Latest ACP Blogs

New ACP Certified Member, Tricia Rosen, was quoted in Business Insider

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
New ACP Certified Member, Tricia Rosen, CFP®, MBA, EA, was quoted in this Business Insider article, " What are the safest investments? 7 low-risk places to put your money — and what makes them so ", by Ramsay Lewis,  February 2021 .
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ACP Certified member, Wesley Stien at Lodestar Financial Management, was featured in this article in Fatherly.com, “Rates Are Still Incredibly Low. Should You Refinance Your Mortgage?”

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
ACP Certified member, Wesley Stien at Lodestar Financial Management, was featured in this article in Fatherly.com, “ Rates Are Still Incredibly Low. Should You Refinance Your Mortgage?”
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ACP Certified member Steve Swicegood, CFP® discusses why a retainer-based business makes sense in FPA's Next Gen magazine

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
ACP Certified member Steve Swicegood, CFP® discusses why a retainer-based business makes sense in FPA's Next Gen magazine, read the full article here .
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ACP member Forrest Baumhover featured in Financial Advisor Success podcast with Michael Kitces

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
ACP member Forrest Baumhover was featured in Episode 209 of Financial Advisor Success podcast with Michael Kitces: Launching Your Own (Niche) Practice As A Pathway To Becoming A Partner In A Large Advisory Firm .
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Alliance of Comprehensive Planners Certified Member, Michelle Morris, quoted in this article “Smart Tax Moves for Freelancers” by Kimberly Lankford in U.S. News

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
Alliance of Comprehensive Planners Certified Member, Michelle Morris, quoted in this article “ Smart Tax Moves for Freelancers ” by Kimberly Lankford in U.S. News.
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ACP and ACP president Chris Wentzien were mentioned in Financial Planning article "As Schwab gets bigger, what's ahead for TD's much smaller RIAs?"

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
Alliance of Comprehensive Planners was mentioned in this article in Financial Planning,  As Schwab gets bigger, what’s ahead for TD’s much smaller RIAs ? Chris Wentzien, president of ACP, was quoted, along with other industry leaders and fee-only organizations.
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Skills Not Taught In School: A Guide For New Advisors

By #ACP ACP
“Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.” Ann Voskamp Have you ever heard the saying “practice makes perfect”? In our industry, it’s more like practice makes progress. Our ACP advisors work every day to enhance their clients’ lives and breathe new life into financial planning. New advisors and career changers alike may be overwhelmed by the breadth of scholarship and practice it takes to find your space in the industry; our ACP community is here to help make that transition a little easier.  Joining a professional organization is critical to building your expertise, confidence, and ...
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A Journey From Medicine to Financial Planning: How To Build A Career You Love

By #ACP ACP
A picture looks different depending on your vantage. Imagine being in an airplane, thousands of miles above the ground. Immense lakes look like quaint ponds, clouds become wispy cotton candy, and houses appear to be speckled dots like freckles on a nose. As financial advisors, we see our client’s financial plan as if from an airplane. We recognize how each piece works together and can map out a productive journey to help clients get where they want to go. At least that’s how ACP advisor Cordi Powell, CFP®, EA, and owner of Favored Financial, sees it.  She says that serving clients in their financial lives is a lot like getting them to visualize the ...
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A Journey From Medicine to Financial Planning: How To Build A Career You Love

By #ACP ACP
A picture looks different depending on your vantage. Imagine being in an airplane, thousands of miles above the ground. Immense lakes look like quaint ponds, clouds become wispy cotton candy, and houses appear to be speckled dots like freckles on a nose. As financial advisors, we see our client’s financial plan as if from an airplane. We recognize how each piece works together and can map out a productive journey to help clients get where they want to go. At least that’s how ACP advisor Cordi Powell, CFP®, EA, and owner of Favored Financial, sees it.  She says that serving clients in their financial lives is a lot like getting them to visualize the ...
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Alliance of Comprehensive Planner Certified member, Cordi Powell, is profiled in ThinkAdvisor by Jane Wollman Rusoff

By Alliance of Comprehensive Planners
Alliance of Comprehensive Planner Certified member, Cordi Powell, is profiled in ThinkAdvisor by Jane Wollman Rusoff. Powell credits ACP and being independent with helping her avoid potential issues of diversity faced by many advisors of color working at, or aspiring to work at, large financial services firms. The profile,  Doctor-Turned-Advisor Finds New Ways to Help Clients ,  is part of a special report  Women in Wealth: An Examination of Gender Diversity in Financial Services.
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What Are the Three R's of the Retainer Model?

