If there were ever a year when we needed strong personalities to challenge the idea of business as usual, this is it. The world of financial advice is in flux, owing to the economy, the industry, politics and demographics. Change, both evolutionary and revolutionary, is the main item on the 2009 calendar.

The Movers and Shakers we chose this year are coming up with powerful ideas for embracing and mastering change. Michael Branham has been involved with the Financial Planning Association only since 2001 and already has been elected to the national board; He's a powerhouse who cares deeply about elevating standards of care. Mark Casady, CEO of LPL, responded to the industry earthquake by gathering Wall Street refugees and assiduously adding them to his wealth management roster. The result: LPL is a stronger, tougher competitor than ever. Bob Curtis of PIETech has introduced state-of-the-art planning software that's also state-of-the-practice, a boon to advisors who need more than ever to leverage their time and talent. Kevin Keller "aka, Our Man In Washington" is straightening out the CFP Board and using it as a bully pulpit to promote the excellence of the CFP designation at a time when much financial advice may be subject to new federal regulation. Carolyn McClanahan is bringing her medical training into play to pioneer a new type of planning that focuses on helping clients with healthcare issues. As America ages, MClanahan's skills will be the ones you want to learn. We end with a celebration of the life of Joan Bavaria, a founding mother of socially responsible investing. She will be missed.

Mike Branham
Financial Planner, Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, Edina, Minn.
Age: 34
Years As Planner: 10
Designation: CFP

First Job: Financial advisor at Waddell and Reed

Best Career Decision: Moving to the fee-only world in 2001.

Worst Career Misstep: Have I taken any?

Favorite Way to Relax: Getting outdoors. Whether it's camping or canoeing, I have to be where there isn't a bunch of other people.

Most Important Thing Learned in 2008: Don't assume that because something happened one way in the past, it will happen that way again.

Worst Fear for 2009: That we'll continue to have conversations with clients about how terrible things are in the world financially and there will be no light at the end of the tunnel. That we'll have to watch clients go through more emotional turmoil.

In 2002, when Mike Branham's boss at White Oaks Wealth Advisors, John Guyton, told him that he was starting his own firm and would like Branham to join him, Branham seized the opportunity. He helped Guyton create Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, a fee-only firm in Edina, Minn. This wasn't the first time Guyton had led Branham onto a new path—and it wouldn't be the last.

Back in 2001, while Branham was still at White Oaks, Guyton told him about the Financial Planning Association. "He said, "Here's a great opportunity to learn more about your profession and make connections," Branham recalls. "He told me to join a committee and throw myself into this organization." This year, Branham joins the national board of the FPA, putting him in the forefront of the emerging generation of leadership.

Now, back to our story. Branham quickly learned about the FPA and joined the government relations committee of his local chapter. He then became the board's director of career development, a position he held for two years. In that role, he worked a great deal with young professionals much like himself, aligning them with mentors and getting them assimilated into the industry.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when in 2004, Guyton came to Branham once again. "He had just come back from a conference and told me that there was a group of young planners like myself and that we could have a voice and share our ideas," Branham says. The group Guyton was referring to was NexGen.

Branham went to the 2005 FPA conference and attended a NexGen meeting. Quickly realizing that he wanted to get involved, he ran for president for the following year and won. Today, NexGen is flourishing and is on the verge of adopting a set of bylaws similar to those of the FPA. "The growth in the organization has been outstanding, and the way we rely on one another and the community we've built is unparalleled," Branham says. "I'd like to ensure that the legacy that was left to us is carried on in a responsible fashion."

Branham's three-year term on the FPA's national board begins January 1. His goal is deceptively simple: He hopes to add some perspective to the dialogue regarding the direction the profession should go in. It's a topic he's passionate about. "We need to continue our growth and reach more people out there who aren't served right now," Branham says. "I'd like to expand some of the components of financial planning, from compensation models to improving the standard of care."

Despite his high profile, Branham claims that his motivation is not to run the show. "I have a passion for working with people and empowering them, and making sure they can reach their goals," he says. "If that puts me in a leadership position, then that's great."

Mark Casady
CEO and Chairman, LPL Financial, Boston
Age: 48
Years in the Industry: 26
Designations/Licenses: Series 7, 24 and 63
First Job: Paperboy

Best Career Decision: Joining LPL.

Worst Career Misstep: A job I took in London in the early 1990s.

