mary Lou Retton, Tom Hopkins, the late President Gerald Ford, and many others. His book, Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales, now in its 3rd edition, has sold over 175,000 copies and is still going strong.

John Burns, CFP, is the founder of Burns Advisory Group, a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor with offices in Oklahoma City, San Diego, and Old Lyme, CT. John’s views on investments have been featured by CNBC, Bloomberg Television, Smart Money, Better Investing, and BusinessWeek. He is one of six inaugural members named to Schwab Institutional’s newest advisory council aimed at guiding advisors who leave traditional financial-service companies to start their own independent firms. John is also a frequent speaker on how advisors can successfully become independent advisors.

Joanne Day is a Managing Partner of Trumpet, Inc., a consulting firm that designs, installs and supports comprehensive electronic document management systems exclusively for financial planning and investment advisory firms. Prior to founding Trumpet, Joanne worked as a planner in a full-service financial planning firm. She is a frequent speaker at FPA, NAPFA, broker/dealer, and custodian-sponsored conferences.

Mindy is the President and C.E.O. of Diamond Consultants, which she founded in 1997. Nationally recognized as an authority on recruiting in the financial services field, Mindy works with the nation’s top brokerage firms and banks and consults with, trains and coaches individuals, small and large groups on state of the art practices with regard to recruiting top quality financial advisors.

Phil Dyer is founding principal of Dyer Financial Advisory, an independent financial planning and Registered Investment Advisory firm located in Towson, MD. Phil also serves as Chief Financial Educator for MONEYSmarts™ Academy, an organization that provides customized, financial education programs for private secondary schools, independent colleges and corporations. He is an active member of the following organizations: National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, Financial Planning Association, National Association of Tax Practitioners, Kinder Institute of Life Planning and the Garrett Planning Network. He earned the Registered Life Planner credential from the Kinder Institute in 2007.

Dan Finley is the President and Co-Founder of Advisor Solutions, Inc.—the Premier Financial Advisors Business Consulting and Coaching Service dedicated to helping Advisors Build a Better Business. His 15-year successful brokerage career includes 13 years as a successful financial advisor, as well as over 2,000 plus hours of individual and group coaching sessions coaching financial advisors in the past 3 years alone! He holds licenses with the NASD, (Series 7, 63, 65) life, health and annuity. Dan is a frequent speaker at branch offices and national conferences. His individual coaching and group coaching client list include advisors from A.G. Edwards, Ameriprize Financial, LPL Financial Services, Smith Barney, UBS, Morgan Stanley, H. & R. Block Financial Advisors, Wachovia, Wells Fargo Investments, Bank of America as well as independent firms.

Sheryl Garrett is a nationally recognized financial advisor, author, speaker and expert witness. She is Founder of the Garrett Planning Network, an international network of financial advisors who offer their services on an hourly, as-needed basis. A personal financial advisor for 18 years, she is a longtime advocate of providing competent and objective financial advice to all people, and has been dubbed “The All-American Planner.”

Mary Lacey Gibson, CFP®, Business Coach, has worked with thousands of independent small business owners in virtually every industry since 1991. This broad base of experience and the fact that she is also a practicing financial advisor, gives her unique insight into the needs of financial planning firms from start-ups or those with growing pains. Mary's coaching centers on the development of practical, measurable working business plans, business processes and standardized procedures for growth and problem solving. She is the Business Coach for the Garrett Planning Network where she developed tailored business plan writing and development materials and hosts a monthly coaching call.

Larry Pinci and Phil Glosserman are top business and sales trainers and coaches who work with senior executives, business owners, and sales teams throughout North America. They have a passion for helping others succeed and have earned a solid reputation for catalyzing companies and individuals to develop significant sales and business growth. Larry and Phil’s Sell the Feeling sales training programs have been called ‘the most eye-opening and effective’ business seminars on the market today.

