Aequus On The Move

    For Cicily Maton, the fall season proved to be a particularly busy one. She was constantly on the move giving presentations, attending conferences, and working to develop a deeper understanding of the issues Aequus clients face. Here, are some highlights of her travels:

* The Financial Planning Association held its annual conference from October 9-12 in Denver, CO. Cicily attended the conference which focused on ethics, fulfilling a continuing education requirement for maintaining certification as a financial planner. The subject of ethics has taken on greater importance since Congress has compelled the Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt a fiduciary standard for all financial advisors including brokers who sell products for a commission. (Aequus has always adhered to a fiduciary standard which calls for putting clients’ interests ahead of it own.)

* Cicily also gave a presentation to FPA members entitled Enhancing the Financial Planning Experience by Collaborating with a Financial Therapist.
Among the general sessions Cicily found enlightening were:

    — Dan Ariely, Ph.D., author of Predictably Irrational, explored how we all succumb to irrationality in situations where rational thought is expected
    — Dr. Somnath Basu, Ph.D., spoke on the new economy, the debacle in the financial markets, and the structural changes occurring in its aftermath.
    — David Wessel, economics editor of the Wall Street Journal and author of the book In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic, gave a presentation called “Will the Great Recession be followed by the Great Stagnation?”
    — In Cicily’s view, the best session was that of Ian Bremmer on the topic Managing Risk in an Unstable World. As president of a global political risk research and consulting firm, his insights on how political developments move markets proved to be positively mesmerizing.
   
    When the first conference of the brand new Financial Therapy Association Conference took place in Manhattan, Kansas on September 14, 2010, Cicily was also in attendance. The association provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, the media, and policy makers to share research, practice methods, and models of financial therapy. The opening conference reflected the growing recognition that financial decision making is sometimes, if not always, influenced by factors that have nothing to do with the money, the figures, or the data.

The groups represented at the FTA conference included therapists who engage in modifying behavior; Financial planners who recognize that their clients often make decisions that are not in their best interest; academics who are engaged in teaching and researching the connection between planning and therapy or decision making; and masters and Ph.D students in financial planning and/or therapy who represent the wave of the future.
   
Here, too, Cicily contributed by giving a presentation entitled “Translating Research into Action: Financial Therapy on the Front Line.” Her talk described the process Aequus takes with new clients in collaboration with Dr. Marty Martin, who is a behavioral finance professor at DePaul University and a financial coach with Aequus. “There are only a handful of financial planners in the country who are actively collaborating with financial therapists,” Cicily said. “Aequus is again on the leading edge.”