Fantasy Career: I'm living it.

Favorite Way to Relax: I love listening to music. My favorites include alternative country and indie rock 'n' roll.

Role Model: Todd Robinson, founder of LPL

Most Important Thing Learned in 2008: To be humble about the markets.

Wish for 2009: That the markets will be better.

Worst Fear for 2009: That the difficulties of the fourth quarter continue through the year.

In recent months, as advisors have been leaving wirehouses and setting up their own RIA firms, Mark Casady has been savvy enough to scoop them up with a new hybrid program that LPL had presciently rolled out last year, further cementing LPL's position as the independent world's Bigfoot.

"We've had quite a few people join this program in the past three months," Casady says. "We actually didn't plan to add anything this year, but We've ended up bringing on quite a few practices from wirehouses," he adds, declining to release figures.

When asked about himself, Casady routinely steers the conversation toward the company's commitment to excellence. Yet those acquainted with his role in expanding LPL's services and scale since he became chief executive officer and chairman in 2006 are quick to point out his significant contributions to the industry. Casady has led LPL to become not only the top firm in its industry by revenues, but also, perhaps, the most fiercely independent. LPL's competitors offer proprietary asset management or insurance products, he says. By contrast, he continues, "LPL doesn't own one office with an advisor; we have a conflict-free environment."

To support independent advisors, Casady strengthened LPL's emphasis on training. Formerly, the company forwent regional conferences for national. Because it was difficult for some to attend national events, LPL began holding regional "miniature" conferences in 2004. The company also helps advisors identify significant business trends, develop marketing plans and tighten cost controls.

The central theme that runs through LPL's service model, Casady says, is managing complexity. "Broker-dealers, RIAs and trust companies are all messy businesses; we manage that complexity well. We take technology, service, research and training and provide them as four pillars of strength."

In articulating his approach to management, Casady makes frequent references to LPL's commitment creed: a brief document that extols the virtues of focusing relentlessly on client needs, desires and successes. To ensure that the creed translates to action, Casady serves as standard-bearer of a corporate culture that puts an extraordinary premium on making things happen. "This is a culture that gets things done," he says. "Someone here may have a vision, but the idea is only as good as the management that realizes that vision."

Bob Curtis
Founder and CEO, PIEtech, Powhatan, Va.
Age: 60
Years in Software Industry: 36 years
First Job: Sales for NCR

Best Career Decision: Creating PIEtech.

Worst Career Decision: Not protecting against unexpected [business] eventualities.

Fantasy Career: I'm there.

Favorite Way to Relax: Tennis, reading.

Role Model: My father, who taught me how to set goals and overcome setbacks.

Most Important Thing Learned in 2008: The value of sticking to what you believe in.

Wish for 2009: Getting the financial system stabilized.

Worst Fear for 2009: The flip side of my wish for 2009.

The latest version of Bob Curtis' online financial planning application, MoneyGuidePro: Generation 2 (MGP: G2) gives planners a highly efficient way to deliver finely nuanced customization at a time when clients are demanding more personalized service. This is no small benefit in a tumultuous market, in which planners are struggling to distinguish themselves and retain clients. Curtis's software is effective not just technologically, but also technically.

When Curtis began developing software for financial planners in 1999, it was a natural evolution. As the owner of a broker-dealer—Compulife Investor Services—Curtis had already been producing software for his reps' use. His decision to sell Compulife in 1999 and dedicate his energy to financial planning technology turned out to be a fateful move—one that would not only eventually make it easier for planners to do their jobs, but it would also accommodate the evolution of their craft.

He named his software company PIEtech—an acronym for Plan (well), Invest (smarter) and Enjoy (life more)," says Curtis, whose Richmond-area headquarters boast a pool table and a shuffleboard table. He also sought input from the industry's top practitioners, so he could create an application that aided and reflected best practices.

The company's first-generation application, MoneyGuidePro (MGP) debuted in 2001 to rave reviews, but to a less-than-overwhelming initial market response. "The first three or four years were slow going," Curtis says, though sales picked up significantly after that.

One reason for this slow adoption was that few applications available at the time focused on clients' long-term goals, and those that did tended to be simplistic. More than most programs—and many planners at the time—MGP looked at "long periods and how people use money to fund the things most important to them," Curtis says.

