Washington, D.C., Aug. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Foundation for Financial Planning (FFP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to pro bono financial planning for people in crisis or need, is partnering with the Financial Behavior Keynote Group to launch a free webinar series focused on soft skills building for advisors, specially targeting those working with pro bono clients. Starting in September, the four-webinar series will cover:
- Diversity & Inclusion: Empathy or Sympathy?*
- Featuring Dr. Michael G. Thomas Jr. on September 7, 2022 at 1 p.m. ET
- Tapping Clients' Strengths to Create Behavior Change*
- Featuring Dr. Kristy Archuleta on November 3, 2022 at 1 p.m. ET
- The Psychology of Money: Understanding a Client’s Financial Decisions**
- Featuring Dr. Mary Bell Carlson, CFP®, AFC® on January 18, 2023 at 1 p.m. ET
- Helping Clients Overcome Money Anxiety**
- Featuring Ryan Law, CFP®, AFC® on March 15, 2023 at 1 p.m. ET
Dr. Mary Bell Carlson, CFP®, AFC®, President of the Financial Behavior Keynote Group, says: “Influencing client behavior is a critical part of any financial advisor’s role and can be especially important in the pro bono context. A pro bono volunteer advisor can be more effective if she understands the emotional and psychological factors that connect to money behaviors, especially when dealing with clients who are struggling financially and may have never engaged with a trusted financial services professional.”
While the webinars are aimed at advisors doing pro bono work, the sessions are open to all financial advisors who want to elevate their emotional intelligence. The series is part of FFP’s education and training offerings, helping financial planners develop skills and techniques to address the needs of all clients, regardless of income level. The series of four webinars is sponsored by BlackRock.
Dr. Thomas’ and Dr. Archuleta’s upcoming presentations have been approved for CFP® CE credit, with the two 2023 presentations currently pending approval. In addition to educational webinars, FFP offers various resources to help volunteers address the needs of underserved populations, including a Pro Bono Financial Planning Volunteer Training, toolkits, worksheets, and more.
Jon Dauphiné, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Financial Planning, adds: "We are thrilled to have the Financial Behavior Keynote Group experts collaborate with FFP to make this webinar series possible. This fantastic offering will enrich FFP’s ongoing efforts to bring free training and skills development to pro bono volunteers.”
Advisors can learn more and register for individual webinars by visiting FFPprobono.org/webinars.
*Qualifies for CE Credits
**Pending approval for CE Credits
More About the Webinars
Session One: Diversity and Inclusion: Empathy or Sympathy?
September 7, 2022
Dr. Michael G. Thomas Jr. is an Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) and a lecturer at the University of Georgia. His research focuses on financial empathy, data visualization’s effects on financial behavior, and the connection between brain function and money. Dr. Thomas’ life-long goal is to help underserved communities establish, grow, and sustain their wealth by utilizing an intra and inter-family wealth creation process.
Dr. Thomas uses the platform of empathy and compassion to illustrate how diversity and inclusion efforts are most effective from a place of empathy – not sympathy. During this talk, he unpacks the differences between empathy and sympathy, the effects on diversity and inclusion based on these lenses, and how to effectively utilize empathy in your diversity and inclusion efforts.
Session Two: Tapping Clients’ Strengths to Create Behavior Change
November 3, 2022
Dr. Kristy Archuleta is an internationally recognized and award-winning Professor in Financial Planning at the University of Georgia, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and a Certified Financial Therapist-I™. Known for her contributions to the development of financial therapy, she is a co-founder of the Financial Therapy Association, the Journal of Financial Therapy, and the nation’s first academic financial therapy program. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, the Financial Therapy Association certification committee, and three editorial review boards.
Financial therapy is the integration of emotion, thoughts, behavior, relationships, and its effect on financial and overall well-being. Financial therapists tap into one or more of these areas to help clients make changes to improve individual, couple, and family financial and overall well-being. This presentation introduces basic concepts of financial therapy, including what it is, clients’ money beliefs, 2-3 tools that professionals can implement with their clients, and how to collaborate with a financial therapist.
Session Three: The Psychology of Money: Understanding a Client’s Financial Decisions
January 18, 2023
Dr. Mary Bell Carlson, CFP®, AFC® is a financial behavior expert and a well-known speaker and author. Mary has worked in both the military and government sectors for over a decade, helping improve her clients’ personal finances. Mary founded Chief Financial Mom.com, a personal finance education blog to help other busy moms. She is also the co-host of the Real Money, Real Experts podcast and an adjunct faculty member for the financial planning programs at the University of Georgia and Texas Tech University.
Recognition of the impact of psychology on financial decisions is ever increasing, as is evidenced by the CFP Board’s recent decision to include components of psychology in the updated CFP® examination. This webinar will focus on the impact of psychology on clients’ financial decisions, with an emphasis on communication essentials that can be applied directly in practice.
Session Four: Helping Clients Overcome Money Anxiety
March 15, 2023
Ryan Law, CFP® and AFC®, is the Director of the Utah Valley University (UVU) Money Success Center. An award-winning educator, teaching financial counseling courses as part of the Personal Financial Planning Program at UVU, Ryan is also the author of the book “Student Loan Planning” and co-editor of the book “Financial Counseling.”
Money consistently tops the list of sources of stress for Americans Money is also the leading cause of stress in relationships. In this presentation, Ryan will discuss money anxiety and methods financial advisors can utilize to help their clients overcome money anxiety through education, the physical office environment, money mindfulness, and communication skills.
About the Foundation for Financial Planning
The Foundation for Financial Planning (FFP) is a Washington, DC-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization, solely devoted to supporting the delivery of pro bono financial planning to at-risk populations, including active military members and wounded veterans, people with cancer and other serious medical diagnoses, seniors and family caregivers, low-income individuals and their families, domestic violence survivors and many more. Dedicated to powering pro bono financial planning, FFP has provided more than $8.3 million in grants to national and community-based pro bono programs; worked with partners to activate more than 24,000 financial planners to volunteer their time and talents; and acted as a leader and catalyst to foster a rich tradition of pro bono service across the financial planning profession. Visit FFPprobono.org to learn more.
About the Financial Behavior Keynote Group
Financial Behavior Keynote Group, LLC was founded in 2022 as a consortium of financial behavior experts who have spent years studying financial behavior and implementing proven solutions for clients. It is a full-service keynote speaking and consulting team catering to financial planning, coaching, counseling, and therapy professionals. Visit https://keynote.financial/ to learn more.