By #ACP ACP
If you’ve been following our blog, you know the central role the retainer model plays in our community philosophy. ACP member Chip Simon referred to the retainer model as the “heart and soul” of his practice and detailed how ACP shaped it immeasurably.  We are fortunate to have built a system that fosters excellence, trust, care, and community in the financial space, and the retainer model is a significant part of that practice.  Today, we are going to dive into the retainer model, extracting three central tenets it provides our advisors and the clients they serve. Information for our blog today came from an ACP member feature podcast on The American ...
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What Is a Niche? (And How ACP Can Help You Find One)

By #ACP ACP
What’s your niche? You’ve probably heard this question at conference tables, Zoom meetings, coaching sessions, and more. Developing a niche can help you hone in on your ideal audience and build a strategy that best serves them. The further you can refine your niche, the better you know your audience, and the more tailored and custom your services can be.  Think about it like this. If you were shopping for luxury home decor, you’re likely not going to Target to find it. Target captures a different niche than Crate and Barel or Restoration Hardware. Each of these companies isn’t trying to serve everyone; they create specific products, experience, marketing ...
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The Alliance of Comprehensive Planners announces its first-ever Virtual Annual Conference, to be held on October 28-30, 2020.

By #ACP ACP
The Alliance of Comprehensive Planners announces its first-ever Virtual Annual Conference , to be held on October 28-30, 2020.
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How Can ACP Benefit Your Succession Plan?

By #ACP ACP
Succession planning is a meaningful step for any business owner. For advisors, the ability to find, hire, train, and inspire someone to take over your practice can seem like a daunting task. We are delighted to bring you a post that delves into the success a couple of our members found when building a succession plan and also seeing it through. Using the ACP System as a foundation for training and building a practice, they found that the community, resources, and education with ACP paved the way for the smooth transition as well as company growth.  The insights in our blog post today come from our webinar series and features ACP member Jacob ...
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Tax Pros, How to Launch the Planning Arm of Your Business

By #ACP ACP
At the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners, tax is our middle name. We are a group of comprehensive, fee-only advisors who are committed to working in a client’s best interest. Many of our members apply a tax perspective to their planning, adding increased value to clients’ financial landscapes. This tax focus has led many CPAs and tax professionals to our doors. Running a successful CPA practice is no small feat, and adding a financial planning component can be difficult. But with the right resources, tools, and support in your corner, you could find that holistic planning enriches and enlivens your practice as well as the client experience. Today, ...
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Alliance of Comprehensive Planners mentioned in Forbes article, "CFP: What Is A Certified Financial Planner?"

By #ACP ACP
Alliance of Comprehensive Planners’ website is mentioned in Forbes as a source for finding advisors in the article,   CFP: What is a Certified Financial Planner? Helpful information on what individuals need to search to find a right-fit financial advisor to help them plan for their future, including the definition of fiduciary duty and What is a Certified Financial Planners?
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Will Your Firm Really Benefit from the Retainer Model?

By #ACP ACP
Change is hard. It can be uncomfortable to shift the way you do things or how you approach a situation. Even a small change like taking a new route to work can seem frustrating. Diverting from the norm might not always be easy, but it can bring about some of the most important and valuable experiences of your life.  Here at ACP, our advisors come from all aspects of the financial industry. Some started careers in sales, investments, and insurance, but, inspired by the drive to provide more value for their clients, they went in search of something more. That leads them to us. One type of transition we see advisors make a lot is moving from an assets under ...
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The Five Do's for a Successful Virtual Practice

By #ACP ACP
Virtual work has become a mainstay in our society. Advisors have long been leaning into virtual work as a way to enhance their own lifestyles. With more and more people conducting business online, it provides a new avenue for advisors to work with clients remotely. Working remotely carries an important weight, especially now in the time of COVID-19. The virus forced nearly all businesses that could move to a virtual setting to do so overnight. This means that many people are navigating this space for the first time.  Given the importance of this topic, we wanted to bring you an article today that delves into the top things you need to do to build a virtual ...
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ACP President, Chris Wentzien, wrote a byline article for NAPFA Advisor, “Why one NAPFA member uses a retainer fee model.”

By #ACP ACP
ACP President, Chris Wentzien, CPA/PFS, CFP, MBA, of Natural Bridges Financial Advisors, a financial planner and NAPFA Member who works on a fee-only retainer-basis using methodology he learned and adopted through the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP), wrote an article for  NAPFA Advisor Magazine  entitled “Why one NAPFA member uses a retainer fee model.” Wentzien says that within the ACP membership, "we don't see a decline in revenues among our member firms and many of them are bringing in new clients" even in these challenging times. He explains how a retainer business model and the ACP methodology, which includes something called "Functional Asset ...
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Alliance of Comprehensive Planners Salutes ACP Certified Member Courtney Ranstrom

By #ACP ACP
Alliance of Comprehensive Planners Salutes ACP Certified Member Courtney Ranstrom   InvestmentNews Names Ranstrom to 40 Under 40 List of Financial Professionals Dubbed “The Future of Our Business ” WILMINGTON, NC – July 29, 2020 – The Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP) , a group of tax-focused financial planners that adhere to the Fiduciary Standard, today announced that one of its certified ACP members, Courtney Ranstrom, has been named to the 2020 InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 list. The InvestmentNews 40 Under 40 project highlights young talent in the financial advice industry. Ranstrom, 38, is co-founder and a fee-only financial planner at ...
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