Introducing The First Advisor Symposium On Social Media And Blogging, And The XYPN15 National Conference

Author: Michael Kitces

Team Kitces

Michael Kitces is Head of Planning Strategy at Buckingham Strategic Wealth, which provides an evidence-based approach to private wealth management for near- and current retirees, and Buckingham Strategic Partners, a turnkey wealth management services provider supporting thousands of independent financial advisors through the scaling phase of growth.

In addition, he is a co-founder of the XY Planning Network, AdvicePay, fpPathfinder, and New Planner Recruiting, the former Practitioner Editor of the Journal of Financial Planning, the host of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, and the publisher of the popular financial planning industry blog Nerd’s Eye View through his website Kitces.com, dedicated to advancing knowledge in financial planning. In 2010, Michael was recognized with one of the FPA’s “Heart of Financial Planning” awards for his dedication and work in advancing the profession.

Read all of Michael’s articles here.

Advisor Social Media And Blogging Symposium At FinCon15

The first Financial Blogger Conference – or “FinCon” for short – was held in the fall of 2011. Developed primarily for personal finance bloggers who create content directly for consumers, and “monetize” their content through advertising and affiliate offers, the event has grown rapidly in just a few years, with more than 600 attendees in 2014.

Included amongst the growing base of FinCon participants have been a subset of financial advisors, who have been adopting social media and blogging not merely to generate money from third-party advertising, but as a means of establishing credibility and building visibility to generate prospective clients. As the adoption of advisor blogging and social media has continued to increase, so too has the number of advisor participants at FinCon.

Accordingly, I’m excited to announce that this year, I will be helping to co-organize a separate track of FinCon, just for advisors!

This Advisor Symposium on Social Media and Blogging will be the first of its kind – an entire track of content, solely dedicated to the concept of “inbound marketing” for financial advisors, and how to turn a web presence with blogging and social media into business success. (Exact conference speakers and agenda will be announced in the coming months)

And while the Advisor Symposium will have a content focus specifically on how advisors can use social media and blogging to in their practices, by running the conference in conjunction with FinCon, we’re excited about the potential for some of the education, insights, and best practices of the broader FinCon conference to “spill over” for advisors as well!

For those who are interested, the conference itself will run from September 17^th to 20^th in Charlotte, NC, and Advisor Symposium will also be quite inexpensive (especially by industry standards), at a total registration fee of just $498 (technically you will purchase a $399 for a FinCon Pass, and then $99 for access to the Advisor Track). Advisors who are interested can save another $100 (bringing the total cost down to just $398) if registration is completed by the March 31^st Super Early Bird deadline, and an additional $10 discount is available for readers of this blog with the KITCES10 coupon code.

Sponsors who are interested in supporting the Advisor Symposium on Social Media and Blogging at FinCon, please contact Alan Moore at [email protected].

With the official launch underway, you can register now for the Advisor Symposium on Social Media and Blogging at FinCon15. I hope to see you there!

XY Planning Network National (Pre-)Conference

On a related note, this week we’re also excited to announce the first conference ever for the XY Planning Network. The #XYPN15 National Conference will run from September 15^th to 17^th in the days leading up to FinCon, to make it convenient for those XYPN members who want to stay through for the Advisor Symposium. The XYPN conference is also open to those participating in Advisor Symposium (or any other non-members!), who want to come early and learn more about how to serve Gen X and Gen Y clients effectively!

The 2.5 day conference will include keynote sessions with Carl Richards of the Behavior Gap, student loan expert Heather Jarvis, and yours truly, and will offer three tracks covering Practice Management (including how to implement a monthly retainer model), technical financial planning content eligible for CFP CE credits, and a Technology Workshop track to learn about the technology tools available to facilitate working with younger clientele.

Total registration (for non-XYPN members) is $349, with a $25 early bird discount by June 30^th, a $50 super early bird discount by March 31^st and a special $100 discount for anyone registering during this launch week (by February 13^th!). Readers of this blog can receive another $25 discount using the coupon code KITCES25, and members of FPA NexGen and NAPFA Genesis are also eligible for (non-stacking) $50 discounts instead (using the codes NEXGEN50 and GENESIS50 respectively). XYPN members should contact Maddy for their members-only discount.

So in addition to the Advisor Symposium on Social Media and Blogging, I hope that many of you will join us for the #XYPN15 National Conference as well!