Publish or Perish?

In the May 2013 issue of Investment Advisor Magazine, columnist Bob Clark asks the question: Do we really need another book about financial planning?

Bob is asking the question in response to the release of the CFP Board’s Financial Planning Competency Handbook, published by John Wiley & Sons. The book is an attempt to define and flesh out the financial planning profession’s body of knowledge as defined by the CFP Board.  Elissa and Dave contributed 30 chapters to the book and Bob makes note of their participation.

Also a leader in the financial planning profession, Elissa Buie, MBA, CFP, is both a practicing planner and a professor of financial planning at Golden Gate University. As the last chair of the ICFP, she was instrumental in the creation of—and the first chair of—the FPA, and is the current chair of the Foundation for Financial Planning. Her husband and partner, Dave Yeske, CFP, MA, DBA, is also a past president of the FPA, and is an associate professor at Golden Gate University.

After noting some of the potential issues raised by the book, including the possibility of its contents being treated as de facto practice standards in a court of law, Bob concludes:

The “CFP Board Financial Planning Competency Handbook” is an impressive work, compiled by leading academics and practitioners in the profession. It undoubtedly will achieve its goal of advancing the knowledge base of the planning profession. Part of that process will be CFPs comparing the contents to how they practice financial planning.