First off, thanks to everyone for helping make the 2009 fi360 National Conference an overwhelming success. The conference committee and staff all contributed greatly with many hours of work and planning. The speakers, attendees and facilities also were all excellent.
It is evident that the conference is an energizing event that inspires everyone involved to do more to propel the industry towards a fiduciary society where "everyone looks out for each other," as general session speaker Bob Veres put it. One Twitterer (Carl Richards of Behavior Gap: @behaviorgap if you're on Twitter) from the conference said of our event "Some really, really, smart people here. Talk about a secret society of real financial planners! More people have to know this." and "The fi360 conference was the best I've been to! Very impressed!" It is comments like this that let us know we're gathering a special group.
The major themes of the conference were the lessons learned from the economic crisis of the past six months or so and the unique opportunity that exists today to help create that fiduciary society. Market turmoil, investor distrust of the industry, and increased focus from professionals, investors, regulators, legislators and the media have made major changes imminent and the question left is if the changes will be done right and for the benefit of investors. The first and best thing the professionals can do to affect positive change is to apply the highest standard of care to their investment processes regardless of what minimum standards they are actually held accountable to and to act as advocates to whatever extent is available and possible for them.
If you are interested in learning more about the conference, most materials and handouts are available from our conference portal and recordings of the sessions should be available towards the end of the month.
Finally, here is what others are saying about the conference, we'll update this list as more becomes available. And, if you are on Twitter, make sure you check out the #fi360_09 hash tag to review the Tweets and Re-Tweets from conference attendees and speakers and their followers. Also make sure you add us, @Fiduciary360, as a follower.
- From Twitter: @marionasnes, @behaviorgap, @grgay74, @actiumbemanaged, @mlimbacher
- Conference speaker Josh Itzoe from the Fixingthe401k Blog
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