How XY Planning Network is Starting a Movement in Financial Planning

There’s a fundamental shift happening within the financial services industry. It’s significant enough to be called a movement, and for good reason: the goal is to create a financial planning service that is not only accessible and widely available for consumers, but also to make the financial planning profession more open and welcoming to aspiring young planners who are eager to make positive changes in the lives of their clients as they develop a viable, long-term career for themselves.

More and more young financial planners have a sincere desire to simply be paid for providing good financial planning advice, without the requirement and pressure to sell products just to make a living. More and more of these young advisors are also interested in becoming accessible to everyone, specifically their Generation X and Y peers – which also happen to be very under-served markets overall in an industry that is increasingly focused only on those who have hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in assets.

These up-and-coming leadersof the financial planning profession want what’s best for their clients, and they strive to act as more than just investment managers or salespeople. They’re fiduciaries that hold their clients’ best interests near and dear to them, and they want to actively work together as a team in order to see the clients they serve reach financial goals and successfully build real wealth under the guidance of their excellent financial planning advice.

Modern financial planners are searching for a new way to do things, finding efficient new ways to build a business and eschewing business models that severely limit who they can serve. They’re interested in working with Gen X and Gen Y clients because this is the market they know, understand, enjoy, and strongly connect with. And they want to learn how to create lifestyle businesses that allow for more personal freedom and satisfaction in the midst of an otherwise difficult job market.

The XY Planning Network was established to meet these needs, desires, and interests of today’s innovative and engaged Generation X and Y financial planners.

What We're Working Toward Will Create a Better Financial Planning Model

One of the main beliefs of the XY Planning Network (XYPN), and those involved with it, is that financial planners should be accessible to more than just those with significant assets or in immediate need of financial services products, and that working with clients for an affordable ongoing monthly fee is a way to make financial planning services more accessible. Young people today pay for a wide range of ongoing essential (and not so essential!) services with a monthly subscription fee, and we believe that financial planning should be one of those core essentials.

• spreading the expectation to consumers that anyone who gives financial advice should be a fiduciary, and be accountable for acting in the consumer’s best interest when providing that advice.
• encouraging financial advisors to actually provide real, actionable advice and planning for their clients, without the conflicts of interest inherent in relying on commission-based sales for income.
• creating businesses and firms that are accessible and technology-driven, in order to keep pace with NextGen client expectations and preferences, as well as to encourage NextGen financial planners to build practices that allow for personal freedom and satisfaction.
• making financial planning for everyone, regardless of assets or wealth; consumers should have access to a financial planner to build wealth, not have to wait until they’ve already accumulated wealth to get sound financial advice.

Helping the Consumers - by Creating a Better Profession for the Planners

While we strongly believe in advancing the financial services industry to become one that better serves consumers, we want to make the financial planning profession itself as accessible for future advisors as it is should be for their future clients.

What truly makes XYPN an incredible resource for advisors is that it connects them with their ideal clients, members of Gen X and Gen Y who need financial planning services, while also providing additional support, education, and turnkey business solutions to help them more quickly grow and succeed. It’s a comprehensive network for Gen X and Y advisors who want to offer comprehensive, financial-planning-centric advice for their Gen X and Y peers.

In addition to being a space where advisors can connect with the perfect client, the network offers financial planners the tools they’ll need to continue building a better profession - and the help aspiring planners require in order to get started:

• Turnkey compliance support, with the tools and templates you’ll need to get your practice up and running quickly, and keep it in compliance with all regulatory requirements as easily as possible
• Webinar training and member forums, where you’ll have access to educational materials and the knowledge and advice of our best-in-class coaches , and fellow XYPN advisors who are part of the network, to provide young financial planners with the information, skills, and resources they need to succeed
• Tools and technology that you need to run a better practice - at a fantastic value for members
• Personalized profile in the Find an Advisor consumer resource, so Gen X and Y consumers who want to obtain financial planning services for an affordable monthly fee can find XYPN members to serve them
• Access to marketing education and support
• Incredible opportunities to network across the country with your peers, industry leaders, and up-and-coming advisors working to gain their certifications and launch their own practice
• Additional member benefits and perks, including close access to press and reporters (to garner media attention), additional social media coverage from XYPN across platforms, ability to form private study groups and masterminds, access to an innovative payment platform for collecting client payments, and much more

The XY Planning Network isn’t only a resource for consumers who want to find a financial planner who can help them for an affordable monthly fee. We’re here first and foremost for our advisors, the financial planners who are eager to work with their peers, make positive changes within the profession, and build a successful career and business for themselves.

We’re here to encourage more innovative, talented Gen X and Gen Y people interested in the profession to make the leap and start training to become financial planners with operating practices that specialize in helping their peers. We want to see our advisors lead the paradigm shift as we move away from outdated industry standards and towards a better way of doing things.

We’re looking for more financial planners to help further our efforts, and to become a part of the movement that’s working to create a better financial planning industry. Will you join us?

About the Author

Alan Moore is the CEO and Co-Founder of XY Planning Network—a support ecosystem dedicated to helping fee-for-service advisors start, run, and grow their own financial planning firms and serve the clients they want. His favorite part about his job is dreaming about possibilities for what's next, knowing his stellar team will either tell him no or Get Sh*t Done to make it happen.