Debra Hansen joined Securities America in 1996. She was promoted to Director of Marketing in 2000. She is responsible for creation of advisor, client and recruiting marketing and promotional materials, market research, public relations initiatives, advisor and public websites, and advertising. Debra earned both a BS and an MBA in Marketing. She also holds Series 7, 24, 63, 65 licenses and is a CFP® certificant.

Michael Haubrich, is a Certified Financial Planner practitioner with more than 20 years of practical experience and a NAPFA registered advisor. He is the owner of Financial Service Group a fee-only firm with more than 100 million dollars in assets under management providing superior quality financial advice to select clients.A magna cum laude graduate of University of Wisconsin, Parkside, Mike is past-president of the southeast Wisconsin chapter of the IAFP (Financial Planning Association) and frequent guest lecturer on the subjects of holistic financial planning and innovation approaches to the practice. Along with the more traditional financial planning services, Mike is currently focusing on helping clients address financial and non-financial life transition issues. His recent work includes development of career asset management as a value-add to the planner/client relationship.

As managing member of Capital Wealth Management, LLC in Glastonbury, CT, Tom Hine combines his financial expertise with a natural ability to explain and articulate complex concepts to help his clients feel comfortable and well informed. He has been a featured presenter at seminars for major corporations, as well as over 150 seminars designed for the general public. His presentation for #4-ranked independent broker/dealer Securities America in June 2007 was one of the best attended educational sessions at the national conference, as scores of Registered Representatives flocked to hear the first-hand account of Tom’s grueling NASD Arbitration and how he applied timeless martial arts principles to build and protect his $1.5 million producing wealth advisory practice.

Rick Kent has been a part of the financial services industry since 1995. He received his Chartered Financial Consultant's designation from the American College, is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional. An active member of the Financial Planning Association, Rick earned his CFE Certified Financial Educator® credential through the Heartland Institute of Financial Education. Rick was an Honorary Chairman on the National Congressional Committee Business Advisory Council. He founded The Merit Retirement Advantage, a unique consumer retirement planning program, in 2005.

Michael E. Kitces, MSFS, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CASL, CWPP, is Director of Financial Planning for Pinnacle Advisory Group, a private wealth management firm located in Columbia, Maryland that oversees nearly $500 million of client assets. He is an active writer and editor and has been featured in publications including Financial Planning, the Journal of Financial Planning, Journal of Retirement Planning, Practical Tax Strategies, Leimberg Information Services, and recently co-authored his first book The Annuity Advisor with John Olsen. Michael also speaks regularly at local and national conferences, has been a guest on CNBC PowerLunch, NBC Nightly News, CNN Live, and NPR. Michael is also a co-founder of NexGen, a community of the next generation of financial planners that aims to ensure the transference of wisdom, tradition, and integrity, from the pioneers of financial planning to the next generation of our profession.

Nancy Lininger calls herself a "Professional Weightlifter." She will lift the burden of compliance off your shoulders. Nancy has helped investment advisors and broker/dealers at some of our industry's top companies with operational and marketing "tune-ups." With her broad-based background from stockbroker to compliance officer; broker/dealer and investment advisory operations; Nancy shares real life experience from the trenches.

Joe Lukacs is the president and founder of International Performance Group, Inc. (IPG), a professional coaching company. Prior to founding IPG in 1994, Joe was a personal development consultant/coach in the organization of internationally recognized human development trainer, Anthony Robbins. Joe specializes in working with financial advisors in such areas as profitable business growth, business planning, business relationships, client development, client retention, goal setting, motivation, and communication.

Bonnie has a practicing CPA since 1995. In 2000, Bonnie received her Certified Specialist in Estate Planning (CSEP) designation from the National Institute for Excellence in Professional Education, LLC. Her background includes all facets of accounting, including financial statement and tax preparation, as well as computer software and bookkeeping assistance. She is also a 2006 Certified Quickbooks Pro Advisor. In addition, Bonnie is an instructor for the Becker CPA Review course, an FICPA Ethics course facilitator and a frequent lecturer on various topics.

