Championing Change Across the Country

The Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leading membership organization for CERTIFIED FINANICAL PLANNER^® professionals and others who are engaged in financial planning work, is committed to elevating the profession and transforming lives through the power of financial planning. All members of the Yeske Buie Financial Planning Team are members of the FPA and many of our team members are deeply involved and have served in leadership roles throughout the years; involvement in our profession’s membership organization is extremely important to us and Elissa and Dave have been instrumental to the association and profession.

Advocacy is a major focus for the FPA and, being passionate about this endeavor, Ryan Kelly and Sydney Woodward participated in their local FPA Advocacy Day where they met with their  representatives to share their thoughts and insights. Here is a look into each of their experiences.

With a new session of Congress recently convened, FPA and CFP Board partnered to organize an “Advocacy Week” on Capitol Hill to shed light on the topics that are top-of-mind for financial planners and their Clients. Ryan and his colleagues kicked off the week by visiting the following offices:

• Mark Warner (D-VA)
• John Cornyn (R-TX)
• Mike Crapo (R-ID)
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
• Don Beyer (D-VA)

Ryan and his colleagues had 30-minute meetings with staff members in each office during which they introduced their priorities, shared their talking points, and educated the staffers on the beneficial impacts of financial planning. They also offered themselves as a resource for more information about their work, profession, and impact on the community as the staffers took the recommendations back to their desks to collaborate with their legislators on introducing support for these policy proposals. Their three top priorities included:

• Reinstating the tax deduction for financial advice.
• Expanding the Section 199A Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction to clarify that independent financial services professionals are NOT specifically excluded from claiming the deduction.
• Expanding the use of 529 Plans to include professional training, certifications, and other credentials as qualified expenses.

On the topic of expanding the qualifying use of 529 Plans, FPA is partnering with more than 800 trade associations, professional societies, and businesses across all industries through Tomorrow’s Workforce Coalition. This is a subject that every office was familiar with, as it had been introduced during the previous session in 2024 by Congressman Rob Wittman (D-VA) and supported by many others including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), and Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH).

As the day went on, Ryan observed how every meeting felt so different. For example, some were more “political,” focusing less on the substance of the policy and more on who else had already committed to supporting or advancing the bills. This is obviously an important part of the policymaking process for two reasons:

• First, no bill can be passed by one legislator alone.
• Second, it is valuable for legislators to find opportunities to reach across the aisle or curry favors with other lawmakers to show that they are still interested in working together to craft policies that will benefit the American people.

Still, other meetings were more detail-oriented and focused on how to come up with workable solutions to complex problems that face real Americans. For instance, in one meeting, an idea was discussed to introduce a tax credit with an income cap instead of a deduction for financial planning fees, thereby targeting the benefit toward lower-income households. In another, they were asked if they could articulate how the financial planning profession was impacted when the tax deduction for financial planning fees was removed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Through it all, it became clear just how busy everyone is meeting with special interest groups each and every day. It also became clear that the staffers on Capitol Hill are all incredibly knowledgeable about a wide range of issues, and they know what they need to learn from every meeting in order to be able to move forward constructively. Ryan had productive, engaging, fascinating conversations with Congresspeople on both sides of the aisle. Regardless of political affiliation, the lawmakers he visited appreciated hearing directly from practitioners about the importance of these initiatives to their Clients and their practices.

While Ryan was on “the Hill”, Sydney was in Sacramento, CA meeting with state assemblymembers, state Senators, and their staff. Sydney’s two days in Sacramento started off with a pro bono event at the Capitol Building, where she and a handful of other CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals provided pro bono services to the staffers. Each session was about 30 minutes and the planners spent time focusing on the topic areas that were top-of-mind for the participants including types of investment accounts, managing debt, saving strategies, retirement planning, and more. Regardless of the subject matter, Sydney enjoyed spending time learning about the staffers, answering their questions, and sharing more about what financial planners do – it was a great way to kick off the week and set them up well for the conversations to come.

Transitioning into day two of the Advocacy event, Sydney and the other participants met with over 20 representatives from across the state and spoke about the Financial Planning Association, explained what it means to be a financial planner (and the value they add to their Clients’ lives), shared about their dedication to pro bono work, and highlighted some current legislation that the FPA and the profession are supporting.

In past years, a substantial part of these Advocacy Day discussions was related to making financial literacy a requirement in California schools. In 2024, the FPA of California had a major win with the passing of AB 2927, which requires high school students to take a semester long class about financial literacy. At Yeske Buie, we often say that young people have a superpower: TIME – time to invest and reap the benefits of the stock market, and time to implement good financial habits. We think this is so important that we created a Financial Literacy Program for the children and grandchildren of our Clients!

Coming off this major win in 2024, the discussions this year were focused on other legislative priorities, specifically the following bills:

• AB 1365: Would create the CalAccount Program, which would provide a free, federally insured, voluntary, penalty-free bank account to Californians.
• AB 871: Would require financial institutions covered under the existing law to implement annual/mandatory training about reporting suspected financial abuse against elderly or otherwise vulnerable adults.
• AB 842: Would include age-appropriate information and content for kindergarten and grades 1 to 12 on the importance of estate planning (in an effort to expand the financial literacy requirements previously passed).
• SB 663: Would make multiple amendments to the property tax code to benefit homeowners whose properties were damaged by multiple recent wildfires.
• AB 389: Would create a personal income tax credit for homeowners in high fire hazard areas who make fire-resistant improvements to their home.

After discussing these legislative priorities, the conversation shifted to focus on the pro bono work in local communities around the state. Sydney, the current Director of Pro Bono for the San Francisco chapter of FPA, shared details about the community workshops and pro bono events she has organized and participated in. The group also highlighted the pro bono work that is currently happening in Los Angeles as a result of the recent fires. Financial planners from around the State (and country!) are joining forces to provide financial advice to people in need. The reality of these types of services is that they can only be provided to families who know that the resources exist. The group discussed the relevant pain points that representatives are hearing about from their constituents so they can all spread the word about ongoing resources and upcoming opportunities with the hope of connecting with more families that can benefit from the magic of financial planning.

In the end, while there is no guarantee that any one of these initiatives will become law based on the conversations had in both of these Advocacy Day experiences, they are an important first step with a new Congress to reintroduce some of the policies that are important to financial planners and their Clients, and to educate legislators on the power of financial planning for the millions of Americans who benefit from it every year.