Another reason was that MPG was a web-based application, hosted by PIEtech, instead of software sold for installation on planners' own computers. At the time, Curtis recalls, web use meant "access, speed and security issues."

As it turned out, Curtis had been prescient. The industry has shifted to a greater emphasis on long-term goals, and web use, spurred by the spread of broadband, is the order of the day. "I wouldn't have wanted to develop a traditional application or one that wasn't web-based, so the two things came together real well," he says.

In 2008, Curtis's upgraded application, MGP: G2, broke new ground once again. "We've added intelligence to the program, so it can help the experienced advisor create a better plan in less time and with less effort," Curtis says. "Even more important, it guides the less-experienced advisor through a best-practice planning process."

Kevin Keller
CEO, Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Washington, D.C.
Years As Planner: 18 in finance
Designation: Certified Association Executive (CAE)

First Job: Caring for animals on our family farm.

Best Career Decision: Moving to Washington in 1988.

Worst Career Misstep: My first job out of college.

Fantasy Career: This job is about as close as it comes.

Favorite Way to Relax: A glass of red wine.

Role Models: My parents, who taught me the value of hard work.

Most Important Thing Learned in 2008: The passion of the financial planning community.

Wish for 2009: That the economy starts to settle down.

Worst Fear for 2009: That it takes the economy a long time to improve.

When Congress reconvenes this month, no one doubts that representatives will demand new financial regulations that could affect the way all advisors do business. that's why, last month, FPA, NAPFA and CFP Board leaders gathered to discuss strategy. Where did they meet? Kevin Keller's office. "This is why the CFP Board moved to Washington," Keller says. "Our desire is to have not only a seat at the table but a loud, clear voice."

As CEO of the CFP Board, Keller has been vigorously spearheading the board's mission to enhance the mark's image since coming aboard in May 2007. He joined the organization at a pivotal time. He's a tireless advocate for high ethical standards for financial professionals, and as such, He's buttressing the credibility of the planning profession. "The word on K Street, Wall Street and Capitol Hill is that we need a unified standard of care," Keller says. "Our concern is that this is a euphemism for a lower standard of care. We [including the FPA and NAPFA] think the public is best served with a fiduciary standard of care."

Keller has played his advocacy role with remarkable—and effective—zeal. In recent months, he has testified before the Michigan legislature, successfully recommending the repeal of the state's sales tax on financial planning. And he has testified before the Senate on the board of standards position seeking federal protections for senior citizens who might fall prey to unethical advisors bearing quickly earned designations and conflicts of interest. Less-than-ethical individuals who use such designations to target seniors, he says, are damaging the financial industry as a whole—including planners. "Most of these credentials start with 'C' and have three letters," says Keller. In distinguishing the CFP mark from these designations, Keller says, "we want to tell the public why the CFP is the recognized symbol of excellence."

These high-profile efforts to strengthen the CFP image are intertwined with substantive changes in the organization's own standards for certificants. This year, the board will require CFP holders to deliver all financial planning services with a fiduciary standard of care—that is, they must act with utmost good faith in the best interests of the client.

"There will be re-regulation in the coming year," Keller says. "This could move very fast." Keller will be watching, gathering allies, and making the CFP case.

Carolyn McClanahan|
Founder, Life Planning Partners, Jacksonville, Fla.
Age: 44
Years in the Industry: 7 in finance; 18 in medicine

First Job: Working in the family bakery, making doughnuts.

Best Career Decision: Making the change to financial planning.

Worst Career Misstep: Lacking sharp career focus in the past.

Fantasy Career: Professional javelin thrower

Favorite Way to Relax: Throwing the javelin.

Role Model: Cheryl Holland [CFP, president of Abacus Planning Group, Columbia, S.C.]

Most Important Thing Learned in 2008: Don't let people talk you into decisions that would be bad for them.

Wish for 2009: That we learn from the financial/credit debacle.

Worst Fear for 2009: That we don't learn from the financial/credit debacle.

Carolyn McClanahan came to financial planning in 2001 with seemingly irrelevant credentials. She had made a change from a career in healthcare—first, as a physician and next, in sales for an insurance company—to embark on her new life as an independent financial planner.

Now, with a CFP in hand and her own firm up and running since 2004, McClanahan is using her medical background to benefit clients in a singular way: She helps them position for life, long-term care and health insurance coverage, and to garner lower rates for these policies. This is an invaluable service, as many baby boomers are reaching the age when insurance is more difficult—and far more expensive—and healthcare costs are soaring.