Maria Marsala, a licensed One Page Business Plan® consultant, draws on her Wall Street trading experience and 30-plus years of business success to help business owners, professionals and executives nationwide. Her specialty is helping them automate and streamline the parts of business they too often ignore until they come back to bite them—planning, administration, operations.

Hugh Massie is the President of Financial DNA Resources, an international wealth mentoring firm specializing in human behavioral discovery. He is a leading international speaker on behavior and wealth creation, regularly presenting at leading financial services industry, corporate and not-for-profit events around the world.

Donna specializes in financial planning and investment advisory services, focusing on life financial planning for entrepreneurs and women. A CFP™ and a CPA, she brings more than 25 years experience in business management, financial planning and financial consulting to her clients. Sue is a Certified Public Accountant with 20 years experience in Public Accounting and Taxation. Her clients represent a wide range of industries, including professional services, temporary staffing agencies, insurance and restaurants.

Barbara Stanny is an accomplished motivational speaker, author, and former career consultant who empowers women (and men) to live up to their financial and personal potential. Recognized as an expert on women's financial issues, she has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC, PBS, and NPR, and in the New York Times. From 1998 until 2000, the National Association of Security Dealers chose Stanny as a spokesperson for their Promoting Financial Sense campaign. In 2006 she was chosen as AllState's spokesperson for their Women & Retirement Series and Domestic Violence Program.

Marie Swift is Principal of Impact Communications, a full-service marketing communications firm. Marie has been working with advisors, helping them make better marketing communications and business decisions, since 1988. Her firm currently represents industry influentials such as George Kinder, Sheryl Garrett, Julie Littlechild, Norm Boone, Brent Hicks, David Drucker, Alan Gappinger and best selling author Lee Eisenberg. Bob Veres, a columnist for Financial Planning magazine, says "Marie is perhaps the best marketing and PR consultant in our industry."

With more than 20 years in the financial services industry as a financial advisor, nationally recognized speaker, and noted author and columnist, Katherine Vessenes, JD, CFP®, RFC is an in-demand consultant and speaker for broker/dealers, insurance companies, and other financial advisers. As president of Vestment Advisors, she works with financial service companies to help them build profits and achieve a higher level of success. After getting her securities, RIA and insurance licenses in 1984, Katherine left personal financial planning in 1989 to become Vice President and Officer of the IDS Mutual Fund Group (now Ameriprise) where she was legal counsel to Gerald Ford, and other Fortune 20 CEOs.

Bill Walton brings over 18 years of experience as a sales trainer and executive coach to his clients. He's worked extensively in the financial services industry with direct experience in wealth management, retirement, mutual fund and annuity wholesaling, Sales and Trading, and Managed Accounts. Bill is the founder and president of ProDirect LLC, a sales training and coaching company that blends sales training, business development tools, and real world coaching.

Jason Zweig is a senior writer for Money magazine, and he has also been a guest columnist for Time magazine and cnn.com. Zweig is the editor of the revised edition of Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor (HarperCollins, 2003), the classic text that Warren Buffett has described as "by far the best book about investing ever written."
Zweig’s new book Your Money and Your Brain, on the neuroscience of financial decision-making, will be published by Simon & Schuster in September, 2007. He is now collaborating with the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman on a book about decision-making, to be published by Doubleday.

Dan diBartolomeo is president and founder of Northfield Information Services, Inc. Based in Boston since 1986, Northfield develops quantitative models of financial markets. The firm's clients include nearly three hundred financial institutions in twenty countries. Dan is a Visiting Professor at the CARISMA research center of Brunel University in London. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Quantitative Alliance and the advisory board of the International Association of Financial Engineers. He is also an active member of the Financial Management Association, and “QWAFAFEW”. Dan is a director of the American Computer Foundation. He has written extensively for the CFA Research Foundation.