Ann Marsh

Around the time they turn 50, many people unconsciously begin to ratchet up their spending. Instead, prominent retirement planning scholar Alice P. Munnell thinks financial planners need to wage a campaign to get their clients to hit the pause button at this crucial midpoint in their lives.

The leadership of the CFP Board of Standards expressed serious concern Friday about proposals under consideration on Capitol Hill to regulate financial advisors via an entirely new regulatory body or FINRA. The role should properly stay with a better-funded and newly empowered SEC, according to the leaders of the CFP Board, speaking at a private media roundtable in San Diego.

“The referral whisperer,” aka Michael Brizz, held a group of 100 financial planners rapt today in San Diego when he insisted that “there are literally thousands of referrals in your client database today. Clearly the opportunity is huge.”

“It’s hard to approach someone" — a prospective employer, for example — and say, ‘I want to be an owner,’” confessed Brett Spencer, a 23-year-old masters student in financial planning from Texas Tech University.