Much of McClanahan's advice centers on ways that clients can clean up their medical records, she says. This involves clients' gaining control over their conditions, follow-up visits to show doctors how they've improved, and reviewing records closely. It also means asking for appropriate changes to update diagnoses, when potentially beneficial.

"Let's say your client went to the doctor a few years ago and complained about anxiety from a divorce," McClanahan explains. "But the client doesn't have that anxiety any longer. The client can go to the doctor and talk about it, and can ask the physician to amend the chart to say that anxiety is no longer a problem." This case in point is an important one, she says, because anxiety is associated with myriad ailments and is therefore troublesome for insurance purposes.

McClanahan, who routinely makes presentations on insurability at professional conferences, including FPA and NAPFA meetings, traces the origins of this facet of her full-service practice to her initial intuition when she joined the profession. "As a physician, I know how physicians are paid. The more they can diagnose, the better their reimbursements from insurance companies." These diagnoses can come back to haunt clients when they seek insurance.

Clients following McClanahan's advice have countered this tendency to their advantage. For example, disability insurers are vigilant for diagnoses of arthritis. "Sometimes arthritis is nothing more than a default diagnosis" that doctors make when they actually don't know the cause of the pain, she says. If arthritis isn't demonstrably present, McClanahan adds, these doctors might be persuaded to change the record to something more objective, "like 'painful' thumb."

As a physician and a planner, McClanahan reminds clients that the way to have the best medical records is by improving their health as much as possible. She does a basic health inventory on clients, asking a few general questions that yield indications of their insurability, and may even prompt them to take steps toward better health.

Joan Bavaria, 1943-2008
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Trillium Asset Management, Boston

[Donations in Bavaria's memory can be made to Ceres Scholarships or to Kaplan Family Hospice House via Trillium Asset Mgt. Corp., Attn: Randy Rice. 711 Atlantic Ave., Boston, MA 02111]

Joan Bavaria, who passed away in November 2008, was often referred to as the Founding Mother of socially responsible investing. In 1982, Bavaria founded Trillium Asset Management with a dream of aligning clients' environmental and social goals with their financial expectations. Trillium was the first of its kind—a majority woman and employee-owned firm that donated 5% of its pretax income to charity and invested in companies that had been screened for their social and environmental practices. Today, as the largest and oldest firm dedicated to SRI, Trillium is a model for the industry—which now accounts for one of every nine dollars invested in the United States.

Bavaria's vision of change reached far beyond screening. Early on, she recognized an opportunity to use stock ownership to improve the way corporations do business. Through shareholder advocacy and dialogue, Bavaria found she could affect companies impact on the environment, human rights and workplace diversity. She took on large corporations, such as ExxonMobil and Ford, with dedication, tact and tenacity.

"Joan revolutionized the industry because she didn't just include or exclude companies; she talked to them and asked them to do better, and then tracked their progress year after year," says Cheryl Smith, executive vice president and senior portfolio manager at Trillium.

Bavaria was also an early innovator of community investing, directing assets to microfinance and community development funds in order to bring capital to these markets. She introduced community loan funds—now a $25 billion-plus market—to Wall Street.

In 1981, Bavaria founded The Social Investment Forum, an organization of advisory, banking, research and community loan fund organizations dedicated to socially responsible investing. Soon after, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill inspired Bavaria to create Ceres, a coalition that brought together investors, environmental organizations and public interest groups to focus on environmental change.

In 1989, Ceres released 10 principles of corporate environmental conduct now known as the Ceres Principles. Bavaria worked tirelessly with companies that endorsed the principles or were interested in enhanced transparency and environmental reporting. Ceres also launched the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), now the international standard for reporting on environmental and social performance.

Bavaria was consistently recognized for her remarkable work to advance the SRI industry. But it was her final honor, the Schwab IMPACT Award she received in July 2008, that meant most to her. "All the other awards she won had been for her work on the environment. The Schwab award was from her industry, and she was so happy that the industry recognized her," Smith says.

Bavaria will be remembered by some as a visionary, others as a fighter, many as a leader and by her two sons as a graceful mother. "Joan fundamentally believed that investors need to integrate sustainability into their evaluation of companies," says Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres. "We are standing on Joan's shoulders and taking on the intellectual capital of what she's done."