Author, consultant, financial columnist, television commentator, former Air Force major, handball aficionado, natural-born storyteller, not to mention a financial planner for more than 40 years. You name it, Vern Hayden, CFP, has been there, done that. Bill Griffeth, host of CNBC's Power Lunch, refers to Hayden as his favorite financial planner and often introduces him as "Mr. Mutual Fund."

Despite an encyclopedic command of mutual funds and a term as chairman of the Board of Trustees for the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) from 1990 to 1995, Hayden's favorite yarn is not financial. Hayden recalls, "I bumped into Maria Bartiromo on an elevator at the CNBC studios. And the first thing out of my mouth was a proposal of marriage and she said, 'Sure.' She was a great sport about it!"

In his post-Air Force, pre-celebrity days in the early 1970s, Hayden sold insurance and real estate. Having enrolled in the first CFP class ever offered, he was unimpressed. As he quips, "It was too easy, and I didn't think the certification would ever amount to much, so I dropped out." Later that decade he took the class again, earning his CFP certification in 1978.

From that shaky start, Hayden became a solid supporter of the CFP certification during his tenure with the NEFE Board of Trustees (the former parent organization of the College for Financial Planning, prior to its acquisition by the University of Phoenix). In the mid-1990s, the media still questioned the rigors of the CFP certification. So Hayden and the Board threw down the gauntlet. "We invited eight financial journalists to take the CFP exam, and they all flunked," Hayden says proudly.

Over his career, Hayden has been intimately involved in the growth and maturation of the financial planning business. Following are some of his unique business moves and some lessons he learned along the way.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Hayden twice helped create a national network of financial planning offices. While running his own practice as a newly minted CFP in San Raphael, Calif., he was recruited by the Fireman's Fund Life Insurance Co. (a subsidiary of American Express) to write manuals and produce videos on how to conduct financial planning seminars. This effort ultimately became American Express Financial Advisors. But by that time, Hayden had lost interest in the firm's product-oriented approach.

Committed to separating financial planning from product pushing, Hayden moved to New York City in 1983 to help launch Independent Financial Services. This attempt at forming a national network of financial planning offices never fully materialized, however. The project's primary investor, Sage Holdings in Johannesburg, South Africa, moved the fledgling operation in another direction.

With such a wealth of experience behind him, Hayden then launched Hayden Financial Group in Westport, Conn., in 1987. His business sprouted its wings when Hayden became a regular guest on CNBC's Money Club. "That took care of all my marketing problems," Hayden deadpans.

On Nov. 17, 2006, the then 70-year-old Hayden sold his successful practice to NorthEast Community Bank, a federally chartered savings bank and wholly owned subsidiary of NorthEast Community Bancorp of White Plains, N.Y. Terms of the sale included four non-negotiable criteria he never dreamed would be accepted.

First, NorthEast agreed to keep all existing staff, including Hayden. Second, the bank agreed to keep all of Hayden's existing clients. Third, the new firm would not push any bank products. And fourth, NorthEast agreed to a sales price of roughly two-and-one-half times Hayden Financial Group's gross income. Hayden even told his buyers they were overpaying!

Now an employee of the bank, Hayden runs a fairly independent operation and describes the overall experience as positive. The bank-owned Hayden Financial Group has about $150 million in assets under management (AUM) for 147 clients. Fees run 1.25% for assets up to $500,000, 1% for assets between $500,000 and $1 million, and 0.75% for assets over $1 million. Hayden occasionally does financial planning for a flat fee with no AUM.

TIPS FROM VERN

With such a wealth of experience, I asked Hayden what lessons he'd learned over the course of his career. He responded with one tip for each decade of his experience.

1. Financial planning alone is not profitable! Planners coming into the business need to realize that no one makes money doing financial planning. All successful practices must leverage planning with some other operation, usually money management.

Therefore, Hayden Financial Group does not outsource its money management. However, money management is not always the additional operation. Hayden recalls that back "in the old days," planners would leverage their planning services by selling tax shelters and limited partnerships.