In this new column I'm calling "On the nighttable..." I will be highlighting some of the books that I'm reading. Right now, I'm just finishing up a book called "Stabilizing an Unstable Economy" by Hyman Minsky. But the interesting thing is not just that it's another book on stabilizing the economy... it's that Minsky wrote it several decades ago, yet it is nonetheless remarkably prescient about the events of the recent years!
After being absent from this blog for nearly a year, I'm happy to report that the Nerd is back! That's right, Nerd's Eye View is coming back to life with a new focus, and a fresh commitment that it will have content!
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As George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," but fortunately we don't need to remember the past ourselves, at least when it comes to financial planning. E. Denby Brandon, Jr., and H. Oliver Welch, have done it for us in their new book "The History of Financial Planning: The Transformation of Financial Services."
Already being experienced by consumers and financial planners, it seems that the economic downturn has arrived on the doorstep of the Financial Planning Association as well. In the past week, the FPA national organization has slashed their staff by approximately 12%, and the price of their upcoming conference by over 70%!
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In a message board thread on financial-planning.com, initiated by Harold Evensky, there is an interesting discussion of the fact that apparently State Farm has directed all of their agents to voluntarily relinquish their CFP marks. It appears that an overarching fiduciary standard is "not conductive to [their] business model."
After nearly a decade of ongoing complaints about the poor communication with respect to the CFP Board and changes/initiatives that it launches, it appears the organization, under the guidance of its "new" CEO Kevin Keller, has turned over a new leaf for 2009. Or at least, it's off to a good start.
